Salmon mania

[Dean Romig]

These are from my trip back in '92 with my good friend Lenny. He wanted to bring his spinning gear and I said "Not this time Bud, it's FFO!"

1. Mount Illiamna as we were about to descend to Newalen.

2. Lenny with a crazy sockeye on the line. Absolute drag-burners!

3. A brown bear fishing nearby on the Talachulitna River.

4. Mary's fish camp. She was a native and set small nets along her camp's shoreline on the Kvichak River.

5. Eat your hearts out. I was told it was an original wood and canvas Howard.

6. On a small sand bar on the Talachulitna.

7. A smallish 8 lb. sockeye.

8. Me with about a 10 pounder.

9. The only King salmon I kept from our stay at Tala-View Lodge on the Talachulitna. 30 lbs. but we caught many more that were bigger. Lenny had one on for nearly an hour. We saw him about ten times and the first two times he cleared the water with his mighty leaps... probably pushed 50 lbs. The hook finally pulled and Lenny said "Thank the Good Lord in Heaven - I was getting pretty sick and tired of fighting him." Of course, the big ones are nearly always females.



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