After the Cornell debate I went fly-fishing up near Lake Ontario. It turns out it was the first day of the salmon fishing season. We went to a bend in the very aptly named Salmon River. My guide told me that this would be the best salmon fishing anywhere except Alaska. I know nothing about fishing, but he looked to be right. There were about 10 people on either side of the shore, and literally about every 30 seconds someone would yell “Fish on!” and a huge salmon would jump about 3 feet in the air. It was unbelievable. The salmon were like popcorn going off. Unfortunately, I had no idea what I was doing during the crucial time between about 6 and 8 am and hooked nothing. I had to be the only person there who hooked nothing. The guy next to me must have hooked 15 salmon. He would give me some tip, “See here, you want to cast in right about here.” Bam–he hooked a fish. He would cast again. “And don’t pull out, until about here.” Bam–he hooked another fish. It was embarrasing. My guide repeatedly gave me that consolation line, “Well, its really all about just being out here.” When they stopped biting there, we went to a little creek where my guide thought there might have been a few salmon that swam up during the flood the week before. For a while, I thought that this was going to be the closest I came to a fish, smaller than my quarry last year, if that’s possible. But we ended up hooking 5 salmon in there between us–he hooked three, I hooked two. It was very, very cool. They all got away (no big deal since we were catching and releasing and if you fight them too long you risk killing them on the line anyway), except one. Reeling this thing in has to be one of the most exhilirating sporting experiences I’ve had. Unfortunately, my guide hooked it, so I was cheating, but he handed me the reel and the thing dashed upstream about maybe 50 yards (?), as you can see here. The splash in the far background is the fish. Then I closed in on her and she turned around and booked maybe 100 yards in the other direction and I had to run after her, as you can see here. Eventually, she stopped in calm water and my guide managed to pull her out of the water, an absolutely amazing 3-foot long creature. It was awesome. During the transfer so I could hold her for a shot, we (mostly I, of course) dropped her and she got away. But it was a great day. If you want to catch salmon get yourself up to the Lake Ontario area right away.