2008 » September » 19

    
     My father-in-law, Jack Daddy, and I hit Quail Creek for our weekly Friday fishing trip while my daughter is in school.  Was another tough 3 hours of fishing, but it was quaility over quantity again. 

     We launched about 930am into 73 degree water with smooth glass like surfaces.  Only about 3 boats beat us out there.  We headed to my buddy John’s spot in hopes of some hogs, but I only caught a couple 12 inch fish on weightless senko’s.  Jack daddy only donated a few jigs to the lake bottom. 

     We motored out of there and headed to “the sticks”.  This is a long beach-like shoreline near the campgrounds that is loaded with flooded sticks.  This is the same place I caught my personal best earlier this year in March.  Anyway, the first bite over here was a bluegill caught by Jack daddy on a craw.  Then I tossed my senko into the brush and just saw my line take off.  I set the hook and tried to muscle the hog out of the bushes.  Got it past the first couple then it wrapped me up on a last stick before the boat.  Jack daddy grabbed the net as I trolled us closer, all while watching the fish pull my line up and down on the stick.  I thought it was gonna snap for sure, but Jack scooped it up just in the nick of time.  High fives ensued.  Weighed near 4 lbs and measured about 19 1/4 inches.

     Jack Daddy, who was struggling a bit finally hooks into a nice fish with his signature craw/jig and fights it perfectly into the net.  This fish measured 20 inches and weighed around 3 1/2 pounds, which I still thought was light.  We fished for about another 1/2 hour before we had to leave, but no bites.  Not a great day, but not a bad day either. 

     Next Friday we’ll head to our other nearby reservoir, Sand Hollow, where it’s usually more quantity than quality, but does have some giants too.  I will be scoping out the lake for the next day’s tournament. 

PEACE OUT……

Thankfully, I don’t even have to re rig my rod tomorrow when I attempt to score on a bonus Chinook! This is a great surprise! Who else might be into going out this weekend?



OLYMPIA - Starting Saturday (Sept. 20), Columbia River anglers will again be allowed to retain chinook salmon they catch on a large section of the river below Bonneville Dam.
Encouraged by a new estimate of returning upriver bright Chinook, fishery managers from Washington and Oregon agreed to reopen most of the area that closed to Chinook retention earlier this week.

Under that agreement, anglers will be allowed to catch and keep an adult Chinook salmon as part of their daily catch limit from the lower end of Bachelor Island, near the mouth of the Lewis River, upriver to Bonneville Dam.

The Chinook fishery in that area will remain open until further notice, said Cindy LeFleur, Columbia River policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
“We’re pleased that this run is coming in so much stronger than expected,” LeFleur said. “This season is turning out quite a bit better than we expected.”

Earlier this month, tens of thousands of anglers fishing from Rocky Point up to Bonneville Dam caught 9,200 Chinook during 16 days of fishing. LeFleur noted that the downstream boundary for the Chinook fishery that opens Saturday has been moved above the mouth of the Lewis River to protect a weak Chinook run there this year.

But upriver brights, returning to the Hanford Reach area and to the Snake River, are putting in a strong showing, LeFleur said. A technical advisory committee increased the estimated size of the upriver bright run to 212,500 fish, compared to the pre-season forecast of 164,400 fish.

Round Two, Boys.