After a few days of not a lot of salmon fishing action, the tables turned and I managed to catch the first three salmon of the year. Unfortunately, they were all native fish so they were all released unharmed. This really hurt because one huge Chinook salmon was easily over twenty pounds. It was quite a battle and an even bigger struggle getting it unhooked. More than 80% of the salmon in the Columbia River are hatchery fish, so to catch three wild fish on one day, while disappointing as far as salmon for dinner goes, is pretty unusual. Someday, there will be no wild salmon in the river, so I guess at least I was able to catch a few. For some reason, the area we fish has a lot of native salmon. This is good to see but is probably one of the reasons the spot is not as popular as others.
No video or photos this time around. Besides being early in the morning and probably too dark for video, I usually wait until I catch a fish or two before getting the camera gear out. Wish I could have had video of that big Chinook though. At least if you have to release the fish, you have something look at later. I definitely lose a few fish by messing around with the cameras so I want to catch a couple before I start losing them by playing with the cameras.
Now that the fishing is getting good, of course the wind has picked up and there won’t be any kayak fishing for a day or two. Funny how nature kind of takes care of itself. We are sure looking forward to getting back on the water. Salmon season is off and running!