Winnipesaukee Salmon Saturday 10/30/10

Taking a break from the election (is it Tuesday, yet?), the Beast took advantage of a rare no-child weekend to zip a half hour north today to Lake Winnipesaukee. The lake itself is closed to fishing but a tributary river that flows into it is open for two more days. It’s a special season, fly fishing only, catch-and-release, barbless hooks. He was only there for an hour but he managed to catch two salmon. The first was a hen, very dark for the breeding season.

The Beast manage to get a nearby fisherman to hold it so he could get this shot (click on the pic to see it full size):

You can see that her colors have deepened to a yellowish green, and she’s grown the hooked beak:

Wide shot:

a few seconds later:

The Beast also caught a much bigger male a few minutes later, but the other two guys had already left (they got skunked and departed seconds after the Beast caught the one above – this Beast had only been there for 15 minutes before he nabbed it and they’d been there all day, heh, heh) so with no help, the Beast was unable to snap a pic of it. But here’s the pool in the river:

Finally, the Beast himself on the way home:

Tomorrow is the last day of the season, so we’ll see if the fish cooperate once again. If so, expect a few more pics.