Trout are smart but they are fairly predictable. They sway there in the current and you can almost sense where they will be and how they need to be tricked. They are fairly consistent with their holding patterns and feeding habits. Salmon on the other hand are weird. They might be in the deep holes or in the pocket water. They cruise the shorelines of lakes and ponds like silver bullets and they are anything but predictable. I have a love hate relationship with chasing the Salmon because they drive me nuts. They seem to always be one step ahead of me and …everyone always says, “you shoulda been here yesterday.” The seem to love crystal clear water and rocky/gravel type bottoms with big logs cris-crossing the bottom. So, because of these elements, they get a chance to really analyze my fly, and that makes it tough. I can’t tell you how many times I watched the Salmon come right up to my fly, swirl behind the fly, turn around – look at my fly again and then dart back into the shadows. Then just when I start to think that they are smart fish, I will make a cast and some Salmon will dart out from the shadows and grab my fly without hesitation. Go figure? The Salmon are always keeping me guessing. In one hole they will love my beed head wooly bugger and won’t touch my grey ghost. The next hole their taking Mickey Fins and won’t touch anythng white. Then I will hit some secret Salmon Ponds and they won’t look at anything but black. The fish in this picture was fun to catch. I seduced him with a Barnes Special. After throwing nearly everything in my box, he finally fell for this old time favorite. I casted it into the white water, let it drift naturally through the turbulent eddie and then started to stip when the fly reached the back side of the pool. It’s a nice technique, because the fly looks like a flustered bait fish who has lost his way in the current. The fly also gets a chance to sink 3 – 6 feet below the surface and when I start to strip, the fly makes a nice vertical motion towards the surface and WHAM! So, this afternoon I chased the Salmon like a true Salmon addict. In the car, outta the car, one spot to the next, in the kyak, outta the kyak, streamers, beadheads, caddis, stoneflies, emergers, muddlers and woolies. Long casts in still flat water and short casts in quick pocket waters. Yup, the Salmon are as mysterious as they are addictive. They bring me right to my wits end, and just when I start thinking that I will never chase the jerks again, WHAM! I get a nice fish on. He is a silver as silver can be. He leaps, jumps and makes fly fishing infinately more fun. The fish in this picture was relatively small. There were times during the evening that I had a few 4-6 pound Salmon look at my fly. Of course, the bigger ones teased me. They looked once, twice, made a big swirl and then vanished into the shadows.