Kalyn Hoggard | Monday, 9 June 2025
It is necessary for me to provide a little context to the story that follows. I guide and fish migratory Brown Trout, Coho, and Steelhead that come off of the Great Lakes, and into the tributaries to spawn. The places where I like to fish, and where I believe the fishing is the best, aren’t all exactly “scenic” rivers. Lets just say it wouldn’t be unusual to have a face to face interaction with what poverty looks like in a city when you are record chasing with me. There are certain sections of rivers in certain cities that are safer than others when you are making your way to the water at night. So, there is an underlying intensity that is as large as the anticipation of fishing and the browns. What went bump in the night?
This last fall I was fishing with, who may be my only fishing buddy, Jake, and we were looking for early browns and steelhead on a river in a rough part of a big city. I had been scouting for a couple of days before the trip, and there wasn’t much question as to where the fish were. Given that the river runs through a densely populated area, you run into other fisherman on the water. It isn’t elbow to elbow fishing, but if you want a particular run, then you need to get on it in the dark and wait until morning to fish. There are regulations against night fishing on these waters to help protect the fishery against Tom foolery, which means no lines in until 30 minutes before sunrise. Theoretically, if you get to the water a certain amount of time before then you will be able to be the first people through a particular section of water.
Also, if you know where the giants are holding or feeding, then you’ve got a shot to catch some of the biggest trout in the world.
Jake and I have discovered that fewer people show up more than an hour before you can fish. So, we were parking the car around 2 hours before sunrise and already talking about the walk down to the river. From where you park to get to the river you have to walk down a street to a series of steps that lead down underneath a massive bridge right in downtown. There are several concrete ruins along the river side that are relics from a more industrious time. I mentioned to Jake, as we laced up our boots and were getting our rigs straightened out, that the population of people living below the bridge had increased quite a bit since last year.
The walk was uneventful. No creatures were stirring not even a mouse. We got to the run, and did our regular; gear check, lights off, weather check, time check, re-time check, detailed discussion of what had been working, detailed discussion of what exactly we are going to do with the first cast, and however many subsequent casts. When a twig snaps. We both pull the instant head turn. Something is walking around close by… It’s a headlamp. “Haha sucker get out of bed earlier,” I thought as I hit him with a beam from my spot light. He cursed some thing or another, because he also knew that it was on in this section, and walked down around 50 yards and set up below us.
We could see what our friend was doing for the most part. “Is that a bobber?” “Yep.” “Roe or a bead?” “Roe.” “Well this will be fun to watch.” Suddenly, the guy screams and takes off running into the woods. All we can see is bouncing light bobbing and weaving its way through the night. “Holy Shit, Get away from me,” he screamed into the night. Then, No light and silence. Well that puts you in quite the position. A) You can call out to the man, and see if he needs help, or (B) You can stay as quiet as possible, and not give away your position to whatever alien monster just grabbed this dude and ran off into the night with him. After the shock of what happened and the debate we had, we landed on me shouting out, “HEY, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?” “NO MAN, THE BIGGEST RACCOON I’VE EVER SEEN IS CHASING ME AROUND AND WON’T LET ME GET BACK TO MY GEAR…”. “SAY WHAT?”
Eventually the guy came by to talk to us. He was still throwing sticks and rocks at the raccoon to keep him at bay. We discussed various strategies, and I was trying not to puke from laughter. He did get back to his gear and we did see the night creature in the daylight. As you can imagine, when the chinook salmon spawn comes to an end there is a plethora of food in the water ways. Also, at this latitude, things tend to fatten themselves up pretty well for winter. This raccoon was huge. Not a regular cute and cuddly raccoon. A monstrous bloated, tail broken off, beast of the city wilds.
I can understand why it really freaked him out at first. This was no ordinary critter, and you really have no idea what to expect being down there at night. Now, He did scare the crap out of the two of us, but that can be forgiven.