Bill's Alaskan Fish

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38 lb King Salmon, Clear Creek, August 1997

This was a 38 lb King, caught in August 1997 at Clear Creek, not far from Talkeetna - my first King after 4 years of trying!

After a whole day of no luck at the mouth of the creek, with everyone around me just whaling them in, I headed to a hole about 15 minutes walk away.

The water was around 10 ft deep and crystal clear, and you could easily see dozens of the huge monsters lying up waiting for the right moment to continue upstream. After about an hour of tickling them with a medium sized spin'n'glo, this big fella clamped on and wasn't going to let go.

With a firm clutch and rod tip real high I played her for what seemed like hours but was actually only 30 minutes when with a huge lunge she headed south and - SNAP - my rod broke. There was nothing for it now, I just had to walk backwards with fingers crossed and hope she was played out enough that she wouldn't just shear the line. Fortunately for me she was nearly as tired as I was and up onto the shingle she came. About 20 lbs of absolutely superb smoked fillets was the end result of all this.

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