The Year of the Broken Rods
Fall Salmon 2011
This year tells a tale of frustration and joy as we get a little crazy, titled “The Year of the Broken Rods”. It starts with the three of us Snips, Hookup, and myself, Slammy the Salmon Slayer. We got to our destination on Wed afternoon and quickly got camp setup. Our first night we headed for Jiggers, which is a dirt road drive, a ½ mile hike through the woods, 300 stairs down and up to get to the river, where it is Salmon heaven. I opened my fly box and pulled out one of my own specially built egg sucking leech flies and attached it to my rod and it was within the hour I had pulled two nice Kings out of the river. I just new it was going to be a good year. After a few more cast I hooked into my third bad boy and snap my Orvis rod was broke. I couldn’t believe it, I broke a rod, first time in 15 years. I motioned over to Hookup and said I have to go back to the truck, as broke my rod so I went to get a backup rod. Well going back up the stairs and hiking through the woods and then back again was a workout in itself. On my way up I ran into a guy and guess what he had broken his rod so I wasn’t the only one, as a matter of fact on my way back down to the river , I seen another frustrated fisherman carrying a broken rod. At this point I new this was going to be a year of a lot of work hauling in those big boys. So as I made it back down to the river, ready to give it another try, snips came walking over totally drenched in water. What happened I asked and he said we had a big one on and I was trying to net him when I slipped and down I went all the way up to my neck. My waders filled up and I am soaked all the way to my underwear. At this point we headed back to camp and I already had two big ones under may belt and we decided not to temp our mojo any more tonight as things were just not going our way. Instead we decided to enjoy the fire and some nice hot chilli I cooked up the night before.
Day two, what a blast we slammed them all day long and Snips is quickly becoming Salmmy Junior, and Hookup is landing quite a few. Nicely done I have to say. We caught Salmon one after another and it was a good feeling. Another cold night must have dipped down to the low 40’s, the fire felt good and we cooked up our famous Tony Pako dogs and finished off the chilli and piled into the tent to get rested up for tomorrow. We decide to head to Gleason’s Landing and bring some Salmon back to camp to take home. When we got to Gleason’s we found out that the Salmon were not quite a plentiful as diggers so we would have to scout and work a little harder. Had to walk quite a ways but some guys were just leaving a hole and said it’s all yours, good luck! They were leaving as one of the guys had just broken a rod and he was done. Wow another rod broken, I had never even heard of someone breaking a rod. Anyways I said what are they hitting on and he said greens and I thought perfect. Well I put my own design of a green egg sucking leech with an extended tail. I was curious if the fish would go after it and bam, I had a hook up just like that and what a monster he was, broke my line and took my fly just like that. So, I put a new leader on put on my last special green one and gave a couple of cast, bam he took my line and fly again. Enough of that I thought, I was using 10lb test but it was starting to get a little dark so I asked snips and hookup if they had any 12lb. and yes, Snip was the man. He threw over a reel and I made up a new leader with 12lb test. I had a black leechs with a green egg pattern and I thought perfect. I cast and got a hit gave a quick pull but nothing, did the same thing again. So I reeled up my fly and sharpened up the hook a little. I eyed my spot carefully, one cast, two cast, and three cast, YES, I had him and had him good. Worked that puppy for quite some time and when I pulled him out 36” long. Wow, what a whopper.
I was happy for sure. It wasn’t long and I heard a snap and a Oww! This fella come around the bend and had broken his rod on another King and on top of it he ran the hook into his finger. I volunteered to pull it out as I had previous experience pulling a hook out of my son-in laws year ago. He said no his buddy was a doctor, he borrowed a leatherman from us and said he would be back shortly. He cam back and said his buddy had just gave it a quick yank and pulled it out. He returned the leatherman and said thanks. Another broken rod, unbelievable. Well if I hadn’t seen it I would have believed it but that same fella came around that same bend in about an hour and he was fighting with a king salmon on that 5 ft broken rod. Anyway we netted it for him and laughed a little and said “you’ll have a good fish story to tell this year.
We decided to go into town and get us one of those faomus pizzas we like at the local pizza parlor Pomeii’s, we get one every year and we always get the same, an extra large with (pepperoni,ham,sausage,ground beef, balck olives, green olives, mushrooms and extra cheese) and yes we finished the whole thing. We headed back out for some night time fun. This time we went to Gleason’s we headed to the catch and release. Well our favorite hole someone was already fishing so we moved on down to a smaller hole but much deeper. And after a short time Snips yelled out I got one, grandpa grab the net. I said hold on there boy, you need to tire that fish out, he is a big one and I can’t even see your leader. Well let me tell you, I don’t know who tired who out because after 45 minutes they were still fighting. Everytime I would get close with the net he would take off. I couldn’t even get a look at him. Finally I yelled to snips you need to work him closer he is using the current against you to rest. So Snips was on the move reeling and closing in on him. He must have went about 200 yards down the river and I think he was finally tiring out. I grabbed the net and jumped in from of him and got him, in the net. Huge, bigger than the one I caught. I said lay him down, we got to get a tape on him. I couldn’t believe it, 40” long and a good 10” to 12” wide. Nicely done Snips, I think we need to rename you “Slammy Junior”. Very proud I have to say that Snips is becoming a very accomplished Salmon Slayer.
Jeremiah getting jizzed on! he he ha ha
Finally, getting to our last day we found a hole that had more Salmon than you can shake a stick at. We started as we like to say, Slammin Salmon. Snips jumped in before me and had a hookup on his second cast and broke his line right off. I jumped in and first cast, hooked up and down the river I went, about 20 minutes later we put him in the net. We had some good rapids going on and “WOW!” what an adrenaline rush. Before long Hookup called me and said I have a hole with your name written all over it, its one of those deep ones your so good at, come on down and try this. He said I want to see how long it takes you to get a hook up. So I got in the river, eye up the hole, I said ok start the stopwatch, and I kid you not 5 seconds and I had a Salmon on. He was strong and got off my hook, took another cast and he did the same, so I new I needed to touch the hook up and get it razor sharp. Gave another cast and bam, he was on. What a ride, he was strong and going long. Before I new it he had taken me quite a ways down the river, and I seen the tree he was going for. A big old tree had fell into the water and he was gonna go under it. I tried getting him to go around it or working him back, but he was to strong and under the tree he went. Well I was now into water up to my chest and I didn’t want to let him go, but what could I do? I said to myself, well I never have done this before but here goes. I took my rod and submerged it under the water, then shoved my pole under the tree, while leaning over the tree I grabbed my rod before the fish yanked it out of my hand and then slipped myselft right on top of that tree and over I went a reeling and working that King on down the river and he was heading for shallow water so I moved a little faster and got right up behind him and grabbed him by the tail. Got him, what a rush, what fun, I was pretty wet, although my wading belt kept me from getting water down into my waders, my adrenaline was pumping. Now that was fun.
Well last but not least I have to tell you how the night ended. It was about 8:00 and I had another one the line and worked that bad boy in, had him almost on the bank and just like that my backup rod snapped in 4 different places. So after 15 years of Salmon fishing I broke two rods in one trip. Well not wanting to spoil anyones fun I said I will be the net man. Guess what? It didn’t take long and I was bored to death, then I thought hey remember that guy with the broken 5ft rod that caught a Salmon, maybe I can do it. Well I pulled out my broken rod and not even one eylet to cast through. I said what the heck and tied up a couple of hooks and tried anyway. After about 45 minutes and now lost all the rest of my flys, I started thinking, I wonder, naw, now way, ah what the heck I’ll give it a try. So I abandoned my broken rod and took to the water. I leaned down close to the water and just kept still and let things calm down. Then I turned my headlamp to see into the water and I noticed if I kept the light in front of the fish they would actually back up. So I started working that fish right to me and when he got in range I moved fast as I could and had him by the tail. Wow, Nighttime Salmon Sniping” , I invented a new sport. Well Snips, couldn’t believe it. He yelled out what would ever make you think of doing that? And with that statement he ditched his rod for some Nighttime Salmon Sniping. He tried grabbing his first one and said wow these things are strong, can’t hang on to them, so he went to “what we like to call” The grab and hug method, well it worked for him and he caught 7 of them and I caught 4, even Hookup decided to give it a try and caught one too. We had never seen so many Salmon. So needless to say we headed back to camp with smiles on our face, 2 broken rods and the satisfaction of the adventures on the town of Baldwin and the Peere Marquette River once again.
