I have my bait, gear is tied and boat is ready. All I'm waiting on is this turbidity to drop below 15 and it's on. I went to the ramp today and started up the boat but it was a bit on the murky side, but it felt good to be there.
Denneroll. Ya know all those years when they say the run might be late and it never shows up. I seems like it actually happened this year. June is the new April isn't far off. Tax day used to be the hot time 40 years ago. They just keep getting later.
Fished hard all week and managed to come up with two fish on the only two days we fished the HOC. Both on the ever popular PT, one on a 3.5 Mexican Hat spinner and the other on a Hot Tamale Superbait which caught our biggest fish of the season at 18lbs. Had not fished the Superbait before and frankly wasn't impressed with how it looked in the water but hey you can't argue with success. The fish obviously like them. Personally, I didn't like the two treble hook setup so I rigged two 2/0 single hooks and put a bead ahead of the top hook to prevent the hook shaft from sliding up into the orifice on the underside of the lure. I also use a small rubber band to better position the top hook on the lure.
For those of you that are using Simon's quick release setup check the strength of the connections before using. Had one of the connections fail the other day costing me a fish and a spinner. Specifically, the small hole in the shaft of the ball bearing swivel failed. I called Hawken Fishing and they made good on the deal and replaced everything but the fish.
Fished hard all week and managed to come up with two fish on the only two days we fished the HOC. Both on the ever popular PT, one on a 3.5 Mexican Hat spinner and the other on a Hot Tamale Superbait which caught our biggest fish of the season at 18lbs. Had not fished the Superbait before and frankly wasn't impressed with how it looked in the water but hey you can't argue with success. The fish obviously like them. Personally, I didn't like the two treble hook setup so I rigged two 2/0 single hooks and put a bead ahead of the top hook to prevent the hook shaft from sliding up into the orifice on the underside of the lure. I also use a small rubber band to better position the top hook on the lure.
For those of you that are using Simon's quick release setup check the strength of the connections before using. Had one of the connections fail the other day costing me a fish and a spinner. Specifically, the small hole in the shaft of the ball bearing swivel failed. I called Hawken Fishing and they made good on the deal and replaced everything but the fish.
That's interesting. I buy the Good Day Fishing quick release in the three packs and set them up myself. Last week I lost a fish when the little eyelet that goes into the little white bead that is held into the socket failed. Got the protroll back and retaining socket with both white beads. Wonder if anyone else has had this issue
QUOTE=FishinTechnician;16379867]Fished hard all week and managed to come up with two fish on the only two days we fished the HOC. Both on the ever popular PT, one on a 3.5 Mexican Hat spinner and the other on a Hot Tamale Superbait which caught our biggest fish of the season at 18lbs. Had not fished the Superbait before and frankly wasn't impressed with how it looked in the water but hey yoan't argue with success. The fish obviously like them. Personally, I didn't like the two treble hook setup so I rigged two 2/0 single hooks and put a bead ahead of the top hook to prevent the hook shaft from sliding up into the orifice on the underside of the lure. I also use a small rubber band to better position the top hook on the lure.
For those of you that are using Simon's quick release setup check the strength of the connections before using. Had one of the connections fail the other day costing me a fish and a spinner. Specifically, the small hole in the shaft of the ball bearing swivel failed. I called Hawken Fishing and they made good on the deal and replaced everything but the fish.[/QUOTE]
So tell me something guys.... whatās the purpose of this quick release you are referring to? Seems to me that every knot you put into a rig, and everything else you add has one more potential weakness.
Does Adding all these flashers and pro trolls really attract more fish? It seems to me I caught just as many fish using a simple herring dodger and a herring or prawn spinner.... kinda makes me wonder...
The release gives a more direct line to the fish, which aids in keeping a tight line. How much it helps in landing the fish is open to debate.
If you THINK the Pro Troll is helping, if you then fish with more confidence, and stay out longer, and catch more fish, then it IS helping.
I never did much trolling for URBs. But when the PT craze hit three years ago I took it up, and have caught more URBs. So it has certainly helped ME catch more.
On a slow day trolling the salt for Coho, I decided to put one on, and immediately the bite turned on. And not just on the line with the PT. In that case it seemed to attract them to the boat. It was our last time out, so I've not had a chance to repeat the test, and not much can be concluded from a sample size of one.
6-14: HOC from about 12:00-18:00, had one 'thump, thump' bite in our boat. Saw probably about 6 fish caught and probably 3 lost, with most of them coming later in the day.
Lots of effort (and more results) around HOC it seems. Why is it that this late in the season, that's still where they're being caught? Do they huddle up around there? Looks like recently there have been about 4x the trips to that section of the river, and about 8x the number of fish caught. Just curious if anyone has any insight about that.
My take is that most of the fish that are willamette bound turn up the channel. The channel has current and stays cooler. Once they get out of the channel they get to a warm lake. They don't really know what to do for a while so they just kind of swim in circles and hang out longer.
Whatās the temp of the Chanel? Before this hot weather it was coming down and was at like 59 which got me excited but Iām guessing itās going to warm back up now
Still some fish around. Struck out on Wednesday. Fishing two rods we were 3 for 5 on Thursday and all were hatchery in the 14 to 16lb range. Friday we fished three rods and were 0 for 4. Most of those were on a Brad's cut plug with the single trailing treble hook. Personally I prefer two singles, one at the belly and the second trailing, but i don't tell people how to fish a second time.
Not done yet! Heard there was some kinda sturgeon fishing today...? Hundreds of folks drowning bait with some very long faces.
Kiddo and I got this one and it was a proud daddy moment: I handed her the rod but she did all the rest completely solo with no help. Took two shots with the net but then oh what a celebration. Even had to call mommy.
Checker at bayport had zero sturgeon and one chinook at 13:30 [whistle]
Got my grandsons into their first chinook ever earlier this week. Proud moment for sure. My oldest almost landed it solo, but had to hand it off toward the end. The teamwork made it even more memorable for the two of them.
Soylentgreen, Iāve had a tough year this year and have chosen not to fish much.
Thank you for posting all of your pictures they have truly warmed my heart.
The smiles on those kids faces are what the whole world needs right now!!
Keep it up ,the time you have is far too short.
And thanks to all who have kept this thread going hopefully I will join you on the water next year.
Soylentgreen, Iāve had a tough year this year and have chosen not to fish much.
Thank you for posting all of your pictures they have truly warmed my heart.
The smiles on those kids faces are what the whole world needs right now!!
I really, really appreciate this comment. I'm glad to hear that someone has lived somewhat vicariously through our season of covid. This fishing has been a much needed bright spot in a tough, tough spring.
I've enjoyed this thread more than any on ifish in a long time.
If it makes you feel any better, my grand total for last year was exactly ZERO spring chinook. It was a tough year for me and I didn't get out much and struggled when I did. this year we rallied!
So I did my 1st trip of the season, lots of other things going on. Trolled the Sellwood & spaghetti factory area. Saw one other boat. Parking lot had 3+ trailers. Felt like I might have been a day late and dollar short. Man it was good to get on the water.
Bankhog, I have a 16 foot Dory, so I'm looking for places that I can fish without too much current. The pic looks just right. Should I be concentrating on tributaries instead of the main stem of the Columbia?
Three rods, spinners, pro trolls, from the falls down to Sellwood bridge this afternoon. Nice boat ride, no action, didn't see any either.
Went all the way up to the falls for the first time. Eight or ten boats up there fishing different fast water, eddies, crazy water, I got the hell out of there.
I wonder if those guys at the falls were fishing shad or salmon. It is spooky up there the first couple times. I get that for sure.
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