This was my first effort at drift fishing and my first attempt at catching pinks. I had just began fishing in the beginning of the summer when my kid asked me to teach them. I didn't know how to fish and never learned so I've been doing a fishing boot camp all summer!

We got to the river about 30 minutes before daybreak and used a common drift fishing setup with sliding pencil weight. I used some Aerodrifter lures I had bought at Wal-Mart. They're basicalliy a corky and yarn combo.

Shortly after the start time began, I already had a fish on and landed a nice hen! The fight wasn't so much but I fell in love with watching how the pink kept launching itself out of the water and thrashing around. The biggest part of the fight was when the fish got about a couple feet from me and then it was all about keeping tension on the line!

My friends and I kept at it for another four hours and I landed 5 and kept 3. I let 2 go because my friend was looking for hens only. He caught 4 and my other friend caught 4 as well. It was a great morning on the Puyallup.

The only disconcerting thing about it was that the river began to get really full about 8am. A group of anglers placed themselve directly across the river from us and had no regard for rhythm or courtesy. A couple of times they crossed lines with other anglers on our side and we had to stop fishing while we waited for the anglers to sort 'em out.

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