Got off the oars and into a jet boat today with a friend and headed out on the Columbia River, known locally as "The Big C"
When we decided to fish the Columbia we knew we were on the downhill side of spring chinook and the summer chinook were still not here yet, but there is still enough springers going over Bonneville Dam to make it worth while. Fishing a river, any river, is like playing a round of golf, and the Big C is a course I'm not on very often but with every fishery on any river there are rules and techniques that are time proven. So we launch and headed downstream till we spotted some boats sitting on the anchor, we pull in and found 25ft of water, put the anchor down and let back some tuna wrapped k13 kwikfish, put them in rod holders and waited, which typically means EAT!
After an hour the right rod bounced then went to the water. ...FISH ON....right?
No, I grabbed the rod and set the hook and nothing, I tell myself that's springer fishing. I reel in and re wrap with some tuna, bounce it back and let it sit. 2 apple fritters and a cup of coffee later down the rod goes again, this time line is peeling of the rod before I get to it I grabbed the rod and again NOTHING!!..... WHAT THE??
Ok now I HATE losing fish, I checked the hooks rebaited and bounced it back again and immediately went back to the food bag.
Another hour went by when my buddies rod took a sharp dip then DROPPED. Then in udder disbelief it came back up and assumed its relaxed stand. I DON'T GET IT!
We sat out the rest of the tide with no more action, the food ran out, the tide slowed and started to turn, with our tails tucked we pulled anchor and pointed the bow towards the launch.
Had we landed just one of those fish it would have been a good day, all three fish and it would have been banner. What I walked away thinking was "There's kings out there, and they'll BITE!
