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.

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

2021 Fishing Season Salmon No. 5 and 6

Image
Welcome back to the 2021 kayak fishing season recap.  It's now the waning of summer and Mark and I focused our efforts on the Columbia as the Fall King season gets underway. We are still close enough to home that I have time to fish a couple hours before work, keeping our carbon footprint low and putting extra hours on the water. Salmon No. 5 - After July, the action moved from the Willamette River to the Columbia River. I caught a nice jack king during an early trip and tagged No. 5 on a trip before work on August 23. We were still using spinners and Pro Trolls but we can only fish one rod in the Columbia. The video features a look at the jack first and finishes with the big fall king.  Salmon No. 6 - Number 6 was caught on another trip before work and it was the biggest of the season at that point. My trips before work start in the dark and last about 2 hours before I need to be at the shop by 9 a.m. I have a little wiggle room with the 9 a.m. start, but this year I ma...
Read more

2021 Fishing Season Salmon No. 3 and 4

Image
Welcome back to the 2021 kayak fishing season recap.  Summer was in its glory and Mark and I took taking advantage of the waning Willamette River Springer season by fishing less than 30 minutes from home.  Salmon No. 3 - The third salmon was caught the day after my halibut trip with Don. Halibut, as well as tuna trips, are often 18 to 24 hour days that begin at 1 or 2 a.m. to drive to the coast and launch the boat before daybreak head 20 to 40 or more miles offshore, and then fish hard until, hopefully, everyone limits out. Then it’s back to the launch to clean the fish before driving back. For this king, I was able to get a few hours of sleep before heading to the Willamette River. I am currently working on the halibut video.  Salmon No. 4 - Number four was another trip after work. This one was caught about two miles from the launch, which was located under the St. John's Bridge. The trip back was a slog since it was against the current, but the sunset, and the king, ma...
Read more