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Flood and Dry Weather  --Vol.5--
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Bending the grip of 1712, I kept fighting without a momentary pause.

The Border

After jumping twice, the salmon started moving downstream. It was not running but the sprawl of my reel kept reversing and squeaking in my hand. 3m of the line were drawn out at every reverse of the reel. It means the salmon went farther away from me at every reverse, which made my heart pounding more and more quickly.
When the salmon stopped, 50m of the line had been stretched from the rod tip. I thought I might fail in catching this salmon. Gradually I lost my confidence.

When the salmon only swung its head, my line was drawn out. There was no way of stopping that. If the salmon run hard our fighting will be over. Even if it does not run downstream but heads for the heart of the stream, my line will cross the stream. It might occur sooner or later. Furthermore, my line might get caught on a twig or, if unfortunate, a tree whole, which means the end of our fighting. Well, all I could imagine was no-win situations and my tragedy looked imminent.

Nevertheless, I was the last angler to just wait and to leave it to chance. There’s no time to lose! I have to bring our fighting to a speedy conclusion. If I spend a long time with fighting, I will be a loser.
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The real boss of Lundamo, Mr. Rudolf Masurat.

Holding the reel firmly with my right hand, I lowered my waist and began to raise the lying rod. My power to raise it resulted in bending it but the rod tip did not move. Between the fish and me were Flat Beam 50lb, fly line 30lb, Minus 8X leader and a treble hook #4. I drew the line with all my strength. Usually it is the rod that is broken first as far as hooking has no problem. If the rod is not broken, the other tackle will be all right.

I raised the rod with more strength with my both hands. Even the cork of the grip was bent, like in Bridge Pool in the previous year. It reached the limit of bending.

The salmon came upstream little by little. I kept pumping not so as to stop the salmon’s move. 17ft rod bent completely out of shape. When I could not raise the rod, I walked back. Then I walked forwards at the right time and wound the line even a little.

When the end of the fly line seemed to appear soon, the salmon suddenly swung its head and turned over. I had a narrow escape from being hit on the hand by my reel handle. But, alas, the line I had wound carefully and slowly, spending not a few minutes, was drawn out of the reel in an instant.
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I could finally land it. It was big but I could not guess how many pounds.

The salmon straight went downstream and stopped at the same place as before. It seemed strange to me because the fish turning over and going downstream seldom takes exactly the same course. I wondered if that salmon did not like muddy water. If my guess is correct, there is no worry that the fish will go into that terrible muddy water and away downstream. Because the salmon had taken refuge in clear water near the bank to avoid muddy water, it was quite possible that I guessed right.

Unless the fish goes into the heart of the stream, I might be able to land it. I felt as if I had found a ray of light in the dark. I started pumping again as before with my all strength. But this time the salmon turned over before I drew it to me 10m. When the reel stopped reversing after rattling for a long time, the salmon had gone further downstream.
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Large Stingray of 15cm disappeared and was found stuck on the inner throat.

Probably my guess was right. The salmon went downstream along the border of muddy water. It ran far away and it stayed straight down me. I thought that I had drawn the line too strongly. Now I should be more careful not to make the fish excited.

The fish went downstream three times but never headed for the heart of the stream. That meant that the fish would never go into muddy water. I believed so and started pumping calmly. When my arms felt heavy, the salmon came into the boiling water down me, where it had first stayed. The stream around there was flowing slowly near to the bank. I made use of this situation and pulled the fish towards the bank.

When the end of the fly line appeared the salmon ran straight off shore and stopped again at the border of muddy water. My face turned deathly pale. I broke into a cold sweat. Oh, thank, God! That's all right. My old chap hates muddy water!
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A big pectoral fin. But the salmon does not look big because its body has a good balance.

A Big Stone

I pulled it with stronger power little by little. I learned that the salmon never headed for the heart of the stream as far as I did not do too much or I was careless. Now I had to settle our fighting as soon as possible before something unexpected happened. But the salmon was heavy and it never lost its stamina.

The end of the fly line finally reached the rod tip and I got ready for pulling up the fish. But, alas, several seconds later the fish disappeared into the water. I repeated that process many times. At last the salmon appeared on the surface. It was not clearly seen due to poor degree of transparency but its dorsal fin and tail fin were stuck out of the water surface. When I saw it swimming calmly, cold shiver ran down me. The same shiver I once felt when I had met it for the first time.

It cannot weigh 26lb. It must be bigger.

Our fighting came near to an end. I continued to bend the rod to the limit so that the fish never had a break. The salmon had no stamina left to run long but stayed near the bank. There was no nearby landing place for such a big fish. As the slope was steep down me, I could not walk downstream. Unless I pull up the fish a bit further upstream, there will be no place on the bank to slide it up.
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A fresh fish in June. Silver colour and black colour were clearly separated.

Wondering how far I had to pull the fish upstream, I turned around. A stout silver haired angler was standing with a giant net just up me. He must be an angler who had been fishing upstream. I greeted him. He smiled back and immediately headed for the waterside.

Thank God, how lucky I am! I can't miss this chance. I got ready for the final stage of landing. But the salmon hated to be pulled to the bank and struggled with all its strength. In order to make most use of the rod power I went away from the fish and pulled it from upstream.
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I tried to hold it in my arms but could not lift it.

I pulled it to the bank side several times. Finally the giant net wrapped it, so I thought. The next moment, however, the salmon nearly leaned out over the net. My saviour turned over his net and wrapped the salmon. It leaned out over it again. Immediately I threw away the rod on the grass and ran to the net.
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1712D looks like a trout rod.

Whew! I was in time. I held the rim of the net and pushed the salmon back into the inner net. Without a rest I slid it up on the bank. I felt something abnormally heavy. I was so excited that I did not care what had happened. Later I regained my head and found in the net not only the salmon but also a big stone of over 10kg!

A beautiful Salmon

The salmon was shining brilliantly silvery. It was hard to imagine that it was landed from muddy water. Not only its colour but also its figure was very beautiful. Surely it was more than 26lb but I could not guess how many pounds exactly.

Anyway, I held it to take a photo but could not lift it higher. To my surprise, when I hung it with the stringer made out of the fly line, the line snapped twice. The strength of the fly line is over 30lb. That means the salmon weighed more than 30lb.
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121cm, 40lb. At NFC Club House we finally knew its precise size.

Such a large fish usually has got a bit unbalanced figure and that makes its big size noticeable. However, this salmon was so beautiful and well balanced that I could not sensed exactly how big it really was.

When I was talking with Mary Anne about its precise size, the angler who scooped the salmon came to us with a spring balance. Although the measurement was not precise because he measured by hanging it with his hand, the fish weighed 40lb. We could not believe our eyes. After coming back to NFC Club House, we measured it again. It was 121cm and really 40lb.

The kind angler was Mr. Rudolf Masurat, a famous German violin Meister. As I had expected, he had been fishing in this beat for more than 15 years. Since then Mary Anne and I have been invited to the party here every year to deepen a friendship. He is also very famous as an authority on wine. When he drank wine, he always told that we scooped the stone together with the salmon and made the guests laugh.

-- To be continued --
2002/12/29  KEN SAWADA
Tranlated into English by Miyoko Ohtake