So I rowed down the run a little ways and anchored up just above the tailout. The water is running Bombay gin clear today. We can see 3 large trout and a few dollies in 6 feet of water in the “V” just ahead of said tailout more clearly than if we’d had scuba gear. Mi compadre pescador irfshn is in the bow of Jack Salmon II and the omnipresent upstream wind swings him into perfect position.

irfshn in the bow of Jack Salmon II last Fall:

We commence to do a 2-man mini-reenactment of the high Summer season combat fishing zone as we put our smolt imitations cast-after-cast over these fish. I am battling from the stern. We play reasonably well with each other and we only tangle each other’s lines once. Then irfshn scores the  biggest dolly we’ve seen in this run. 20 minutes or so later one of the 3 big trout moves at my fly, but refuses. The biggest one is in a very regular feeding pattern, holding alongside a mid-stream rock just ahead of the tailout. He moves up and slashes a smolt from near the surface every 5 minutes or so. We each hope that it is our fly that enters his window when he is ready for the next slash. We cast and then cast again. We nickname those 3 trout the “Big Shouldered Boys”. We cast and cast and 45 minutes go by and eventually we nickname the biggest trout alongside that rock just “Shoulders”. His broad red stripe is clearly visible. He is notably bigger and beefier than the other two trout. Then it just happened. I saw it all from my position in the stern. As I was gathering up for another swing over those trout, irfshn’s line went taught, he tightened down on a nice grab and the battle was on. He had hooked not only one of the “Big Shouldered Boys”, but “Shoulders” himself!

I hope this photo does justice to that broad red stripe mentioned above:

Here’s “Shoulders” just before irfshn slid him back into that clear water: