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Flood and Dry Weather  --Vol.8--

Tug-of-war

The salmon suddenly began to run. Its silvery body split the surface downstream and jumped high in the air. Its appearance made me relieved and also a bit disappointed. Although the salmon was more than 50m away from me I was absolutely sure that its size was under 22lb. It is not small. But probably I had expected too much. I was disappointed at its size.
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A conical hollow was hidden in front of me. Salmon might be hidden there, too.

On the other hand, I was relieved to know that I would not need to go downstream, being pulled by the fish. I waited for the salmon to stop again and climbed up the bank. Then I hurried to walk upstream, holding the rod high in my hand. Needless to say, as I did not touch the reel or the line, the reel reversed and the line was drawn out at every step.

I watched out for the line so that it was not drawn out longer than my walking distance from the fish. After walking nearly 40m, I finally reached for the net. Well, how should I land the salmon nearly 100m downstream?

Carrying the net under my arm, I walked downstream along the bank in the opposite way. That means I kept winding the same metres of the line as my walk downstream. That would prevent the fish from running further downstream.

However, I found it to be a very troublesome task. The landing net was large and heavy. Holding it under my arm, I kept bending the rod to keep the line tight and I also wound the reel. I had to do those activities as I was walking on the easily collapsed bank.

Before walking down only 10m, I gave up that method. Well, if I left the net behind to go further downstream, all my labour to fetch it would be wasted. Fortunately or not, the salmon is not so big. It is not a monster. Let's try it. I stopped there and started winding the line.

The salmon stayed far downstream but not far away from the bank side. It meant that the fish stayed straight down me. While I was winding the line I lay the rod horizontally and then raised it slowly and high to pull the fish. At first the salmon struggled violently but gradually it became quiet. I kept pumping rhythmically to shorten the distance between us.
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There were two conical hollows and a reef.

I had had the same experience somewhere. I remembered that while I was thinking of the salmon coming upstream without protesting.

It happened in the River Umba in Russia in 1995. I pulled up the salmon that ran down the current when I was staying in the boat in Rat Pool. I pulled the fish straight from upstream. Although it looked absolutely impossible in that current, the salmon came upstream quietly. In those days it seemed mysterious but I realized now that it had not happened by chance.

If I go downstream to follow a fish, I will be obliged to pull it from its side. The fish usually hates that, struggles and runs further downstream. Then what will happen if I repeat that? The fish will run out of the pool and go down into the fast current. That means the end of fighting. On the other hand, if I pull the fish from upstream it will not struggle. It is just like pulling a cow with its nose ring. Well, I must not easily go downstream, following the fish that runs downstream.
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The fly started drifting through the boiling water. It is a moment of high tension.

The Fight Again

Without moving, I kept winding the line. Finally my fly line appeared. How far I pulled up the fish! While I was absorbed in my new idea the salmon draw very near to me. I came to myself and planned how to land it. I picked up the net underfoot and leaned it against the bank side so that I would be able to pick it up easily when necessary. Everything is ready!

The fly line reached the rod tip and the leader was stuck into the water just down me. I could not pull the fish from straight upstream any more. I continued to wind the line to still shorten the distance between the fish and me. Probably because the bank became suddenly steep from the waterfront, the salmon came near only 3m to the bank without protesting.

I laid the rod horizontally towards the water surface and wound the fly line until the leader knot just reached the rod tip. In the next moment I grabbed the net and raised the rod high with my right hand.

I had planned to scoop the salmon immediately with the net but I realized soon how difficult it was to scoop a nice sized salmon.
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Bad clouds came down from the snowy mountains.

I had kept pulling the salmon from upstream. Then suddenly I turned it towards the bank. As soon as the salmon was pulled from its side, it turned its head to the opposite side and began to run. It ran so powerful that I could not stop it with one hand. My reel kept reversing violently. It was what I had not expected.

I threw out the net, put my left hand on the reel and tried hard to stop the reel reverse. The salmon ran nearly 50m before it stopped at last. Oh, dear! It once drew to my feet but that did not mean it was too tired to fight.

Our fighting began all over again but I did not care because I was absorbed in my new idea. I did not take any step from there and started pulling up the fish again. My idea is; when the fish is quiet I pull it straight upstream. When the fish turns its head and hates to be pulled I wait until it becomes quiet. When the fish becomes quiet again, I pull it up----I repeat those activities.

The salmon was 50m down from me but I could pull it up to my feet much more quickly than I had expected. Probably the salmon lost its stamina and could not run any more.

Checking its condition, I pulled it up more strongly. Making sure that it came to the surface in front of me, I grabbed the net. Although it was not easy to handle the heavy net with only one hand, I managed to land the silvery salmon. It was nearly 18lb. It swallowed Rosemary Long-tailed like the previous two fish swallowed Stingray Long-tailed (See Part V and VI).
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Rain clouds sometimes passed by. The weather was very changeable.

Thus we finished our fishing just after extremely big flood in June. We could not realize our plan to fish Gaulfossen in a leisurely way. We had to wait for a long time until the flood calmed down. Those were the worst conditions I had never imagined. But in the end I caught three fish. In addition, one of them was 40lb, my record-breaking one.

People say no one knows what may happen tomorrow. In fishing, I'd like to say no one knows what may happen 5 minutes later! Before the season opened I had imagined I would be able to fish in the most leisurely way in my fishing years. But the situation changed again and again. Nevertheless, I caught three fish. "That's Salmon Fishing."

We still believed that we would be able to fish in good condition with no worry about dry weather only when the flood was over. Ah, we were due to be tossed about by unexpected happenings later again.

-- To be continued --
2003/01/19  KEN SAWADA
Tranlated into English by Miyoko Ohtake