Oregon
fishing.
Every year, rivers in
Oregon receive different runs of salmon
and
steelhead fresh out of
the ocean. I happen to live a mile from
a
river that receives
five different species of fish. Spring
Chinook,
Summer Steelhead,
Winter Steelhead, Coho or Silver Salmon, and
Tule
Salmon.
I fish the river year
round and expect to catch fish every time I go. I've fished for salmon
and steelhead for the past forty-five years, so my confidence
is high.
As fall approaches the
expected run of Silvers start to enter the river. The water is low and clear
so we must use a drift boat or walk
the bank to find the
fish. A boat is the most productive way to
fish
as most of the property
is private. A drift boat is a dory type
boat
that you row and is
used in white water rivers. Controlling the
boat
by oars and rowing
backwards to position your self to go through
the
rapids. Most of our
boats are manufactured from aluminum
or
fiberglass. Hitting
rocks are common but the boats are made
to
withstand the bad
treatment.
As my son and I are
putting the boat in in the dark, the
conversation is about whether we think its going
to be a "fishy" day or not.
The
weather has been hot
with clear skies and the river is gin clear
also,
making the fish spooky.
As we are drifting
along down river to the
first hole we see
schools of fish in the tail outs on the move
upstream
to
their spawning grounds...10 to 20 fish
scattering, I cast a spinner but no takers. We are heading for
a deep hole that has huge boulders that the fish hold
in.
Dropping anchor quietly
we position ourselves to get the best drift
with
our
bait and spinners. We are using a # 3 and 4
spinner on one rod, and bait (cured eggs) on another.
Silvers will chase a spinner, so many times you'll see them take
the lure...very exciting. Within
minutes we have a fish
on,
on eggs, its a Jack salmon, called a Jack because all of them are small one
year male salmon, 12 to 20 inches.
The bait usually must
be close or on the bottom as the offering
is
drifted through the
hole. Then we hook and land a adult of about 8
lb.
on
eggs. Nothing for the next hour so we move down
river, its a drift of about eight mile to where we
take the boat out.
As we drift along we
are casting spinners to any water that looks
like
it
could hold fish....fish on, and off. We anchored
the boat again as these fish hold in schools.
Casting to the area that I hooked and lost the fish we have another fish on.
Its a bright female ripe with fresh roe that will be cured for other
fishing trips down the road.
Landing it makes #2 for the morning. Jacks
do not count as adults, you may harvest 10 jacks and two adults
per person per day. A hour later we have landed two more Jacks and
head down the river again.
Stopping in the next
deep hole the fish are jumping and rolling ... driving us
fisherman crazy! First Cast from my son with
a
spinner he's into a
fish...it's a steelhead.
Steelhead usually hold
in
straight moving water of 2 to 6 ft
deep, salmon hold in deep back currents or swirling water. I
think this Steelhead wanted to be a salmon as he was in swirling
water...a "want to be".
As my son was bringing him within 5 foot of the
boat ready for me to net him he started jumping, 2-4-5 times out
of the water with only 5 foot of line off the tip of his rod. We started
laughing and giggling like a couple of kids, its those types of fish
that keep me going back.
We got another fish of 6-8 pounds out of
the same hole and headed on down the river. Three adult salmon, one steelhead
that wanted to be a salmon, and a few Jacks.
The best part of the
whole trip was being with my son, laughing
and
kidding each other. The
BBQ was pretty darn good also.
Sharp
hooks,
Pat
Holdzit Products,
Inc.
