Saturday, October 21, 2006




What do you do in Oregon when the carp aren't biting? You fish for Salmon! Well, I'm pretty sure I could have caught carp today, but I finally gave in and fished for something other than carp. I had a great day chasing Coho with my friend Patrick. He only fished a few hours and hooked up with one, but it was a beautiful day to be on the river. There were fish all over the river. Patrick left before they got really active, but he still hooked up once. I fished from 12 to about 5pm, not exactly prime time hours for Salmon, but someone forgot to tell the fish. I ended up hooking somewhere between 15-18 fish, and landed 10 total. One of the 10 was a jack though, and another was a huge chinook in the 20 lb range. Frankly, it wasn't much fun to catch. That fish was just too big and slow, and it was a long tug of war with little excitement to it. Really neat to see a fish like that up close though.
My goal for the day was actually to catch a big old hook jawed male. I've just always wanted a picture of one all colored up like they get. I finally did hook one today, and fought him up and down the river. I was fishing above some rapids, and every fish seemed to run in and out of the boulders, making me run around like an idiot trying to hang onto them. I lost a bunch of fish in those boulders, but held onto enough to make it fun! It really was a great day, and it was fun to fish water that moves that fast! I'll be back to the carp in no time though. Despite landing 10 really nice fish, I didn't get to see my backing today!

3 comments:

Wendy Berrell said...

What a cool fish. I'd like to do that some time... tough to get to all the fishing ideas one generates.

John Montana said...

You really need to come out here and try the coho run one year. It can get crowded at times, but I always have enough water and when the fish are in there can be many exciting moments! Plus, how often can you catch a 10-15 lb fish in a river?

Anonymous said...

I would give my right arm to have the fishing you guys have.

The UK is so over fished these days, there is very little quality left at all.

Thank god we have BASS and thank god many fishermem return under sized fish

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