Springer Fishing – Feast or Famin

This is a combined report for the previous two days because although each day was drastically different, the end result was no bueno.

Headed out Friday morning from Marine Park.  Cruised down to Davis Bar for a few passes.  Got our lines in the water and started the grind.  Again, the standard flasher and cut plug herring right out of the pack dredging the bottom.

The end of the first pass, my wife gets a pretty good take down on her rod then nothing.  Wait about 30 seconds and bring up the line to find the bait was striped.

Run up for our second pass.  Again, my wife’s rod takes a hit then nothing.  Reel it up to find it striped again.

Take a third pass.  This time my wife buries the trailing hook in the side just like Dave Johnson showed on Outdoor GPS the night before.  Her rod takes a big hit and this time it stuck.  It made a couple runs and when it finally gets to the side of the boat, we see that it is possibly a jack.  Not very big at all, but a fish none the less.  I get ready to grab it with the net and it is gone.  🙁

It is ok.  So far, it is a great day with action.  We will get the next one.

Fourth pass, my wife gets hit again and then nothing.  Her rod is on fire, but nothing seems to be sticking.

Fifth pass, my buddy Alex notices that his leader is a bit longer than what my wife and I are using.  He shortens it up and he gets a drive by on his daughters rod.  At this point, we are still pretty excited that we are getting action, but cannot seem to get anything in the boat.

Sixth pass, my wife notices her rod tip keeps shaking.  Reel it in to check and she gets a smolt.

Seventh pass, my buddy get hit on his rod.  Same story, quick one time hit and nothing.  Bait striped.  These buggers are pretty cleaver or very lucky.

This was all before high tide.  Because we got our springer last week after high tide, we thought we still had a chance.  Unfortunately, this week the bite turned off at high tide and we did not see any more action for the day.  In fact, we did not really see any action on any other boat out there that day.  We felt pretty lucky to get what we did.

Saturday, we launced from St. Johns.  A little closer to Davis Bar and we thought we would try the Willamette on the way in if the Columbia does not produce.  We felt pretty good from the day before and thought this day was going to be our day.  Before we even launched the boat, I got a report from down river they had 2 in the boat.  Awesome, by the time we setup on Davis Bar again, that wave of fish should be almost to us.

We made a few passes and crickets.  Not even a nibble.  It is ok.  It is still early.

I get another report from another friend down river.  They are 1 for 3.  This is killing me.  I know if I chase the phone bite, I will pass right over them.  That is typically my luck.  I decide to stay put and wait for them to come to me.

I get another report from my first friend that they just landed their third and are heading in.  WTF!!!!    Why have we not gotten a bite yet?

We grind it out a bunch more passes and we finally start to see action.  Three boats around us get fish in the boat.  Awesome!!  We turn back up to make a quick pass through the same spot and we get nothing.  We do not see any more action in any other boat around us and we do not get a bite the rest of the day.  We tried a couple of other locations and saw nothing but sea lions.

I guess the fish gods figured they gave us our chance on Friday.  I am not ready to give up just yet.  Next weekend is another day.