NW Outdoor Explorer

Launched from the Ridgefield ramp on this day.  I initially wanted to slip into the Multnomah Channel but decided last minute to head up river to Davis Bar.  It gave me a chance to run the motors good and get some fresh fuel thorough the system.  I had to replace a thermostat in one of my motors and it appears to be working well.  It was stuck open.  I will have to replace the other one on the next maintenance to be proactive as I am coming up on 800 hours and items like these are starting to fail.  Well, 20 minutes later, we arrive on the scene.  Next time, I will probably trailer a little closer.  🙂

We started with a spread of our normal flasher and cut plug herring setup.  Chartreuse flashers and natural herring for anyone that is wondering.  Heavy weights and bouncing the bottom.  For Springers, if you are not on the bottom, you are not fishing.  Especially true on the outgoing tide.  At least, that is my experience and I have been known to catch a fish or two.  🙂

The boat traffic in the area was pretty heavy.  We made a few passes and were not seeing any action in our boat or any others for that matter.  We talked to people and it seemed that today was going to be a tough grind.  We were on our sixth pass.  I came across another guide boat with one client in it.  He was a guy I knew and we started talking.  About a minute into our conversation, I here from the other side of our boat “FISH ON!!!”  I look over and line is getting pulled out at a steady pace.  “Are you sure?  It looks like you are snagged.”  About that time, the head shakes start.  We are all very excited for this being our first springer on a day where it appeared that nobody was having very good luck.  “Better not lose that fish Fred.”  🙂  This fish was a hard puller and made a few runs, but we eventually got it in the net.  The fish gods smiled on us this day.  It was a hatchery.

We had three other bites throughout the day, but nothing stuck.  We felt honored and will take anything we can get, especially early in the season.

It is finally time to come out of hibernation!

Life got in the way of much of my Winter Steelhead fishing this year.  The itch needs to be scratched.

ODFW/WDFW announced the Spring salmon season for the Columbia River which started yesterday March 1st and is set to run through April 7th.

There have been a few reports of a couple fish being caught in the system already.  The excitement is building.  My 1st mate and I decided to do a shakedown run with the boat and hope to luck onto an early Chinook ourselves.

My gear is relatively modest.  I run Okuma 9′ 6″ SST Salmon rods with Shimano Tekota 500LC reels on my boat.  I line my reels with 65# Tuf-Line braid.  This year at the Sportsman show, I came across these 200# mono bumper leaders I thought I would give a try connecting my flashers to the main line.  They come in different lengths.  I went with the 24″ and 30″ bumpers.  On one side of the boat, we used the typical Shortbus flasher and cut plug herring.  On the other side of the boat, we rigged the Shortbus 360 flasher and a Superbait stuffed with tuna and some sauce.

With Ridgefield, WA now as my new home port, we picked up our annual pass and launched at the Ridgefield boat ramp.  We headed out to the Columbia where the water temp was a chilly 40.2 degrees.  The weather was mid 40’s and overcast with occasional rain squalls.  The first of the Spring Chinook tend to head up the Willamette River via the Multnomah Channel so that is where we started. We trolled the incoming through the high tide.   We had one rod get a quick hit, but it was no surprise that we ended the day with no blood on the deck.  It is still early.  🙂

This is part three of a three part post. Be sure to continue to the other posts for the full process.

Continued from yesterday……

This part of the process takes the most time.  Be ready for a long day to monitor the smoking process and adjust as needed.

I pull the fish out of the brine, drain and put on racks to dry for an hour or so.  I do not rinse the meat like some others do.  Let dry long enough for the liquid to start to form a glaze on the top.

You don’t need high heat.  110-130 is perfect if you are using a smokehouse or smoker that you can regulate the temp.  I use a traeger and the average smoke temp is about 150.  For me, it is perfect for a set it and forget it setup.  I have not had any complaints.  🙂  Smoke for a minimum of 6-8 hours, but time can vary quite a bit depending on outside temps.  During the colder winter months, I have to wrap an insulated blanket around my traeger to keep it from getting too cold on smoke mode and shutting off.  There is a learning curve in determining when it is done as the fish is moist and not dry.  It will usually bubble some fat up and get flaky.  I know by touch.  I try to put like thickness pieces together so I can take individual racks out when they are done and leave the others.  I use hickory pellets in my traeger and the flavor is pretty tasty.  You can use any flavor wood of your choice.

When done, remove from the smoker and let rest.  At this point, it is extremely difficult for me to resist snacking.  🙂

I put the finished product in a container and refrigerate over night before vac-u-sealing and freezing.

This is part two of a three part post. Be sure to continue to the other posts for the full process.

Continued from yesterday……

Now, the salmon has been thawed, de-boned and sliced, it is time for the brine.  Again, this recipe can be found with a simple Google search.

This is the recipe that won the Fish Alaska Challenge a few years ago.  It was judged amongst several hundred entries and won by a mile.

Here is the dry brine.

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

Yoshida’s original

Thoroughly mix the dry rub in a big bowl.  Use a separate waterproof container with a lid to brine the salmon.  One that you can turn over and upside down.  I use a five gallon bucket but it can be smaller.  Start layering the fish.  First layer is skin down and flesh up.  Liberally (I use about two cups between layers) spread a layer of dry brine over the flesh side then lay another layer of fish on top of the dry brine but place this layer flesh down or flesh against flesh.  Continue to layer skin to skin and flesh to flesh. You only need to use the dry brine between the flesh sides.  Continue till finished, then add 2 cups of Yoshida’s sauce to the top of the bucket and close.  If you can keep in a frig great… if not, its ok.  I leave it in the garage or outside if it is colder out but not in heat.  Turn the bucket upside down every couple hours as liquid forms.  I’ll let soak for 18-24 hours.  I think I like to soak 24 or even a little more if the fish is borderline thicker.

Continue to Step 3 post……..

This is part one of a three part post. Be sure to continue to the other posts for the full process.

I am about to reveal my newly discovered super secret smoked salmon recipe.

Well, it is not that secret.  A simple Google search for ‘Award Winning Alaska Smoked Salmon’ will expose the recipe.  It was actually shown to me by my friend Jason.  The secret part is how I tweaked it to my preference and what I use to smoke it.

This is a several day process and I will walk you through it one day at a time.  Step 1 is the meat selection, thaw, de-bone and slice to prep for brine.

I prefer Chinook (King) salmon when I smoke it.  The oil rich meat makes for a super moist finished product as compared to the other species of salmon I have tried.  Spring Chinook is the holy grail of smoked salmon in my opinion.  The oil content is so high, it is just dripping with oil when I pull it out of the smoker.  At first, I refused to smoke spring Chinook because it seemed like such a waste to not just cook it up and eat it.  I have since been enlightened.

I always de-bone all of my filets when preparing to smoke.  I have found it easier to pull the pin bones after the meat has been frozen, so I will almost always freeze the salmon first.  I have a pair of kitchen needle nose pliers that are my tool of choice when pulling the pin bones.  It takes a little practice to squeeze just hard enough to pull the bone without pinching it off.  I am still practicing.  🙂

Now it is time to slice the filet into strips.  Because the Chinook usually tends to be extremely thick across the back, I cut it into 1″ slices to get the right brine/smoke to meat ratio.  If you cut it too thick, it starts to get more like cooked salmon than smoked and if you cut it too thin, it gets more like jerky.

Continue to Step 2 post……..

We all know that person that tells tall tails and maybe stretches the truth a bit.  Well, this is my tall tail, but with photo proof.  🙂

This is not a monster by any means, but it is the biggest fish I have caught so far.

It could easily have been exaggerated to 50+ lbs, but it actually weighed in at only about 35 lbs.

It was a company event.  We chartered several boats out of Astoria.  Some boats ventured out to the ocean and some stayed in the river.  I got assigned to a boat that remained in the river and we fished above tongue point.  Our deckhand chose to just use divers and spinners that day.  It seems that many of the charter captains like to keep it simple so they are not tied up with rigging bait on everyone’s line.  Simple worked for us that day for sure.  Only two fish were caught on our boat.  This trophy and my buddy Lee caught one just a pound or so less that day as well.

That was a great day fishing.  I have been chasing that bigger one ever sense.