Weekend Report - May 20-21

Saturday we spent 8 hours on the river around Cathlamet looking for keeper sturgeon and only found a few shakers willing to play. I missed about 3 - 4 fish - the Kung Fu was kind of rusty. I hate it when I miss the hook set.

We saw two nice springers on the dock Saturday afternoon which made us re-think our plans. So, on Sunday we spent the morning trolling the Clifton Channel for Springers with no takers. I guess I can't complain, we got two beautiful days on the water. It was pretty relaxing.

Wynoochee River Winter Steelhead

My friend Tim and I made plans for a weekend of steelhead fishing in the Forks area this past February. We made plans on drifting the Bogachiel and possibly the Hoh River.

We got to the Wilson Rd. ramp on a beautiful Saturday morning and excitedly got Tim’s driftboat on the water. The Bogey was low and gin clear and we knew right away that it was going to be a tough day of hunting.

The drift to the Leyendecker Rd. take out was uneventful. Don’t get me wrong, we were treated to a rare sunny and picturesque day on the Bogachiel. But we weren’t there to get a sun tan and to look at the scenery. We were there to play with Mr. Steelhead!

We spent the night at the Forks Motel and decided head to the Wynoochee River in the morning. The next morning we woke up to ice – sheets of ice. It was white knuckle driving for Tim from Forks all the way to Quinault Lake on highway 101.

At one point the truck and the driftboat went completely sideways after hitting a particularly icy bend. Instant visions of being on the ditch and the driftboat crashing on guardrails flashed before our eyes. Luckily, Tim was able to gain control and kept the vehicles straight and tracking. Catastrophe averted. Mission is still on.

We got to the Nooch, made arrangments with the turn-around service for a Wishkah Bridge to Black Creek drift, and then it started raining – wait, it gets better. We seemed to have forgotten our sand shrimp in the fridge at the Forks Motel. Dang! That’s about about 20 bucks worth of sand shrimp chillin’ inside the mini-fridge. Luckily, I still had about half a dozen in my bait container that I left in the driftboat from yesterday’s scenic tour of the Bogey.

Halfway down the drift we were working a river bend that was putting the hurt on us. Tim just lost a favorite plug from a submerged log and I have already re-tied at least four times due to the snags. With my last shrimp precariously hanging from the hook, I made a cast and hoped for the best.

I felt the bottom, mostly gravel and a few larger rocks, then nothing. Instinctively, I yanked my rod and lo and behold connected with Mr. Steelhead – ahem, excuse me, it was Mrs. Steelhead. She went left, right, under the boat, up in the air, pulled some line, and slapped the water in protest - she showed me her Kung Fu.

This one made my knees weak just like the first steelhead I ever caught. But my Kung Fu was better and we eventually landed her. She was a typical cookie-cutter hatchery hen. We estimated around 6 lbs, long-bodied, and chrome bright.

We didn’t pick up any other fish with the rest of the drift. But the one that we caught was all we needed to deem our weekend trip a success.

Paint Wars

What does an avid fisherman do on the off days? Play paintball! When I'm not fishing, I'm slingin’ paint at the Elma paintball field or playing in a 3-man beginner paintball team.

Paintballs flying at around 300 feet per second, hi-tech machine guns spitting 10 to 15 paintballs balls per second, folks diving and ducking behind inflatable bunkers – what else is there?

My 3-man beginner team did ok this season. The team is still coming together. We played in a 4 tournament series hosted by The Paintbal Store out of Olympia. We took 3rd overall with a 1st place finish and a 3rd place finish in two of the tourneys.

We rarely get to practice together, but it seems that the raw talent and skill of each of the players are enough to boost us into top five finishes when we play in the tourneys. I hope we can keep this kind of momentum going.

For now, I’m taking a break from paintball. I’ve got fishing in my brain and there’s not much room for anything else.

For Sale - 2003 20’ Boice Jet Response

Ok, I got the two foot-itis really bad. I want to upgrade my boat and switch to a prop. Jet boating has been very fun, but my fishing needs have changed drastically.

I want to spend more time on the saltwater and still be able to fish my spots on the Columbia River. That means being able to anchor and troll and have the deeper vee to run in big water like at Neah Bay and Westport.

I think that I might have found this dream boat in the form of a 22’ North River Seahawk. I’ve been asking around Ifish.net and its North River owners about their overall experience with the product and the buying process.

I’ve got a lot of lessons learned from buying my two previous boats and I’m doing my due diligence of knowing up-front what to expect and not trip over the same pitfalls.

If you’re an owner of a North River Seahawk, I’d love to hear from you. If you’re interested in buying my jet boat, check out the for sale page I created at http://www.freewebs.com/boicejet/

2006 Neah Bay Halibut Opener

Tucked away in the north-western most point of the State of Washington is a place called Neah Bay. A few years ago, a friend of mine, Bruce (of Gamefishin.com) introduced me to this fishing frontier where big water and big fish live - I’ve been hooked ever since.

I then turned another good friend of mine Brian Dwinelle to Neah Bay. Since then it has been an annual pilgrimage. All year long we talked about our plans for this outpost location. Our plans were set in motion since we got back from last year’s halibut opener trip. This year, Brian invited another angling nut Chris Monnastes and fishing guide John Steed along for the trip.

The month of May is always a gamble because of the unpredictable weather. On any given day, sometimes in hours and in minutes, the weather and sea conditions can change so quickly and wreck havoc to your carefully planned outings to the coast and beyond. This year wasn’t any different. We saw anywhere from 12 to 15 foot seas during the week.

Just like clock work, I got sea sick during the first day of our 5 day stay. I was doing my best to re-enact the vomit scene from the movie "The Exorcist." I was using Scopalomine patches to no avail. I ditched the patch and switched to Meclizine, which Chris was using, and it seemed to do the trick. No cotton mouth and no drowsiness.

The highlight of the trip was the one day we were able to get out to the halibut grounds in Canadian waters. Aptly named “The Long Hole,” it was roughly a 40 mile ride from Neah Bay. It took our 22 foot Arima, powered by a 150 Honda 4-stroke, approximately 3 hours to reach the destination in good seas.

Once at the hole, with little to no current, the halibut bite was wide open. We caught our limit of 8 flat fish (plus 2 bonus Ling Cod) in roughly 1 hour. The procedure was simple; drop 2 lbs of weight with some form of bait (horse herring) in 450 to 500 ft of water, jig or drag the bottom, wait for the strike, set the hook, and winch the flat fish up to the boat.

My gear consisted of a Lamiglas BFC5610 matched with a Penn Senator 113 reel spooled with roughly 800 yards of 80 lb Tuff Line. I’m fairly satisfied with this set-up. The rod and line combination is sensitive enough allowing me to feel the bottom and the bite. The 2:1 gear ratio of the reel allows me to reel in the heavy lead and or fish with minimal effort. The only thing I would change is to replace the reel handle with something more comfortable.

At the end, we brought home a cumulative total of roughly 200 lbs of filleted halibut, ling cod, black rockfish, and cabezon. We could have gotten more, but I suppose that why there’s always a next time.

Surf Perch Fishing

It was the last Razor Clam dig of the season. The suitable minus low tide was now finally in the morning timeframe. The Razor Clam beaches also happen to provide good surf perch fishing opportunities; something that I have wanted to try for some time now. It’s also the perfect tide to go hunt for them.

My attempt to dig up a few Razors was becoming futile. I kept looking at the surf and wondered about the perch that cruised in it. An hour into the dig and all I had to show was one clam that I also managed to chop in half with my shovel. Rookie move. Actually, the rookies would probably laugh at me.

A look at my poor clam and with a look of confirmation from my friend’s son Clint, at least he had half his limit already, it was time to put down the shovel and try our luck at the surf.

I brought with me a standard heavy salmon spin rod coupled to a size 4000 spin reel. In my mind this was not the appropriate surf gear. Back east, fishing with my brother and father along the beaches of the Chesapeake, we always used long beefy rods capable of casting well over 150 to 200 yards. Needless to say, I felt ill-equipped but the gear I brought with me will have to do.

Nevertheless, Clint and I grabbed our gear and bait (clam necks) and trotted off to the surf. We used size 4 bait holder hooks as dropper rigs on the mainline and 3 oz. pyramid sinkers. We timed the waves so that we could cast at the lowest point of the retreating surf.

After about the third cast Clint hooked up into a nice sized perch. We both looked at each other with expressions of surprise and giddyness. We dialed in our casts and started catching surf perch in earnest.

At the lowest point of the tide and into the incoming we were getting bites and catching. I had two perch in my sack when I got bit by the biggest perch I’ve ever felt. This scrapper was actually giving me quite the tussle and even pulling on the drag which made me wonder if it was something else on my line.

After a few minutes I was able to get the fish to shore. Clint and I hoot and hollered at the size of this surf perch on steroids. I quickly got the fish off the hook and into my sack, baited up, and prepared to cast again.

Springer Fever

The 2006 spring run of Chinook Salmon (a.k.a. Springers) on the Columbia River was short lived. I think it lasted about 4 to 5 weeks before the plug was pulled in mid-April because of low counts. There was a predicted run size of approximately 88,000 fish.

By early April, every sport fisherman’s hope of realizing the predicted run was fading fast based on information gathered from creel reports from sporties, commercials, and the fish counters at various counting locations.

I could always count on catching the Springer fever. Folks are enamored by the famed Copper River Salmon. But in my opinion, the Springers from the Columbia River far surpasses the taste of the Copper River Salmon. There’s nothing more delicious than a freshly caught Springer fillet on the barbeque. It is my favorite salmon to eat.

My success rate for catching Springers from the last two years have been dismal. I had lots of fish that came off the hook for reasons unknown. The only silver lining was landing a 24 lb chrome springer – the biggest my boat has seen.

This year, I was able to fish for a total of four days before the season closed. In those 4 days we hooked a total of eight fish; six fish landed including 1 native and 2 fish lost. Our fish came from slack tides at the top of the Clifton Channel on the Tenasillahe Island side and most of the fish came from plain green label herring with a short leader of about four feet.

I also experienced some success using large Spin-N-Glos slipped at the chain swivel. Our fish were of the hatchery variety mostly in the eight to thirteen pound range –tasty, nonetheless.

Update: They re-opened the lower Columbia River for Springer fishing starting May 17 until further notice. The run forecast was also upgraded to 100,000. Like last year, the spring run was late.

What is Fishing Kung Fu?

I started this blog to keep a journal of my fishing adventures and discoveries. I live in the Pacific Northwest – in my opinion one of the greatest outdoor playground in this earth. The variety of fishing opportunities available in this region is astounding. Heaven indeed.

There’s something available for every type of fisherman. There's salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, halibut, bass, trout, walleye, ling cod, surf perch, tuna, shrimp, crab, squid, and the list goes on and on. With that variety comes all the different tools, methods, and techniques for catching.

My journey into fishing began a long time ago since I was a kid. I’ve always kept a mental journal of my adventures. My memory banks are full of wonderful experiences surrounding the act of chasing finned creatures. Now, I’ve decided to keep my journal in cyberspace.

So, I hope you like the read and you keep checking back for new reports. Feel free to comment and or ask me questions. I'll reply to them as soon as I can.

-LDM