fished the Cairn yesterday early for trout, had my light set up and on the point fly had an orange grayling bug.
3rd cast in and bang, into a nice salmon!
didn't have my net with me as I always catch nice small trout that are easy to handle etc, also, no where to beach it as steep bankings.

played it for 35 mins, thought it was ready and reached for it and instead of grabbing it by the tail, I had a moment of madness and grabbed the leader!
next thing.......snap......!!!!!!

oh just couldn't believe it, pure school boy error, this is the closest yet I have came to catching my first salmon.

he was a beauty about 6 or 7 pounds, lovely upturned kite jaw(spelling?).

haven't had my heart beat like that in years, awesome stuff.
peace
rusty

You could say no luck Rusty, but you may agree you were in luck to get the buzz from it. As you say the excitement muddles your brain and you dive in without thinking..... Excuse the pun but some folk would dive in to land a salmo

Kevin

Think you might mean kype.
You were lucky to get fishing at all, never mind hooking a tourist!
main river is up at 6 foot on mark just now, started rising mid day yesterday, assume Cairn did same!
Bad luck on losing him, but there will be more!
regards
bert