Lund-lubber finally lands a spring!

Last Friday, myself, my son, my friend Mark and his son Nicholas (in the picture), ventured out at O'dark-30 to Grassy and got a decent spot mid-bar, towards the lower-end. I was amazed all day long looking down river at the sea of humanity on the lower bar, but I digress.

For once, we were the boat catching the fish. The last time Mark and I were out, we were the only boat NOT catching fish. Such is fishing.

Mark hooked his first sockeye within an hour of arriving. A nice 9lb'er. Then the fun really started (for me, anyhow) when I hooked my first ever Spring. It put up a good fight for about 20 minutes or so and I managed to bring it to the boat without much trouble or unhooking the boat and drifting. A quick check on the scale read a decent 25lbs. Not bad for my first....pop goes the cherry.

The fun continued throughout the day. There were definitely some quiet times when nothing much was going on, but steadily Mark got another. Then Nicholas landed his first sockeye ever, then another. Next was my son's turn. Not only his first sockeye, but probably his biggest fish ever. Sadly, dumb dad forgot to take a picture of his own son with his first salmon. Photoshop time. Both boys are 10, so we were pretty happy to see them having so much fun, even when they were more interested in playing with their Lego than fishing during the quiet times.

By about 1pm, we were bushed. We packed it in a headed out to the parking lot that was the #1 Hwy Friday afternoon. I'm sure it took us twice as long to get back to Abby as it normally would.

On a side note, I want to acknowledge a very nice couple in the boat down from us. We went to shore to clean a couple fish, and when we pushed off to go back to our spot, we screwed up and our boat (an outboard) drifted on down stream in shallow water and I wasn't fast enough to get us back out. Instead, we drifted down into their boat We prevented any major damage to the boats by simply holding ourselves off one another and we did get it all figured out, but only after the weight of my boat against his, pushed him off his mooring and down river a bit. I felt like a total dick and was embarrassed as hell, as you can imagine. Anyhow, I apologized profusely and we moved back to our spot.

This guy was amazing. It didn't phase him in the least. It was no big deal that some dork just about ruined his, and his lady's day.

If you're reading this, my hat's off to you for your consideration. Thank you for making what could have been a pretty nasty dust up with the wrong person, into a relatively minor occurence. It was most appreciated. If you see me out there again, don't run away, come over and have a beer on me