Striper Fishing and caught this!

I headed down to the river after work yesterday in search of some Stripers. It was nice to cool off a bit while getting wet wading to spot #1. Fished for about 30-40 min. Nadda. I’m sure the boat that came through didn’t help. I reeled in my lure, zipped up the backpack and decided to move to another area all together. I had heard a report of a few fish seen and being caught, so off I went. After arriving to the next area I fished several spots at this location for nothing. The sun had been down for awhile and it was getting dark. I made a couple stops on the way out and at the last spot I was in about knee deep water and had said to myself, a couple more casts and I’m outta here. I was fishing my lure, working it slowly and it just sorta got heavy, almost like I had snagged a tree or something,.. But as I reared back on the rod, I felt a heavy head shake and it was on! Not sure what I had hooked, but it felt big! This fish made several runs out to the current pulling drag but I eventually got it back into the slacker water and was able to work it towards me. Once it got a little closer, it jumped then rolled and I got a real good look at it’s side. Bright silver, but no stripes! It’s a Salmon! I then made an effort to get it in as soon as possible, thumbing the drag a little etc. I was finally able to get him in shallow water and after a few min. of revival in the current, he swam off.

Great way to finish the day. A nice almost chrome Salmon, probably around 15-18lbs.
(Man I wish we could keep them!)

Just think by January, if not before, this is what he will end up like.