Steelhead or Kings

[Patrick Petersen]

Recently I have made several attempts to catch kings in the salt water near the skokomish and have had some, but little luck, but not nearly as much as when I flyfish for Steelhead on some of the local rivers. The steelies are nice and plentiful this year and much to my surprise so are the nooks.While the river I like to fish is fly fish only this time of year and targeting kings is a no no, I do manage to hook a few each year(on accident) and they often have their way with me, so when I hooked into a thirty pound king last night on my 5 weight it was more that I bargained for. It was the battle of the century and I knew I was in trouble . I actually got the fish out of the current  twice and right in front of me to take look at it in awe. Just when I felt I could possibly land this beast it screamed out a third run and snapped my rod instantly. This fish was a chrome bright native almost 40 inches in length and its girth was that of a small child. By far the largest fish I ever hooked and seen outside of Alaska. In recent years I've seen more kings in the rivers than years past, and I hope this is a trend that continues. Just think how good fishing could be if we banned all nets.   Cheers,   Patrick