Day 15, the skunk is off!

After fishing 52 hours over 15 days since Sept. 6th, persistence has finally paid off! I thought yesterday was the day when I had a monster hookup on the Siuslaw, only to loose it after I got my rod out of the rod holder. I was so bummed. Today, I decided to head south to the Umpqua and give it a try for a Coho. I arrived at the Winchester Bay boat ramp at 8am only to find two rigs in the parking lot and nobody around. This didn't look promising. I launched and started trolling a pink Blue Fox tipped with eggs. That's what I was using yesterday. The only other boats on the water were a couple of guys crabbing. Almost immediately a couple of seals began to follow me. After about a half hour, I figured out that they were smelling the eggs, so I switched to anise and the seals departed. During the next 3 hours a couple of other boats came and went, and I didn't see any fish rising. At this point I was starting to get pretty bummed, so I decided to make one more pass and call it quits. I checked my lure, dropped it down, put the rod in the holder, and Bammm!  Unlike yesterday, this fish was stuck good. After a short fight, and one good run back to the bottom, I netted a 30 inch long bright Chinook. I didn't catch a single salmon last year, so it's been a very long skunk.

Congrats.  That's a nice looking fish.

Nice work, Dave!!

Very nice!  Now go get some more since you don't have that skunk odor contaminating your gear anymore.

YeeeeeHaaaaa Dave!  Way to stick with it!  I know your suffering all too well.  Luckily the suffering enhances the tase of success.

Now, go get #2!   

-Spot-

Well earned. And here comes the rain, hopefully it stimulates the Coho bite and that won't be your last fish this month.

Most Excellent Dude!!!

Congratulations! May you catch many more!

Nice work, Dave! May the Salmon gods reward you with many more!

Way to bulldog'em Dave!

Congrats dave!

Nice fish,man! Way to hang in there!

Awesome Dave!  Glad to see you finally nailed one after that loss yesterday.

Persistence pays off, nice going Dave!

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Congrats Dave, way to stick with it.