Non Combat

[Wannabe]

My wife let me fish Sunday when our cold front arrived. I was fishing the Willy above the falls and it was ever so awesome. I saw one ski boat and two boats fishing for bass! In the morning and evening the water was just like glass and was awesome. Fishing was good too. We may have had a fifty fish or better day with half of those or more in the pound to three pound class. Not huge ... but very enjoyable. Tight lines.
<)))><

[lightline]

wannabe: It was a fun day on the
water. Thanks for jerking the
hook out of my finger. You did a
much better job on me than I did on
you. I appreciate it,( for not getting even). Tight lines.

[hawgcatcher]

There is nothing like a beautiful early morning trip on the upper Willamette to fish Bass. A smooth water with no ripples and just a slight mist, drifting across.

You reach the Rock Island area and slow to drift in. A Blue Heron watches you from a log near shore. Waiting to see if you are going to bother his fishing. He ducks his head and he comes up with a bluegill and with a flip of his head it goes down.

In the air, you can smell the fragrances of fall coming on. The leaves turn various colors so very fast. The sounds of redwing blackbirds warble through the bushes. A pair of mink, run through the brush, rolling and playing. On the island, the crackle of brush indicates a deer out for it's early morning feed.

A gentle cast with a light grub on four pound spinning line, sails it to the shore line. It sinks. A twitch, then another and the line starts off to one side. You dip your rod and when the line becomes taunt, a snap and the hook is set. Can it be the big smallmouth or maybe the bullheaded largemouth?

In a moment, you feel the fisty tug of a smallmouth that thinks he is ten pounds but in reality, only a half pounder. You don't care. He comes in and you release him with a wish for him to get bigger. A swirl and he is gone. He will fight again.

A day of this type of fishing can only come occasionally. Each day should be cherished and remembered, not for the big one, not for the tournament win, but just for the wonderful time you had with the quiet solitude and the time you spent enjoying the things you normally would wisk by.

Good Bassin.

[Crashin' Bait]

Your a true poet, Hawgcatcher.

[BassMan]

Very well put Hawg. I have been fishing the back side of the island up river from rogers landing (newberg) and doing well. Water is like glass and no one around. Tight lines to all!

jb

[Wannabe]

Yup...there's nothing quite like fall in the air. My favorite time of the year. I just wish it didn't go by so fast. Oh and lightline..the hook came out easy. You must have been doing alot of dishes lately as it came out real easy!
<)))><

[rebell]

Hawg just explained bass fishing in the northwest as well as it can be. Bassin in the northwest is probably one of the best kept secrets in the world.

Lightline, glad to hear wannabe was there to help you out. Digging hooks out of your hand is one painfull experience. I have had them in my ear (cleint in Alaska) both hands and in my arm, It HURTS no matter where they end up.

Good fishin to all bassers out there, but im afraid the Tillamook Hawgs have called a little louder this year to me. Im headin towards the coast for some slimers.

[Paddlefish]

Nice capture, Hawgcatcher! I hope you released that day to be re-lived again. :grin:

I've got a photo alongside my desk at work: my two sons, ages 6 and 15, on a fall canoe venture with me along the Willamette below the falls: low water, glassy calm, no other river users: perfect. And we weren't even fishin! (Now that the older one has dealt with a 3-lb. smallmouth on his line, he's a changed kid. :cool: )

By the way, the heron you mentioned must not be the same one I know: this one followed us until we started throwing him undersized crappies. (I think he nearly followed us home.) :smile:

[hawgcatcher]

I grew up in Oregon City. I fished bass when very few others did. When I was a teenager (phew so many years ago) I used to fish the Rock Island area and grew to love it. I learned it's secrets and where and how to get the fish. I found that a Rapala on light line would catch so many that I would be tired. The evenings came and just before dark, a jitterbug or hula popper, fished ever so slowly, would make a bass knock the plug clear out of the water.

I found backwaters that held schools of bluegill and crappie. A couple of dozen nightcrawlers (gotten from the neighbors lawn), would catch fish all day.

In those days, the mills used to shove rafts of logs into the area and leave them for a couple of years or more. We would walk on them in spawning season and fish the holes that were made by the ends of the logs being tied together. A surface plug tossed into one of these would get a rise out of the Bass and if we were lucky, we would land him.

One time a friend's father came along. He saw a big bass lying just under the surface, guarding a nest on the end of a log. He never fished but that day, he got one of my friend's poles and a treble hook. He was going to snag him. Well he dropped the hook in on top of the fish and it flipped around and bit the hook. Out came a four pound largemouth. We just sat there and laughed.

So many good things happened there. It was a beautiful place to learn bass fishing and to grow up. I wonder if there are places like this that the teens of today can enjoy? I hope so.

:wink:

[Paddlefish]

Hawgman,

That Rock Island area is still a great place to take your family and enjoy a great day on the river. Personally, my family has been more into the canoeing in the area, rather than any serious fishing (unlike me. :wink: ) They especially enjoy the small islands on the west side of the river. They almost don't fit into the "Willamette Valley / western Oregon" ecology. The whole nature of the river seems to change under those powerlines: dry, arid, rocky landscapes, with madrona trees all 'round, channels which can barely float a canoe, hidden lagoons which make for nice skinny-dipping :shocked: , diving from rocks into narrow, rock-lined canyons, agates along the rockier beaches, plenty of mandatory skippping rocks, and try explaining to a 5-year-old why there's a coyote skeleton on one of the small islands. (I could only guess.)

Great spot. See ya' out there some time. :cool: