NW Outdoor Explorer

The action continues.

The bar was a breeze and the ocean was almost a lake.  Cruising speed was 30+ mph.

This week, my first mate was finally able to get out on the ocean with us.  She needs to reclaim her status.  🙂

Unfortunately, this trip, my first mate was not the first to catch a fish.  That title went to another crewmen.  He has been on a roll this year after he went back to basics with his presentation.  So far, he has been catching fish every time out with us, earning his seat for sure.

We continued in this spot for a couple hours while we were catching several fish, many of which were natives that had to be released.  My first mate did manage to get the second fish.  Now she is on the hunt for the biggest fish.  This may prove to be a challenge as another crewmen pulled in a 20 lb Chinook.

We moved to our next spot where the ocean was a little bit rough.  My first mate lost her sea legs and was not feeling well.  I told her to take the wheel and I will watch the rod.  Lucky me because not long after, I got a nice take down.  The end result was one of the nicest Coho I have encountered.  It was almost as big as that monster Chinook already in the bag.

After a few more natives, we called it a day.  Only 4 in the boat, but it was a great day catching fish.

Again, only three people in the boat.  The wind forecast was worse than the day before.  If we can find the fish and get off the water by 2pm, we should be good.

Started in my new favorite spot.  Lines in the water not even two minutes and we get hit.  Manage to get the fish next to the boat and before I can take a swipe at it with the net, it is gone.  🙁

Lines back in the water and a few minutes later, another hit.  This time, it is gone before it gets near the boat.  The water is pretty rough and could be playing a factor.  Time to loosen the drags.

We continue this for several passes and each pass, we get hit once or twice.  Nothing in the boat so far, but the action is great.

After the bite turns off in this location, we move to my #2 spot.  Cut the motors and just drift.  Before too long, we have one in the boat, release a couple natives and lose a few.  This is turning out to be a great weekend.

The winds are picking up and we still need five more fish in the boat.

We manage to get one more in the boat before we decide to call it a day.

The wind chop was so bad by this point, getting back to the bar was a slow crawl.  I love my pilot house.  Once we actually get the the bar, it was not bad to cross.

This week, we are a man down.  Only 3 people in the boat this day.  If we can find the fish, it should be a short day.  🙂

Well, it took us a while to find the fish, but once we did, it was lights out.  The fish were basically following the boat.  We were fishing 18′-20′ on the line counters.  The current allowed us to cut the motors and just drift.  One fish after another.  Some keepers, some native and some short.  We used almost all the bait and finished the day with 5 coho keepers and 1 very nice Chinook.

This was the week that persistence payed off for sure.

We decided to start this week where we got our one and only fish last week.  Not a single boat in the area.  Some people think if there are no boats, there must not be any fish.  I do not understand that reasoning.  I almost prefer to be where nobody is and make my own success.

Within minutes, my rod gets nailed and after a short fight, the first keeper coho is in the boat.  🙂

We continue along my path and another hit on my rod and another keeper coho in the boat.  This is turning out to be an incredible day for me.  This almost never happens.

Bait back in the water and another coho in the boat.  I am not sure what it is this week, but my rod is magic.  Hardly any other bites on the other rods at this point.  I think we got a short that was returned on another rod and maybe a couple of other drive bye’s.

I hate to be selfish, but when the gods smile on you, you have to take every advantage.  The coho finally arrived.  We finished the day with 5 nice coho in the boat, all from my rod.  It was a clinic.  🙂

Here we go again.  🙂

6am start to launch by 8am and cross the bar at low tide.  We struggled this week.  On the positive side, after the bar crossing, the water was so calm I was able to cruise about 35 mph up to the first spot.  Got there in no time.

We tried up north where the carter boats were last week to find they have moved on.  There were only two other boats giving it a go up here.  We tried shallow and deep.  We spent a short time with no bites at various depths then moved on to the south.  Trolled around buoy 2 and managed to get one in the box.  Fished a little longer and released two more shorts.  After no bites for an hour, we decided to try back up in the crab fields.  No luck.  It was time to call it a day.  Again, no Coho.

With the ocean salmon season underway and Buoy 10 just around the corner, it is time to free up some space in the freezer.  How better to do that than with my #1 smoked salmon recipe?  This recipe has already been covered in my previous blog posts, you just need to search for it.  In short, this is the brine recipe;

7 Cups of brown sugar
2 Cups of salt (non-Iodized)
¼ Cup course black pepper
¼ Cup crushed red pepper – I bumped this up to 1/2 cup for a little extra kick
¼ Cup garlic salt

You then add 2 cups of Yoshida Teriyaki sauce to the top and let juice.

I let it juice for 18-24 hours then smoke for 6-8 hours.

Anyway, the batch turned out great as the picture shows.  Ate quite a bit and put some back in the freezer.  I know I said making room in the freezer, but smoked salmon takes up much less room.  Especially when half gets eaten before you can vac-u-seal it  🙂

June 23rd, Ocean Salmon Opener.  I have been waiting for this day since the end of Buoy 10 last year.

I have a slip in Ilwaco, but not using it just yet because I have river plans for the 4th of July.  I will be trailering for a couple weeks.

We got an early start.  Hit the road at 6am to launch by 8am and cross the bar at low tide.  Got our beer, bait and ice.  We even plan to do some crabbing to see if any stragglers are still hanging out.  Heading out, there is a slight breeze.  The swells were not terrible.  That is, till we pass buoy 10.  The confused seas were evident.  This is what my boat was made for.  We pushed on.  Once we got a little north and in about 50 FOW, we start dropping pots.  We put out 9 pots with hopes of a big bounty.

The water looked fishy, so it was time to put the lines in the water.  It did not take long and Fred was on the board with a nice Chinook.  We stuck it out there for a couple of hours with no success.  It was time to push North to the Condo’s.  The wind chop was not terrible, but not great either.  It took us a little wile to get to where we wanted to be.  We found a few charter boats doing their circles, so we fell in line.  Not long again, we are starting to get bites.  Over the next couple of hours, we land two more Chinook and released a few small Chinook.  With the doom and gloom fishing reports, this was not a bad ocean opener.  We did not see any Coho.

Time to pull pots and head in.  Sad to say, most of the pots were small females.  We did manage to get 6 nice sized keepers.  All my crew went home with something that day.  I did not.  🙁

Till next week…….

Springer season on the lower Columbia is officially closed, but the WDFW/ODFW once again has blessed us with an additional day of post season springer fishing on the lower Columbia and everyone with a seat in a boat was out there.

With all these fishermen in the area, how do we not have a greater influence on the mis-management of fish and control of the sea lions?  That is a topic for another blog.

I started my day bright and early at 4 am.  Had a bit of a drive up to Ridgefield where my boat is residing and some prep before I met my crew at the Ridgefield ramp.  We were in line to launch about 6 am.  This was the first time I had to wait in this long of a line at this ramp.  I was above the RR tracks.  As we crept down to the ramp, it gave me time to unstrap and plug the boat getting ready to launch.  Overall, most people knew what they were doing and the process went smoothly.

I am not a firm believer of fish flash colors, size or shapes.  I have caught fish on just about every color, size and shape.  I even have a crew member that has caught more fish without fish flash.  I think it is more of what you believe in.  I am more of a believer of if the bait gets in front of a fish, it will bite it.  If the fish are there, we do tend to land a fair amount.

That all being said, I do have a go to fish flash, I call my “Hail Mary”.  On days when nothing seems to work, I will put this fish flash on and more times than not, I have gotten a bite.  Now, if I try to go out targeting fish with this go to fish flash, I usually get disappointed.  There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, but it does what it does.  Today was a different day.  We have been given this additional day on the lower Columbia and I have not landed a Springer yet.  It was time for the “Hail Mary” for sure.

My crew lineup today was Alex, “Dredger” Bob and Emery.  Good people and always fun to hang out with.  Sometimes, we even catch fish together.  🙂

Bob starts by telling us that we will not catch a fish unless we put a wager on it.  I am like “I have $5.  I am game.”  Bait on the hooks and lines in the water.  It is time to get this party started.

About an hour and a half into the day, I see two boats hook in shallow water.  I steer over to see what is over there.  We see a few other boats hookup around us.  It looks like a good school is coming through.  Bang!!!  My rod goes down.  I had my drag a little loose, so it took some time to get it to the boat.  As it rolls close to the boat, I can see it is a hatchery.  I am thinking to myself, “You better not loose this F@#$!% fish.”  I was finally able to get it into a nose up and led it to the net.  Emery with the awesome net job and we had one on the deck.  Pay up boys.  I won the wager and “Hail Mary” worked on this day.  🙂

Unfortunately, we could not find that same school on the next couple passes.  The bite turned off as fast as it turned on.

We tried another location and saw a couple fish caught.  We even had another bite, but it was gone after a quick little fight.

Now we turn our focus on the Willamette Springer fishing.

With the weather warming up a bit and tons of great fishing reports from some reliable sources on Thursday, I felt really good about hitting the water Friday.

Launched the boat in Ridgefield and came across a fella tied up to the dock that appeared to have a dead battery situation.  I tied up along side him and proceeded to hook up the jumper cables.  “Give it a go.”  Nothing.  Not even a click of the starter.  This guy tells me he is borrowing the boat and not 100% sure how the battery system is connected.  I take a look and we try 1, 2 and both on the battery selector and still nothing.  Luckily, I keep a pretty good tool set onboard with a volt meter.  I check the batteries and both are showing a complete charge.  I check connectors and all looks good.  The guy tells me thank you for trying and he knows I want to get out fishing, so off I go.

We are thinking at this time, with the good deed attempt, the fish gods might shine on us this day.   🙂

Come to find out, the boat belongs to a friend of mine I just met last week.  He was away on vacation and let his friend borrow the boat.  They did get the problem figured out.  The dead man switch on the throttle was pulled.  DOH!!!

We get out to the main stem and see nothing but boats as far as we can see.  This is Buoy 10 all over again.  Everyone must have gotten the same fishing report from the day before.  Long story short, we make pass after pass and do not even get a bite.  We watched at least 8 fish getting caught in front of us, behind us and all around us.  Considering all the boat traffic, the catch numbers were not all that great.  I guess the fish gods were not happy with us just trying to get that fisherman in need back on the water.  I bet if we found the dead man switch problem, my story would have ended on a much happier note.  🙂

Tomorrow is another day.  Fish on.

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.