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Olympic Peninsula Salmon Fishing Quest 2020
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Feb 5, 2025
Ever wondered what it's like to fish for salmon in wild rivers of the Pacific Northwest? You cannot beat the experience of being on the Olympic Peninsula in the fall, fishing for king salmon! This video is packed full of footage of the struggle between angler and big king salmon set in the epic beauty of the Olympic Peninsula. I also tell the story of our 4 day salmon fishing quest as we move from river to river to find the big kings. I also show you what I used and how I rigged up to catch the 22 lb king featured in the photo. Sit back, grab a beverage and enjoy a 20 minute snapshot into salmon fishing the wild rivers of the PNW.
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0:11
[Music]
0:16
this video is about our quest for king
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salmon on the olympic peninsula
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october of 2020. every year we have a
0:23
group of friends that comes out
0:24
to the coast with us and we try to get
0:27
these kings in the river
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uh when they're fresh just out of the
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ocean they fight incredible
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they're larger in size typically than
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the fish in puget town
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this year was a little different in that
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we had some some
0:40
really passionate hardcore fishermen
0:43
from out of state with us that really
0:46
wanted to get their first king salmon on
0:48
the olympic peninsula
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and we were fishing from sun up to
0:52
sundown
0:53
we had more challenges this year in
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finding fish than we usually do
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this was largely because we had a high
0:59
water event
1:00
about five days before the trip where
1:02
the where the flow
1:03
rate went really high and then came down
1:06
and what that does is especially early
1:08
in a run early in the season it will
1:10
bring a lot of the fish that are staging
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in the salt into the rivers
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and they'll just blow right up through
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the lower sections
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go way up in the upper reaches of the of
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the river system
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and what will happen is it'll take some
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time before
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new fish will queue up and start to come
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through so if you're fishing
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a lower section of a river you know four
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or five days after a high water event
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that is the fishing's just not as good
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if you get there maybe two
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three days afterwards uh it it can be
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it can be epic it you you know this
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incredible fishing because of all these
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fish moving through
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but after that point it's going to be
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slow for a few days until the run build
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builds back up again
2:07
yeah i heard you get him up
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yep
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he's coming
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watch
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what a mess holy
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yeah i'd say
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oh my goodness
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the first day we were there you know get
3:39
there in the afternoon and luke
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one of our friends from utah uh he has a
3:44
great day on the river
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uh before we even get there just just
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hooking i think he looked four or five
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salmon
3:49
landed a nice 15 pound king
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and the next day in the morning we were
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hooking some fish too i
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i lost a a nice king i never saw it but
4:00
i had it on for maybe about 10 seconds
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robert and his brothers were going on
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guided trips with um
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just this awesome guide on olympic
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peninsula and mike's guide service that
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we use
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for almost almost decades now really
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great guy
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really good fisherman very patient
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showing you
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uh you know how to how to do all the
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different techniques and
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sharing a lot of his knowledge and
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passion for
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salmon fishing in the river head in the
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water's head and water
4:30
in the water drop the rock yep don't
4:33
break the rods
4:46
[Music]
4:53
keep the tension on
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see how long he had to wait you gotta
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wait for that rod
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get him davey that's just a
5:08
an incredible time highly recommend
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you know booking mike if you if you end
5:15
up on a trip on the olympic peninsula
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looking for just just to get to know the
5:19
area and get started out there
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book with mikey's guide service can't go
5:23
along with that
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yeah my handle is not that long
5:34
yep yes oh yeah so on day two
5:39
you know besides those hookups we lost
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you know we had trouble getting into
5:42
other fish and so a lot of us kind of
5:44
threw in the towel around dinner time
5:46
but then there's mark robert's brother
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who's just uh just a really really good
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fisherman
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and really uh passionate about fishing
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from new jersey and man he was on the
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river from
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sun up to sun down and finally got
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rewarded with this
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this bright small king salmon
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that uh you know made his day you know
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fishing
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just pound the water with eggs and and
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beads and
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uh finally got it done so we were so
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happy for mark
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yeah he saw me he ran can you tell me
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that yeah
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okay guys let mark do it let mark do his
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thing
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right where i want it coming right to
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you
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he sees it
7:12
he's getting tired man i got him
7:16
look right in the jaw hold up robert
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hold up let me get him right to you
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right here watch we're gonna fall
7:23
i hit him i'm getting ready there we go
7:30
[Music]
7:42
let him run let him do his that's
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awesome man nice fish
7:45
they're here still boys yeah let's get
7:48
him man
7:48
come on man shivering and everything you
7:51
feel warmer now
7:52
oh yeah
7:55
so on day three you know we were like
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all right we're not gonna keep pounding
7:59
this water that's just
8:01
really slow and so we decided look let's
8:04
go
8:04
let's go find another river one of the
8:05
great things about the olympic peninsula
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is you can
8:08
there's so many rivers nearby and they
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all respond differently to
8:12
uh to the surges of fresh water that
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come with the rain
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overfront acreage for sale now
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it was offensive motorcycles is that
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what it was yes
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wow
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never know where you go tell us where to
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go fishing
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tell us where the fish are real
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the salmon runs will respond differently
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based on
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the the river flows and what the water's
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doing so it's it's really key to know
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multiple rivers no multiple spots and
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just be able to respond to what the
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water's giving you what the rivers are
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giving you and so we moved to another
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river
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our groups of five is pounding this uh
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spot with eggs and
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and uh you know at one point and i'm
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like hey someone should throw a bead on
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and give that a try i
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love fishing these b r tackle 14
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millimeter soft beads in red
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just hooking a lot of fish on the
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olympic peninsula with the setup
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i could show you how to rig it so the
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packaging of these soft beads includes
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this stopper system
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that you're going to put your leader
9:24
line
9:24
through on the side opposite the hook
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and
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just going to push push the stopper
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onto your line really easy to do
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then you're just going to pull the tag
9:37
end of the line
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um back through the stopper and
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now you're now you're free then you're
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going to slide that up
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almost to the hook maybe an inch or two
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above
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and then you're going to grab your bead
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and you're going to put that on your
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leader
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and thread it all the way through and
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slide it down
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to your hook and now you're fishing it's
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that simple
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[Music]
10:12
you know one of the great things about
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bees is it's just a it's a there's fish
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that will bite a bee
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that won't bite your eggs it's so it's
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just a great change up i mean you'll put
10:21
a lot of fish
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a lot of fish in the bag fishing fishing
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good eggs
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but you you got to have you got to have
10:28
a bead set up as well
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so of course no one listened to my
10:31
advice about putting a beat on so i was
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like the heck was that i'm gonna put a
10:34
beat on and
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see how that goes and second cast you
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know i hook into a nice coho that's
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just really bright and feisty and and
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i lose that fish within a few seconds
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i'm like oh crap okay um
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keep fishing like fourth cast and i hook
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into a
10:49
nice king and this thing is
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solid i mean it is just pull and drag
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out
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um even i mean i can't move it without
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putting thumb pressure
11:00
on my on my reel i mean it's just this
11:03
is a this is a nice fish i can tell
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right away and it's and it's fighting
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like
11:07
you know like a chrome fish would fight
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just fresh really feisty
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it actually takes me 15 minutes and you
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know different points in time the tail
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uh you know kind of comes up out of the
11:18
water and everyone on the shore can see
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how big it is and you hear everyone
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you know going oh man kyle you better
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get this fishing and
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my fishing partner and good friend ash
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um was uh was on the net
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and he did a really good job just being
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patient with this fish
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it took all of that 15 minutes to tire
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it out and actually
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uh even even with that i mean we were we
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were fortunate to
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to be able to get it in and get it
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landed but turned out to be about
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22 pounds and just chrome bright
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the meat was also super high quality you
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know those bigger fish
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have more fat on them and meat stays
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good a lot longer even if they look a
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little colored up on the outside
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it cut really well and tasted fantastic
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last day of fishing we finally found a
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spot just
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loaded with kings and coho and had
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[Music]
12:21
looks like
12:23
[Music]
12:26
the side pressure too
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yeah buddy
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[Music]
12:51
just take little steps back bro yeah
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focusing on the fight though don't take
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your
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don't take your focus on that but
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the more shallower water you can get to
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the better
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right there bro had pressure on and
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everything
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yep this happens bro yeah i gotta go get
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other people
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all right let's get some bait schools
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got fish
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come on god help me get this in place
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gopro start recording
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i don't know man
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right over here
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look at him right here watch mark
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oh it's a nice king dude
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kyle he's right there
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whoa kyle you're tingling in the net
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you need to control them you can put a
14:43
little bit of thumb pressure yeah
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he's still not ready
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yeah nice guy
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awesome that's a little smaller than
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mike
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you've got to see this next video of
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norma fighting
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her big king salmon
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okay right now norma has hooked the fish
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the fish of the day keep it in keep it
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coming keep it coming
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which way should she walk toward you or
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me i'm gonna run again
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once he gets that light he's gonna [ __ ]
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again okay
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keep working that pole you're doing
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great you're doing fantastic
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yeah i see the ball too emily thank you
15:41
so much for coming with me come on baby
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come on norm
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come on no he's going to break oh oh oh
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oh
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that's a nice fish okay keep him down in
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the water right
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oh and we don't have a net by the way we
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have no net we're going to try to
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faint it he's right there i see him
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when he's going to run again it's a nice
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fish no i'm going to keep pranking
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keep it down keep it down in the
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keep
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okay norma you got it it's getting tired
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[Music]
16:59
he said what sideways this way
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all right good job nice fish
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[Music]
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this is your fish norma don't just don't
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let it go you got this one it's almost
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here
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[Music]
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[Music]
17:45
look at him yeah
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you got him come on he's gonna run again
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let him run run him right
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here
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i'm good i already have two things we're
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gonna go sideways
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so we got to call them up here nothing
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going on down there no
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the grass is not greener on the inside
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it's a nice fish though
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right when i got here i said a prayer on
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my way down
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oh yeah he's getting tired
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[Music]
18:32
all right
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[Music]
18:58
[Music]
19:30
okay okay i feel like these are coho
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that are rolling the way those
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those soft splashes
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again
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slide this way down we're going across
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the water
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puppy
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i'm sick of these rollers taunting me on
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the other side
20:00
shallower water salmon bite turn on
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look up
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coho bite bead
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they don't listen to you either
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now we're talking
20:25
in the lair of the coho
20:31
come on come
20:46
video
20:49
you
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