What A Night

I went fishing on the Ninilchik for the midnight opener on Friday night/Saturday morning. A buddy and I got to the river about 10:30 PM and were happy to see several rolling Kings in multiple holes. The anticipation for the next ninety minutes was just about more than one could stand. At midnight we rigged up eggs for drifting through our chosen hole. No more than ten flips later, FISH ON!!! I landed a silver bright 20 pound hen. My buddy slipped up to my spot and caught the same drift as I had. Four flips later, FISH ON!!! His hook up quickly became fish two to the bank; a 22 pound buck. I glanced down at my watch. 12:06!!! We had just hooked up and landed two fine kings in six minutes. Both had their adipose, so now we needed hatchery kings. I brought two more kings to the bank (a 10 pound buck and a 14 inch jack) and lost a real nice one in the stick on the other side of the river. We kept the jack, but the buck was natural. My buddy brought two others to the bank, a 20 pound hen, and a near 30 pound buck. All had fins so back to the river they went. At about 1:30 we called it quits. Around us, we saw ten other anglers who between them had a total of two hookups (both by the same teenage boy) one of which was landed (a 10-15 pound king). One other angler walked by with a King in hand, but we saw no other fish than that. We definitely were in the right spot with the right gear for the night. The photo of the fish is after a night on the ice gutted and gilled at my buddy's place on the Kenai. We cooked some up that night over the campfire. Awesome!! Fish On!!