Salmon fishing on the Columbia River

[The Fisherman Guy]

The Sarge, The Unit, "Have you met Logan?", Berger, and I headed to Oregon for three days of Salmon and Sturgeon fishing on the Columbia river.

Sure was nice to get off the plane in Portland to see that spring is in full swing! We stopped in Portland at a pub called Kells, a great irish pub that Guy Fieri did an episode at for Bangers and Mash.

The first day we fished the Columbia and Wind river confluence, no fish hooked or caught. Not even a bite. The 4 foot swells made trolling fun. Here we took refuge behind a small island in the "calm" water.



On the way back to Portland, the views were incredible!



The second day began on the Columbia at the Willamette confluence. More boats on one stretch of water than I have ever seen. No fish caught or hooked. Our guide thought we should try for Sturgeon, so we geared up and pulled up on another anchored boat. Our guide anchored a rods length away from the anchored boat, much to our amazement. I was certain we were going to get shot up. The older gentleman in the other boat didn't seem to mind. No fish.

We pulled anchor after 15 minutes of Sturgeon fishing, and headed back to the launch and loaded up to head up the Lewis River. Here I am not concerned about the no fish situation.


We geared up for Steelhead, but were lost in the forest and gorgeous surroundings.



Finally, after 16 hours of guided fishing Berger caught a nice Steelie.



After all the excitement, we fired up the grill and burnt up some meat! The Sarge knows how to grill out, NorDak style!



Mission Accomplished! Logan hooked and landed his 13th birthday Steelie!!!
(Our guide was a total jerky goon... Notice the glasses)


Even The Unit caught a Steelhead...



All in all we had a great time, despite our lousy guide. We cut our fishing days short, not because of lack of fish - because of our guide.

Not at all bad, we took some excellent advice from Chubbdarter and headed to Astoria and then down the coast to Cannon Beach where we rented a house on the beach. Off season rates, and willing to rent to us for one night only. Incredible! I found the place on Vacation Rentals By Owner (www.vrbo.com). This is the second time I have used this site to find a place to stay, and I highly recommend it. Turns out the owner of the beach house was a door gunner in Vietnam, and a helluva guy to boot.

A terrific trip, even if I didn't boat any fish!

[Kokanee9]

Is that ever nice there! Do you have any other pictures from the trip to put up?

[chubbdarter]

The Columbia Gorge to Astoria.....the prettiest place on earth

Nice pics, next time visit Bonneville just a little east of Portland. Fish hatchery and big sturgeon ponds

Thanks for posting.......
Did anyone try the herring in the pants trick?...lol

[Christofficer]

Definitely an awesome place to fish, was down there back in 2006. Next time you're down there I'd recommend the deschutes river or klamath lake. I never caught anything big there at klamath but they're in there, and it's pretty country.

[WayneChristie]

Looks like a good trip. you should be used to the lack of catching anyways Id think nice to see the young fellow get one at least.

[walking buffalo]

Man it's nice to see green. Thanks for the report, love seeing the Steelies. Now I'm grumpy that I didn't get up to the Charlottes this winter.

TFG, NEVER set the hook until the master guide tells you too.

Did the guide ever let anyone hold a fish by themselves?

Where are the pics of the guide wearing anchors at the bottom of the river?

I'm impressed with your reserved comments about the guide. I would be plastering his name here in Bold.