Son of an Okie
07-23-2001, 10:25 AM
Sometimes it's nice to just leave the boat at home. Last weekend was one of those times.
Crawled out of bed at 3:30 on Saturday, filled the thermos with coffee and headed for the Nestucca River. Fished from Beaver up past Blaine. Managed to nail a nice hatchery steelhead on a #3 Blue Fox spinner, 8-pound test and an old Wright-McGill trout rod at about 6:30. Had the whole river to myself below Blaine which was a surprise. Lots of cut-throat in the river. Home by noon.
Had asked my 11-year-old son if he wanted to go on Saturday, he chose to stay home. Guess who beat who out of bed Sunday morning? Sunday found two steelhead interested in the same Blue Fox spinner, one hatchery, one native. Set the hook on the native and gave the rod over to the boy. Couldn't have given him a better fish to fight on light tackle. Shared the river with one other angler between Blaine and Beaver, home by 11AM.
I don't mind loading up the boat, launching, fishing the Columbia all day, and getting home after dark with fish to clean and a boat to put away; but sometimes it gets to be too much. This weekend's return to the basics was one I won't forget for a long time. Think I'll go back to the Nestucca next weekend too and save the Columbia for later days. images/icons/cool.gif
Crawled out of bed at 3:30 on Saturday, filled the thermos with coffee and headed for the Nestucca River. Fished from Beaver up past Blaine. Managed to nail a nice hatchery steelhead on a #3 Blue Fox spinner, 8-pound test and an old Wright-McGill trout rod at about 6:30. Had the whole river to myself below Blaine which was a surprise. Lots of cut-throat in the river. Home by noon.
Had asked my 11-year-old son if he wanted to go on Saturday, he chose to stay home. Guess who beat who out of bed Sunday morning? Sunday found two steelhead interested in the same Blue Fox spinner, one hatchery, one native. Set the hook on the native and gave the rod over to the boy. Couldn't have given him a better fish to fight on light tackle. Shared the river with one other angler between Blaine and Beaver, home by 11AM.
I don't mind loading up the boat, launching, fishing the Columbia all day, and getting home after dark with fish to clean and a boat to put away; but sometimes it gets to be too much. This weekend's return to the basics was one I won't forget for a long time. Think I'll go back to the Nestucca next weekend too and save the Columbia for later days. images/icons/cool.gif