fishing report - Columbia

[SteelieSteve]

Who was lucky out there today? I saw the news looked like a real zoo. More boats than OC.

[ 04-18-2001: Message edited by: SteelieSteve ]

Very slow in the Frenchman's Bar area today. [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[columbia fisher]

My husband and I were out for the last day at
Jones Beach just on the outskirts of Clatskanie. We have been bank fishing as well as many other locals are.From about 9:30am until roughly noon nothing had been caught.Then from noon until dark four had been caught but only two were keepers.It has been real disapointing around here.Last week when we were told fishing was open til the end of April I felt we had hopes of landing at least one fish.But with the closing until? Has anyone else had such luck this season? [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[SteelieSteve]

I put some time in on Reeder beach last weekend. Saw 1 keeper taken on Saturday and nothing Sunday. If we are lucky we will get another few days this year. [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[Penn]

Went to Bonniville all day Monday, Pretty much either hold-line heaven or major parking lot near the line at Tanner Creek. Not much caught considering the number of boats. Bank guys on the Wash. side were out fishing the boats. Pretty funny.. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[bait boy]

Slow slow slow. last thursdsay we saw over 20 fishin our line. Monday and Tuesday I only saw 2 fish for the day both days.

Rick

[ryan fish]

The Salmon was very elusive for Me this Spring I fished Social Security,Jones,Prescott,Kalama bars Put in way over 100 hrs. and never had one hit.I guess mrdorkfish and I had our luck last fall. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[FishinMission]

I was in the Washougal area yesterday from about 12:30 p.m. til 5:30 p.m. We landed 5 fish..2 keepers. And I couldn't even get into my favorite little slot. There were 4 boats anchored there. None of them were in the same position I've been. We saw the 4 boats hook 2 fish. And we did see a few fish "on" in other nearby areas.

[Ramstrong]

Rippenlips and I fished Monday below bonneville got there late and it was a gong show at the deadline, and below tanner creek you were hog lining it or backtrolling on the outside and it was a gong show as well. Eric Linde was putting on a clinic using Eggs, and others fishing eggs were bathing in blood, but as David Johnson stated in his post about tuesday there were always fish on while we were there.
We didn't have eggs so we headed down and found an open spot in a hog line. To our amazement in the boat next to us was Buzz Ramsey. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] They had 3 to the boat before we got there and caught 2 more while we were there. They were fishing 4 rods at first then 5 later when Buzz's wife arrived. I got 2 to the boat (1 clipped), broke one off at hookset (I lost my k-14 that was the hot plug) and missed one takedown. Rippenlips missed his two chances.
It was a blast fishing next to Buzz, he seems like a good guy, I don't know who's boat he was fishing in but he also was a very nice guy and we had a lot of fun.

Now the serious stuff. What a dangerous day, we witnessed 1 capsized boat a little car topper that appeared to flip while anchoring, both occupants made it out of the water in one piece and alive though neither was wearing a life jacket. 1 person almost got pitched out of the boat while trying to untangle his anchor rope from the kicker. And finally one guy who was attempting to anchor and wasn't paying attention to his position, everyone in the line started yelling at him that he was drifting into our anchor ropes. He heard everyone too late and drifted over our anchor rope, the anchor ball got wedged between his outdrive and boat and he slid down the rope until he came to rest against our boat. The good news was that our anchor held, and the whole mess didn't go drifting into the line below us. The guy in the boat finally was able to untange the anchor ball and he drifted downstream, scratching the heck out of the side of Rippenlips' boat along the way. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] We were still in crisis mode as he drifted and then motored off so we didn't have the presence of mind to get a boat number. But he seemed very familiar to both of us, so we will likely be seeing him again at OC, and this time we'll be ready to document names and #'s. So it was a good day for me, not so good for Rippenlips. At least I got dinner.

[Son of an Okie]

Hey Ramstrong,

That was my brother and me that pulled those guys out of the river. They were trying to pull anchor from the back cleat and the motor died..... They were alive but VERY cold when I took them to the fishery dock. It was a son with his retired dad in a 12 foot Valco anchored in 25 feet of water with maybe 8 inches of freeboard. I don't think they'll be back up there in that boat. Motor came off the transom when it flipped over, it's probably down by the green marker or shad rack by now. Got a lot of their stuff back but lost anything that wouldn't float including their rods and reels. Corps of Engineers showed up after I had them on board and trying to tow their boat back. They were helpful, took over the boat salvage part of the process.

On the fishing report side, limits and a matching number of wild fish on spinners; copper blades with ruby red beads and hammerback gold blades with chartruse beads; that was on Monday. Went back Tuesday and could only manage two wild fish in the MUCH faster current.

It was fun while it lasted, but I can now wait for 'em to show up close to home. That's a long drive up there matched with an almost as long wait to launch. Did get some exercise though, the shortest walk to and from the truck was about a quarter mile...

Fished out of Newberg on Sunday morning and saw one steelhead almost caught across the river, no bites for the Okie's two sons. Need a week of warm weather and about 5 more degrees on the water temp.

May try the channel on Thursday and Friday, still have some frozen green label herring left.

[FishinMission]

Hey Oakie..I'll be out Milwaukie way tomorrow...watch for my report.

[Ramstrong]

OK Okie, so it was you guys I handed the net over to. Yeah, they seemed to be appreciative to be out of the water. Glad you werer there to render aid.

[dawhunt]

Hi,yesterday was the first day,i got skunked,I've got a total of 5 keepers and 6 natives,I was lucky enough to get at least one fish a day and on monday my friend and I both limited.I thought yesterday was the slowest day I've seen in a long time.There was about 100 boats where I was at,I only saw 7 fish caught and 5 of them were natives.I hope they hope the river back up before the run is over.
Bob [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[Son of an Okie]

Bob, I've fished up there quite a bit for the August/September show. When they open up the gates on Bonneville and that current gets moving so fast it pretty much shuts things down. If you can find some softer water, that helps. We had quite a few bites Tuesday afternoon that found everything but hook. How those salmon can hit a spinner and not find a #1 treble, I can't figure out. Saw a couple of boats down next to the shad rack on the inside (in that softer water) that were scoring, but was too lazy to move myself. Still a nice day on the river though, at least no one else capsized.

[Moleman]

Hey Penn; I was up to Tanner at 1pm on Tues. and saw at least 50 fish caught in one hour, and still going crazy when I left and came back later. Don't know who was there but it was solid fish from where I was right at the dam!

[fishbait]

Fished Bonneville Monday, started about 1PM and both of us were punched out within an hour. Tues started about 1/2 after light, 60 min + wait to launch, at 10:30 I had 2 and my two buddies had one each, they finally punched out early afternoon, I left to go to work at 11:00. Lots of boats and lots of fish, I sure hope that we don't have to eait 20+ years to get this fishery again. Released my first non-fin clipped fish on Tues, all others have been clipped.