This large Willow creek chum salmon was caught on a fly off parks highway last week. Chum salmon are a hard fighting salmon, They are very aggressive and will fight to the end. Thrashing gear and running you up and down the river hoping not to get spooled. As you can see this fish put up such a fight that the line cut his mouth in multiple places he wasn’t coming to hand with any ease. There is no way to avoid this, it’s like hooking a locomotive and trying to stop it. This fish was released and handled properly once to hand. It will continue its journey and end it’s life on a spawning bed in just a week or so. There are many fishing opportunities for chum salmon and if you are interested in targeting these fish we will be happy to help you out.
Chum salmon are not as desirable to eat as other salmon but for a sport angler they may be as great of a fish to catch as any! I recommend a 8-9 weight fly rod for these fish and wouldn’t hesitate to use a 10 weight to bring the fish in a little faster.
Tight lines
Scott Sager
