The Columbia River is a major river; fourth largest river in the United States and a treacherous waterway for kayaks. There are strong currents, eddies and whirlpools, then add in the world famous Columbia Gorge wind, it’s a real challenge for even the most experienced kayaker. The ocean has tides, which are hard to paddle … Read more
The snow has finally melted and the roads are clear to the high country lakes in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Hoping the fish would be hungry after a long winter, we headed out past Trout Lake, WA and into the hills for the first time in 2012. The snow was gone, but the rain … Read more
Headed out early this morning to beat the wind for a quick kayak fishing session on Rowland Lake. It’s been pretty windy for the past week or so with rain showers drifting through. Since the trout fishing has been so good lately, that’s what we were looking for, but sorry to report that the trout … Read more
It’s been raining off and on for the past week, not torrential downpours or anything, just enough to get and keep everything wet. It hasn’t exactly been warm and it’s been windy as well. All you can do is be ready to go when there is a window of clear skies between storms and get … Read more
Another awesome day here in the Columbia River Gorge, sunny and mild wind. It was a little chilly out the door this morning, about 38°F, not boardshort weather quite yet. Since Northwestern Lake is history, we headed over to the other neighborhood fishing spot; Rowland Lake. Right off Washington route 14, pretty hard to miss. … Read more
The 2012 kayak fishing season is officially underway. Another long, cold, wet spring looks like it’s finally over and the beautiful Pacific Northwest summer has begun. Many of the lakes in the higher elevations are still covered with snow, but we can start in the valley and work our way up as weather permits. The … Read more
It’s been raining off and on for a week or so and it looks like more of the same for the upcoming week. However, even here in the rainy Pacific Northwest, the rain stops and the sun comes out. It was a sunny weekend and my friend Dan’s birthday, so he and a bunch of … Read more
After another long wet and cold spring, that looked a lot like winter, we are ready to get the kayaks back in the water and catch some fish. El Niño, La Niña, whatever, the winters have been really hanging on here the past few years. Today the temperature finally hit the mid 70’s, the next … Read more
On October 26, 2011, engineers blew a hole in the Condit Dam in Southwest Washington and emptied Northwestern Lake into the lower White Salmon River in order to remove the dam from the river and allow salmon and steelhead to migrate upstream to spawn. Northwestern Lake, the reservoir created upstream from the Condit Dam when … Read more
This year’s long, cold, wet spring has not been so good for kayak fishing. High water, at or near flood stage in the main rivers has made fishing there dangerous and the high country lakes, perfect for kayak fishing, have been snowed in until recently. Add to all that, it’s been really windy. All these … Read more