Grabbed the pole and headed toward the peninsula around 7:30 Monday morning. After about 5 hours traveling from Pugetopolis my friend and I arrived at the Sol-Duc Salmon Hatchery. We hiked down below the mouth of the stream feeding the hatchery and decided to give it a try. After about an hour I asked Jack if there where any damn fish in this river and not more than 5 seconds later it was “FISH ON”. That darn fish darted to the center of the river and just laid down on me. It was a tug-of-war for about 20 minutes. No head shake, no nothing, just the feel of a water filled boot. Once she was at shore it all changed. She made one run after another until I finally beached her on the small sand bank I was standing on. Needless to say she was a native but I decided to keep her anyway. I punched my one and only native for the year. I didn’t have a scale so I can only guess her weight – Definitely in the teens. I only rated the day as a three because it was the only fish we touched. The water was high and cold and had more color than usual. Anyone planning a trip to the peninsula please be advised that all the coastal streams were high and most none fishable as of Thursday. The only exception was the Salmon and it was to low and clear.

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