This past Saturday, which will now be referred to in future story telling as "the perfect spring fishing day" started with a thick fog covering the Columbia River - the type of fog that makes one thankful for every penny spent on GPS and river charts. At 6:30am, with a fresh cup of coffee in hand, EP and I dropped two plug cut green label herring into the river for the first down hill troll of the morning. By 6:37am, we had our first fish and 15lbs of chrome bright spring Chinook bleeding in the fish box... The first fish in what turned out to be
a limit for the day!
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| EP with a 15lb Columbia River Spring Chinook |
With an early morning high tide at 6:38am, our objective was to start the morning lower in the river and follow the slack up river. Fortunately, the tide wasn't the only thing on the rise as the outside temperature made it's way to the low 70's and the hot morning coffee was quickly replaced with an ice cold beverage.
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| 12lb Cookie Cutter Springer |
Every day of salmon fishing ultimately comes down to
one last pass. Most of the time it's that last chance to get the skunk off the boat for the day. Rarely, the last pass is a chance to fill the boat with a limit. With one fish to go for our limit, my nitrile bait gloves off, and the boat all washed down, I gave EP the last call; do we call it a day or take one more pass? One more pass!!!
As we motored up river for one last troll down river, I baited both rods with fresh herring along with a hint of garlic. About 3/4 the way down our last troll, my rod folded over - Fish on!!! What an experience to not only get my first boat limit of salmon but to hook into and land fish on both the first and last troll of the day. I was especially proud when the ODW fish checker at Chinook Landing had only counted 20 fish for 50 boats that day.
Once again, it's been a slow start to springer fishing with high water and weather conditions similar to 2011. The river was originally supposed to close on April 6th but was extended to the 13th and then again to the 22nd. Sadly, the Columbia officially closed Sunday just as the Bonneville Dam fish counts are really starting to take off. The run should materialize as predicted and I am hopeful ODFW and WDFW will open the river back up soon. Until then, you'll see my boat on the Willamette.
