After a morning fish, a beerfest is best

    September is a great time in Oregon. The salmon and steelhead are in the rivers, the trout are becoming more active, there is a crispness in the air and the food festivals are as abundant as the bounty.

    The favorite fall getaway for wife and I is the Skamania Lodge Celebration of Beer, an intimate festival featuring local brewers and generous pours at the beautiful Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington.

   We stay at the lodge so we can enjoy ourselves at the festival and not have to worry about driving the 50 minutes back to Portland.

     This is not a huge festival but instead one in which you can actually taste all the standard and seasonal brews offered the festival and then sit and enjoy a gorgeous view while drinking a glass or two of your favorite. You even get to keep the glass.

    Afterwards, you can pile on more calories at the lavish dinner buffet, get some relaxing sleep and then finish the weekend with a fabulous beer-focused breakfast buffet.

     This year our new dog Nik joined us at the festival. He was well behaved rolling over for tummy rubs for the various people who would come up and say "what a beautiful dog." It was the first time we have had him in a large public setting and we were pleased with his temperament with both adults and children. His was even a catalyst in our meeting several couples.

       After enjoying the various brews I grabbed a glass of my favorite dark beer and we sat down to take in the view of the gorge. After finishing most of the beer, I sat the glass down on the ground. When I looked down Nik had the glass and was trying to lick everything he could out of that mug - Nik likes beer!

       Back to the fishing... This year I left the kayak at home because I spent the morning doing more research on my quest to catch a sturgeon with a fly rod. I had been watching the tides for the past week and Saturday morning was shaping up to be a great opportunity try some new sinking lines and some new flies on the Willamette River.

       The results were that I need to do more research. But at the tide turn, I grabbed the 7-weight and went in search of smallmouth bass and was rewarded with several grabs, a lost fish and a nice fish that I brought to the Hobie Outback. It was a great morning and you can see the the video on my YouTube channel or clicking here..

What a great weekend - fish and beer.