We’ve been having pretty good success fishing for steelhead on the Columbia River this year; a couple big fish, probably the biggest steelhead I’ve ever caught. Most of these fish have been native steelhead, they are great fighters and fun to catch, but they are strictly catch and release. The good news is that for the past week or so, salmon have started showing up in pretty good numbers, both chinook and coho. It’s early in the salmon run, most of the fish are still silvery and in great fighting shape.
Yesterday, I opened the account on the 2014 salmon fishing season with a huge coho salmon. This fish, probably in the twenty five pound range, put up a fantastic fight, towing my kayak around for over a quarter mile. It was a hatchery salmon, so there is a lot of fresh salmon on the menu.
The fishing conditions are getting a little tougher, lots of boats in a very small area of river. Recently, there have been more “guide” boats; big boats with six or eight people that really clog things up. Most of the guides, especially the local guys, are pretty considerate, but some of these “guides” are pretty much jerks. One guide showed up well after sunrise with a boat full of guys flinging cigarette butts over the side. He promptly started drifting his boat straight through the lineup of anchored boats that were bottom fishing and within ten minutes of arriving, he had snagged my line. When I asked him to give me a little more room, the “guide” led his clients in a chorus of profanity and verbal abuse. This jerkball spent the entire morning ruining everyone else’s day while only catching a couple small fish. Weak.
Anyway, we’ll be back out there tomorrow to try again. Got this coho battle on video and still working on the steelhead clip. Stay tuned.