American Opener

I've been dying for this day to come for more then a month now. Spent the past month getting lots of rest, sleeping in and being lazy cause I am going to be getting none of that now that the season is open. Up just before 0300 this morning to get the jump on my spot on the AR. Hit the Basin just below the Hazel bridge where some friends and I did pretty good last year. Brought my

step dad Scott and met my friend's Nikolay, Ethan, and Jay out there and we were the first ones to the water by 0400. Had to make sure I got there early to secure my spot. Waited for the hour before mark to make our first cast. Nice over cast this morning and a good breeze made for a chilly start to the day.

Everyone was tossing Flying C's right at 0500 a few more guys came down, one was beading, one tossing roe and the rest had spinners as well. First hour goes by, saw a couple jump, seen one caught and a couple lost up river from the beaders. Second hour comes around sun is getting a little higher in the sky still no hits. A few questionable bumps from a few of us and a couple snags and some lost spinners got donated to the river gods.

Our morning line up waiting on the fish.

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Nikolay on the right, then Ethan and believe it or not Jay is in the picture too, but you can't see his short ass next to Ethan lol.

Going on 0730 or so I finally see a rod swing and Jay is hooked up!!!

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I'm standing ready with the net excited to see the first salmon of the season get pulled out of the AR. Fight goes on for a few minutes we see it roll a few times and just as its beginning to get close and maybe in net range Jay's spinner comes flying out of the water and the biggest sigh of disappointment with some scream and a couple of choice words comes out of all of our mouths.

Big Ant who was 100+ yard up river from us even heard us yelling when that fish popped off.

Back to it Jay and Ethan took off around 0800 to go to work. I stuck it out till 1000 then I moved up river on the line to try throwing beads. Did that for an hour for nothing. I only saw one guy hook up once out of 30+ people. Realized it wasn't worth the effort so I took off around 1100. Came back home got some lunch took a well needed nap and headed back out around 1730. Brought my friend Steven with me this time and got to the spot just before 1800 to find it all to our selves, AWESOME!!! Gave Steven a spinner and I decided to try my luck with roe. Maybe 10 minutes into it I felt a grab, I swung for the fences and had a fish on baby! One of my goals for this year is I get a salmon on roe since I've never done it and I was super excited to get it on my first fish of the season!

Brought him to the bank, had Steven ready on the net, maybe 5ft from the net and my hook pops. DAMN-IT!!!

Gave Jay crap all morning about losing his fish and now I did the same damn thing. Amateurs man! Upset over that a bit, but there are more fish to be caught no biggie. Kept at it until 2000. Got crowded around 1930. Watched people everywhere around me and never saw anyone hook up and we didn't have any other action while we were there either.

A slow opener for me, but at least I managed to hook into one. I'll be back bright and early for another shot at em.

Till Then Guys
Mark