by Brian Dickey

Created on: September 18, 2009

As I write this, overlooking my desk in my den is a 50 pound silver and rose-hued fish. Well, fish seems too simple a title for this salmon and I prefer its more common names of Tyee, Chinook or King. This is the biggest fish I've ever caught and the story of how it came to be on my wall is in itself a lesson for rookie salmon fishers (I still count myself among this number).

My wife and I were vacationing near the Oregon California border and had heard of a large run of spawning salmon making their way from the Pacific Ocean to Iron Gate Reservoir on the Klamath River. Neither one of us had ever been fishing for salmon and despite a lot of research using books and the internet, the task seems a little daunting. The most important aspect of salmon fishing is that most experts agree that when they take bait or a lure it is not out of hunger but out of an aggression because of their spawning mindset. For me, being a fly fisherman, this was the antithesis of what I normally tried to do. Namely, you find a fish that is feeding and you get it to strike. How do you piss off a 50 pound (or greater) fish? Especially when you can't see it?

The nice thing I've found is that fisherman as a whole are very friendly and forthright with advice and tips. My wife and I found this to be true when shopping for tackle. We left with salmon roe (eggs), hooks, line, rods mesh material and string to tie spawning sacks (roe tied into little sacks so it stayed on the hook). Big bright lures of silver, blue and gold and large black rubber "snakes" a grizzled fishing mage said resembled eels and assured us would drive our quarry mad.

While we were fishing in California, and already had our resident fishing licenses, it was obvious that salmon required a little more attention. Namely, differentiating the variety one could encounter and the number you could have in possession. The type and manner of tackle used is also important; barbed versus barbless, 2 hooks or 3 etc. My advice to anyone going fishing for anything is check the specific state's wildlife management site for updated information on any regulations for the fish you are seeking. Suffice it to say we had copies of the above information and a list of areas we could fish just to play it safe.

When we drove along the Klamath River, we saw various points where the river narrowed and logically, where the fish would be compressed and more easily accessed. The other people fishing were also a good hint. Their coolers out, they

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