The Rocky is small. Under normal conditions you can wade across somewhere in the stretch between any two pools without getting wet above the knee. Roll casting is helpful, but most pools offer a nice buffer of high-water zone between river's edge and thick, green brush. Most casts, and therefore most backcasts, are short, and won't reach the brush. Casts should be brought down softly (stopped above the water), and in most cases should be followed by a quick mend (rolling the line off the water in an upstream direction with a horizontal flip of the fly rod). Because the salmon are so close, they can see you as easily as you can see them. That won't stop the first few from biting, but it will put them down eventually. Best to rest the pool for 5 to 10 minutes and keep your profile and your casts low after that.

When salmon became reluctant, I picked up a spinning rod. Fly fishermen may feel free to boo and hiss, but the result was too fascinating to forego. While silvers reacted only at arm's length to a fly, and might only follow it for a few feet before turning off, they sometimes came charging from 30 feet away to crush a spinner, and would often follow it right to my feet. For the most part, pinks left spinners alone, but dozens of them would disappear, leaving the spinner in a sudden "pink void" when silvers charged the lure. Silvers hooked on spinners thrashed endlessly on top, and I could haul them right to the bank with 30-pound FireLine, though most specimens topped 10 pounds and the biggest weighed over 17. Something about metal blades and treble hooks make silvers dance.

A fly-hooked silver was a different animal, sizzling line from the fly reel and taking to the air in twisting, end-over-end flights that sometimes brought them down tail first and running in the opposite direction. One salmon ran from the head of a long pool to the tail and back 16 times, leaving the water several times along the way, before finally giving in. The real heart of a silver is something to see, and something you won't see without a fly rod.

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