One season comes to a close and another one opens

October marks the end of the Columbia salmon season at the fish move east of The Dalles and out of my kayak range. On the first weekend of October, I enjoyed a great kayak on a windless cloudy day, but the people catching fish had bait on the end of their lines. 

The day did give me the opportunity to check out my new outfit - an 8-foot 12 weight with 300 yards of 30-pound Amnesia running line and 30-feet of Rio T17 as my shooting head. Of course, this is all loaded on one of my 1498 USA-made Pflueger reel. My goal - sturgeon on a fly rod. 

My first run with the outfit was rewarded with a fish - a Northern Pike minow. But it was a fish. I also got my fly caught on the bottom of the river at 30-plus feet. That's good news since my goal is to fish the deeper holes. Check out the video. And notice the fishing glove by Waterworks/Lamson. The glove is critical when working with running line.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Starting The Season With A New Fleet

Image
The blog has received little love over the past year, so it was time to write a post. It's not that I have been fishing less, it's that I haven't taken the time to post and work on the videos. The 2022 salmon season was not nearly as epic as the 2021 season especially with the limited fall salmon season. This was mainly due to a unique hatchery Tule Chinook salmon return where the Spring Creek Hatchery upstream of Bonneville Dam had about 100,000 Chinook return - twice the average. The Tule is an endangered species in the rivers below Bonneville Dam and due to some complicated issues,  caused a closure in the lower Columbia River during the height of the season. Hobie PA17t The 2023 salmon season is off to an unseasonably cold start with winter holding on and March coming in like a lion and going out like a lion. No lambs this year. Hopefully better days await in April and beyond. I did reorganize my fleet buying and selling some kayaks while still ending up with a tandem,
Read more

A Productive Salmon Season in a Year of Low Returns

Image
This year has proven one of my best yet for putting salmon in the kayak. After a slow start in March and April, I hooked eight and landed six spring Chinook "Springers" on the Willamette River. All were hatchery fish and most were 30-plus inches. They were all caught with my red and orange hand-tied spinners and Pro-Troll 360 flashers. The Springers were caught in May and June, typically the end of the season. These two months seem to be my most productive. Two years ago, I landed six, and had two, two-fish days. This year, I never hooked two fish on the same day, although I had more days catching fish. Most days were spent focusing on the tide changes, and I was usually off the water by noon. I was fortunate because the run was about 25 percent lower than expected and many anglers had a rough season. I spent July fishing for smallmouth bass in the Willamette and Columbia, and spent a few days in August anchored in the Columbia fishing for fall kings. The fall season p
Read more

The 2021 Fishing Season Recap

Image
Welcome to the 2021 kayak fishing season recap. Last season was exceptional with lots of salmon on the kayak, a few trout on the fly rod, and a nice halibut on the boat.  I spent most of my time fishing the Willamette and Columbia rivers with my friend Mark. Fishing less than 30 minutes from home in a kayak also reduced my carbon footprint, especially when transporting the kayak on my 16-year-old Ford Escape hybrid.  Fishing close to home also allowed fishing trips before and after work, which were key to my success in 2021. The season highlights included fishing in five different Hobie kayaks and catching salmon in four of them and hooking salmon in all five. This season also included two friends and my brother catching their first salmon in the kayak, fishing a new area with new techniques, and earning a limit of a king and a coho before noon.  Although I would hook more than 30 fish this season, I only landed 24 and tagged 19, falling just one short of filling my salmon tag. Most
Read more