Over the summer vacation I helped my dad commercial fish. I thought this was going to be just another boring fishing year, although most of the openings were good ones.

One fishing opening it was really windy and rough on the river and I thought we weren't going to go out on the water, but my dad told me to get ready. I really didn't want to go out on the big killer waves on the river, but I had to because nobody would help my dad. I got ready and we went down and put our longest net in the boat. While we were going across to Goose Island I felt as if I was on a rocking chair, rocking hard enough to make me nauseous.

Our first drift was fast and the current took us down the river quicker than normal. When we checked our net most of the kings were toward the bottom and the beach end of the net. We didn't catch much our first drift, which was about three-fourths of a tote. Towards the very end of the opening we had to make the drift shorter than usual. While we were checking the net my dad jerked forward and I looked in the water and saw a really huge silver-colored king. My dad reached over and took the gaff and pulled in the fish. "Holy cow," were the only words that came out of my mouth. My dad and I had a hard time taking that and two more huge kings in. It took us a while to take them out of the net. I wanted to just stand there and admire the big fish, but we still had a long ways to go till we emptied the net. When we were finished, though, I lifted the burlap off the fish and admired the three monstrous fish.

Since Boreal payed more per pound we delivered to one of their tender boats right across from Pilot Station. My dad and I loaded the fish onto the scale but left the three huge kings to be weighed individually. The biggest turned out to weigh 78 pounds, the second was 72 pounds and the smallest of the three was 68 pounds! Three big fish!

When we got back we delivered our chums to the MFP and came home. When when I took a shower I felt as if I was still in the boat, swaying back and forth. But I was really glad that I went with my dad because those three fish were the biggest I'd ever seen in my life.

Cheryl Hunter