Salmon River Atlantic

[DKRONK31]

Hello to all...I read the reports from time to time on this site as I live in Jersey and fish the flatbrook, pequest, paulinskill and others regularly. I spend alot of my fishing time though upstate on the Salmon (anywhere from 25-35 days a year). I was just up thursday to saturday along with my Father and we had a decent trip. The reason for my post was to share some pics of an Atlantic salmon i caught on this trip. For those of you that fish this river, you know how rare they are to come across. In 20 years of fishing the area this is the fourth one I have landed. I hooked this fish using a pink worm under a float on my centerpin setup. I was fishing in the lower end of the river and headed for a hole that has filled in over the years but with a higher flow that day looked promising. I approached the lie from a good distance away and my second drift was to be one of the most violent take downs I have experienced in all my years of fishing. The water blasted in a silver flash and out came a gorgeous fish that proceeded to cartwheel and summersault up and down the entire run. Given the distance between me and the fish along with the rarity of Atlantics I didn't even know what was on the end of my line for the first portion of the battle. I knew this was no dropback steelhead but assumed it was a fresh run steelhead (late run) or an early run skamania (summer). However when I got it close enough for look, what I saw was a goregous fresh male atlantic in the 11 to 12 lb class. Once I had my first look, the fish went back out for some more line screaming runs. A short while later I slid the fish onto some gravel, clicked a few pics, and slid him back into the current. Not a soul in sight, not even my father as he was fishing a half mile upstream. Truely one of the hardest fighting fish I have ever had on. All in all it was probably a 10 minute battle with the fish going airborne at least 10 different times. Anyways I thought I'd share my fish. Good Luck to all this season and I will try and post some reports when I get out again.