King Salmon

by Brian Jaglowski
(Buffalo, New York)

My night was going like no other, I had a feeling in my stomach that I was going to catch something big!

As we got to Olcott Pier in Olcott Beach, New York, I began to realize that no one out there had caught any fish yet that day.

I walked to the end of the pier and set up my pole with a beer bottle near my real. With my bail open and line tightened, I was sitting there for quite a while and then one guy caught a 11 pound steelhead. As he put the fish in his net and took off, my bottle fell over notifying me that I had gotten a bite.

Well needless to say, I picked up my pole and closed my bail, and slowly reeled in my line to feel a small bite. When I pulled up on the pole to set the hook, it was like no other fish I had hooked into before, so I knew it had to of been a salmon.

As I felt my line pull out of my reel, I pulled left to bring the fish into the channel and I yelled "Fish On!" Everybody dropped there gear and came over to help my step father. They asked if that was me that had a fish on, and I frantically yelled "Yes!" He ran over in amazement saying, "How'd you catch one?"

He grabbed our net as I got the salmon closer. The sun was setting and as I pulled and pulled the line in closer, I seen the glow of the scales in the water from the flashlights pointing down there, and I seen this huge 22 and a half pound King Salmon.

I was amazed at what I had hooked into. I got it onto the pier and began fishing again.

I was using pink egg sacs and tight lining my rod with a glass bottle. That was one of the most fun nights I've ever had in my whole life!