Week 25 - Fight of a lifetime

Another week with high hopes and our good friends from Slovakia back at Kengis. Great to see good guys again.

It was a though week, but Jakubs story stood out, so this week we will give the word to him and let him tell about life changing experience.

We didn’t spend much time fishing the Powerline Pool, as the water levels were high and only Ivan really committed to it. Around the camp, there was plenty of talk and joking about what would happen if you hooked a fish there and it ran downstream—most agreed you’d probably end up swimming, since getting out the same way through the slippery stones would be nearly impossible and fish wouldn´t wait for you to do it.

By Thursday, we had only hooked a single fish, and even that one slipped away after a short fight when Vlado lost a nice salmon.

Later that day, I took my turn at the Powerline Pool. Almost immediately, I spotted a fish rising just in front of me. I started working through different patterns until, after a while, it finally happened. The salmon took the phatakorva fly, exploded out of the water and run downstream.

I had been confident I’d stay dry this year. Last season at Powerline had already soaked me, but then I wasn’t wearing a jacket. This time I was fully equipped, or so I thought. It turned out confidence meant little once the fish decided otherwise.

The fish ran downstream, and I yelled to Vlado to get out of the water, since he was fishing in the boat pool at that moment. I tried to wade back to shore, but of course it was too deep, so I had to swim a bit and ended up completely soaked.

By the time I climbed out, Martin was already waiting with the landing net, Jan was capturing the chaos on camera, and Vlado stood by, watching how it would all unfold next. I handed him my flyrod, as I was in no condition to run anywhere—my waders and jacket completely filled with water.

Vlado took off downstream in pursuit, but the fish was already far below the island pool. With only about 20 meters of backing left, it was a desperate chase. Then, just as the line slipped behind a bush on the island, something gave way—the hook straightened, and the fish was gone.

/Jakub

Tight lines!

Ville, Elias & Aslak

Photo: Jakub & friends