R.B. Wilson of Fresno, Calif., with his
catch: a 61-pound Tyee caught on
Aug. 10, 1951
cheek-to-cheek on a narrow but surprisingly comfortable bench seat with a
slatted wooden backrest. Like everyone
else in these balanced boats we wear
inflatable life vests. She and I hold
7-foot, 6-inch one-piece rods riveted at
a precise Dwayne-approved angle to water. Single action Islander MR3 reels are
mounted but turned upside down with
the reel on top of the rod. Our thumbs
push against the spool of 20-pound
monofilament to prevent line slippage
52
in the event of a Tyee strike. Barbless
hooks need to be set hard, all the way to
the bend if possible.
Twenty, maybe 30 feet down and
held at depth by 6-ounce sliding weights
our 7-inch pearl white 151 Tomic plugs
are wobbling seductively, through a few
hundred, maybe thousand returning
Campbell River spawners. An enticing
percentage will be Tyee weight. We only
want one. OK, maybe two.
The plug that Dwayne knots to my
line is an antique that he “stole” for a
couple of hundred dollars. “I buy them
to fish, not collect. Salmon fishermen
like it when their old tackle is fished not
stored,” he explains. I swallow hard and
explore:NW | The Official Magazine for kenmore air | Summer 2016
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