So I had booked a trip to the Upper Pitt River through Pitt River Lodge for my parents & wife as a surprise.
Our guide was Jordan and he was fantastic and was a real asset in terms of good fishing spots on the river. The scenery was spectacular and we only saw one jet boat the entire day.
I thought the weather gods were not in our favour as we were gearing up at the lodge and the skies opened up with rain. Luckily by time we got to the raft launch spot the rain had stopped and the sun arrived and would stay the rest of the day.
We brought 14 Bullies to the shore between the 4 of us with some decent sized fish landed. Not the big sea run bullies but fun just the same.
The HIGHLIGHT of the day was near the end. Jordan kept telling us which runs he thought there might be salmon. They had not seen any salmon in the river yet this year but were expecting them anytime.
On one of the last runs of the day Jordan suggested my wife work the middle of the run as no one had yet and on her first cast it was FISH ON!! Not any fish but (at Jordan's estimation a 35-40lb Chinook! The largest he had seen in this river!)
My wife and I took turns fighting this beast for 45 minutes and had travelled almost 1/2 mile downstream from where it was hooked. All this time we were fighting it on woefully inadequate gear for a fish this size. The pole was rated 6-10lb and luckily I had just spooled with some 20lb braid line. We managed to get the fish close to shore and Jordan got a good look and confirmed his estimates about size. He said he would have to use both hands to get around the caudal peduncle! When the fish saw Jordan it took one last run and thats when it spat the hook
Although we didn't land the fish the fight was exhilarating!
Cheers,
Dan
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Topic: Upper Pitt River July 13/2015 (Read 3105 times)