Tips for the traveling angler

The morning had started off well. I was helping one of my fishermen attach a new leader to his fly line, and before the drone of the departing floatplane had drifted away, the other had hooked a bright salmon. “I’m almost into my backing!” he shouted above the scream of the reel as the ocean-fresh fish ran toward the estuary it had left just an hour before. “Don’t try to hold him,” I coached. “You should have plenty of backing—let him run, or you’ll break him off for sure!”