I took a work buddy who’d lived in AK for over a decade and never caught a salmon out one evening after work. I quickly caught one shy of my limit and started C&R fishing all the whole he’s fishing away without so much as a bump. Finally, after a couple hours of him complaining he exclaimed that he had something and began reeling furiously. He landed a decent sized silver with an 18” leader with a hook and yarn broken off hanging out of his mouth. The hook on his Vibrax was hooked in the eye of the swivel on the broken leader!
He started in about some nonsense of that not being a “catch” since he hadn’t hooked it. Meanwhile I quickly clubbed his fish and told him he was on the board and we were going home. I explained on the way home that the odds of that hook threading into that eyelet were far slimmer than him accidentally hooking a fish in the mouth and therefore it was a great trophy! Probably still the only one he’s ever caught.
