Part of the excitement of the buffalo run revolves around the incredible display during the spawn. Large females will have any number of males surround them when they are ready to drop their eggs. The males will push these big females up to the surface, and you'll suddenly see a pod of from 5 to 30 or more fish breaching the surface. It often even appears to be a violent process as these massive fish appear to be "busting" on the surface like trout slamming shad. In actuality, they aren't feeding in those moments at all.

Anyway, because of all the excitement, several other fish will often chase hooked fish, thinking it is just part of some display or ritual associated with the spawn. We had several big buffalo chasing both trout and other buffalo that we had hooked.

The best part of the day happened when Roger finally brought his big fish (see above) boat side. As I dipped my net to scoop the fish, a second fired up fish slid up next to the hooked fish and into the net.

Suddenly, I had not one but two massive fish in the net. I believe this was the first time I've had an unhooked fish swim willingly, or at least accidentally, into my net. Here is a quick shot to capture the moment.