ReelNorthwestAnglers.Com

Saturday marked the end of a terrific Coho season for 2009. I had a remarkable year hitting the silvers from the ocean all the way up the Gorge. This year was so impressive with quality fish being taken till almost the end of  November with the numbers still being great. We probably hooked well over a 100 silvers this year. Saturday was so much fun fishing with Todd and Kurt marking the end of the season. We had a relaxed day with consistent bites and boating some decent fish. We got the first one within the first three minutes of arriving! Good times lots of laughs, and terrific fishing. Kurt’s wife Lara even delivered us a fantastic shore lunch and a few cold ones! check out the video and keep those lines tight fella’s

I have been getting a ton of requests for some tips on how to tie various rigs that have been producing lately. After giving it some thought I came up with this page and concept. You will find it in the upper right labeled Tech-Tips. The focus on these tech tips will be to make a difference in aiding you to catch more fish. I took some time to research other tip sites and was very disappointed in the content. Most were some lame all around knot tying or bobber stop tutorial that really isn’t going to make a difference…We all know how to tie knots. I had to ask myself whats the point of these mindless tutorials? Fish don’t bite knots, right? I’ve started with a prawn spinner rig and plan to launch into some Steelhead set-ups,  then into spring Salmon mooching rig types, and custom plug painting tips. So lets take this from kindergarten basics to a higher level of varsity play! Time to put the rubber to the road and start bonkin some chromers!!!!

I knew Jim was gonna be out trying his new bobber rod today as I gave him a call to check in. It was getting late and the sun was already beginning to fade for the day when he answered the call. I said “tell me a fishing story” and replied” just landed my second one, been on the water about half an hour”. I had to take pause for a minute to process that success…My first thought was are you kidding me. Then I remembered back to last winter while steelie fishing with him I saw two fish hooked and landed in two casts. So my recollection confirmed that Jim is a bobber and jig maestro! Nice job Jim. He is using a brand new Okuma SST 10ft bobber rod after breaking his old faithful on the Sandy earlier during Coho season. I’m thinking about doing a few floats in the next week or so are you in Jim?

Spent Saturday with Todd and Brent at the Klickitat ripping some serious chrome silvers and had a terrific time. My sled was down with  some ongoing fuel issues so I jumped in Todd’s sled and had the pleasure of meeting Brent for the first time. I tied up a few of my special spinners Tipped with some killer home cured bait and we hit it early. The weather was beautiful and the scene was better than made to order…However, the fish weren’t there! We pounded the water and saw very little action for the few boats that were trying their best. I was really beginning to second guess my self and feeling pretty low after telling the guy’s how I’d been tearing it up there recently. Thoughts were racing through my head, is the run over, is the bait bad, have I lost my mojo? My attitude was in the dumps. Then the weather changed and went from perfect fall beauty to all out crappy… Boats began leaving and we went on assault. We were getting bit like mad… We wound up with 4 in the box for around 13 takes. Not the best showing ever but a hell of a great time with the guy’s. Brent get ready for some serious winter driftboat fishing, you and Todd have a seat in the drifter anytime. Todd thanks for the ride and happy to be the bait guy anytime. Glad I got to share this little gem of a fishery with you two.

You might have noticed that all of September is missing from the archives and the posts are gone also. A little slip up combined with a defective Olympus cost me a months worth of content…Oh well. I did want to take a minute a put up this video of a recent Black Fin trip with Capt. Chris from “The Hunters Charter Service.” He showed us a terrific time and please consider him for your next blue water adventure. Sorry for the lines in some of the video and how short is. We had so much video lost and soooo many Sept. salmon trips with no pics do to the failure of the Olympus camera.

A good friend of mine Kurt lives in the Hood River area and has been a great guy to fish with over the years. We go all the way back to high school and he is also the godfather of my daughter Savannah. We fish together some and have had some extremely memorable days on the water together. After all its about the experience and the camaraderie with amount of fish caught really being not so relevent. I can say this is really what friendship is about. Time spent together, talking about our lives and whats good and bad knowing that at the end of the day we all go through life’s ups and downs.  Life has been good for the both of us and even during the dark and gloomy last year of turmoil with the economy, and the over all state of the nation. Truly we are blessed and it gives us the opportunity to share our time angling together as friends.  Just today I picked up the phone to check in and see if he could meet for a Saturday morning trip near his home waters. No…Gotta catch a flight for Germany to meet with clients. But the Hood is in Great shape flowing green and beautiful. The report is also good about the catching up there. Silvers and plenty of chrome steelhead are in the river and ready to be tempted with your offering. Give me a buzz if you need some info! I will be in that area chasing some silvers either there or the Klickatat…not sure yet. Kurt when you get back we need to take a few days and do a long weekend float. Maybe an Olympic Peninsula trip or a multi river coastal steelhead barrage. Let me know.

Can you believe this photo? I must have starred in absolute awe for five minutes when I saw it. It took every fibre of my being to not run outa the office with my butt on fire looking for a piece of water to hook into my own!!!!! Well reality set in and so did my rear in the office chair. My day was shot unable to concentrate with visions of acrobatic steelhead. Steve did it again on another central Oregon river and is sharing the photos.

Pay close attention to the lower photo and notice the landing net. Look familiar? Yes it should and you should try your best to use one also. When fishing from a boat or the bank a fish friendly landing net is so much easier on natives then not using a net. Couple reasons why, playing a fish till absolutely exausted, then dragging it up on the bank to be unhooked is terrible. Rolling in the dirt, sand, and flopping over all the abrasive beach out of water to be unhooked and thrown back in is an all around sloppy deal. Why not net them quickly, keep them breathing submerged, unhooked and released? These thick rubber nets also protect slim coat and the hooks almost never get caught in the netting material being very conducive to a great release!

Great job Steve and thanks for your recent contribution of some great images. It would be great to hear some of your thoughts on the nets, your terminal tackle, and the jigs you use.  Lets also get you and Tom added to the site as part of the RNA Team and contributors of content.

Hope you enjoy the video and if you want to be in the upcoming videos your very welcome. Just email me your pics or video clips! What a great time putting this compilation together tonite. I only used about a quarter of the photos and video from this year and we still have the winter steelhead season right around the corner.  I can see that a purchase of multiple cameras and video cameras will be needed very soon! Be looking out for the next video that will be all winter steelies from the upcoming season. If its anything like last year hold on. We had so many 5-6 fish days last season so we should have ample opportunity to get some great footage this year.

Tom Baxter a work friend of mine and his buddy Steve hit the river this last week and nailed the steel. As always we keep the location quiet to avoid the crowds making a huge decent on a pretty special location. These two put on the miles and were rewarded with nothing short of an epic day. Epic days are usually characterized as double-digit numbers would you agree? Wait a minute….How about a day of over 20 fish landed and many missed!!!! Great job fellas. They were fishing as you can see in some of the pics a light float and a custom tied Steelie jig.   I will put a post on the tech tips section this week of how to tie that rig up!                                                        

Wow! Unbelievable ….

Grab a rock! You must be tired catching all those steelie!

Thanks for sharing these great pics and way to go guy’s!  Tom said they hiked about 14 miles round trip to nail these beauty’s. Not a trip for the average angler but a rewarding experience to be able and get away from the masses to chase such a wonderful fish at this time of the year.