Buoy 10 Fish Camp 2013

Just as quickly as a tide can change from high to low, a great fishing trip can come to an end. And when the boat comes out of the water on the final day of an amazing trip like the one we had last week in the Columbia River estuary, it can be downright traumatic. My 3rd annual Buoy 10 fish camp is in the books with memories of great fishing, daily limits of Chinook salmon, and quality time spent with an “A team” crew… if only it didn't have to go by so fast.

I think I won big fish of the trip!!!

2013 was my 5th season as captain of a sport fishing vessel in the saltwater of the Buoy 10 area which is the fishery between red buoy 10 at the mouth of the Columbia River upriver past Astoria, OR to Tongue Point. Each year, salmon fishing the estuary makes it on the home calendar of events early in the year and with 2013’s projection of 677,900 Chinook/Kings and 501,100 Coho/Silvers (that’s well over 1 million fishing entering the river this fall), anticipation for fish camp 2013 has been red-lined all summer. Joining me for camp this year with high expectations were buoy 10 veterans Papa Dave and Tabasco Todhunter.

The first day brought my most favorable tide of the series and the statistics show for it. 14 fish hooked with 10 making it all the way to the boat before being bonked or released. We caught our keeper Chinook early and put some work in for Coho/Silvers to round out the salmon limit but couldn’t keep the nooks off the line… good problem to have I suppose. This year, I tried out a new herring method and was pleased that 13 of the 14 fish came on herring and only one on my go-to spinner. With so much action on herring, our first evening required a quick trip to the pub for dinner and beers before heading back to camp to tie up more leaders.

Dave couldn't lift it!!

The second day had a slightly later tide change but the game plan for the flood tide was a carbon copy of day 1. Early morning currents were a bit funky so twice I had to watch Dave and Todhunter untangle their lines. Once they quit messing around and we got settled, fishing picked up with 9 fish hooked on the day, keeping only our allowed Chinook limit. With spinners contributing more to the hooked fish on day 2, pressure on a herring presentation were reduced so we had time to hit the Rogue Brewery for dinner and bypass the need to tie more leaders.

Day three was hot… in the sense it took all our might to not bail on fishing and just jump in the river to cool off. With a later tide, it took a bit longer to get our fish but we caught our 3 Chinook and got out of dodge. The Coho/Silver reports we were getting indicated that it was just a bit too early in the month to find Coho in the river. We weren't prepared to cross the bar for a few Coho so Buoy 10 fish camp came to a close.

Overall, we hooked into 26 fish in 3 days, bringing limits of Chinook home each day. More important than the fish now frozen in my freezer is the quality time spent with great people.  I've fished with these two guys quite a bit over the years and the stories and the memories made never get old.  As wrap this post up, I am heading out the door to float the Deschutes River with a couple fly rods.... but all I can think about is Buoy 10 Fish Camp 2014 which is only 358 days away.  Better start tying leaders soon!