Lowest water ever means: Time to plunk for chinook
February 18th, 2009
by chris heller….
I am not breaking any kind of ground breaking news here. You all have the internet. You can all see how devastatingly low our rivers and streams are right now. Take the Clackamas tributary of Eagle Creek for example; typically seeing upwards of a thousand winter steelhead are currently under one hundred. There are less than normal flows, by a long shot, on almost every river around. Except for the first four days of January, we haven’t even seen anything measurable. SO, what does all this mean, you ask? I think it’s time to go plunking for spring chinook.
The thing about fishing the almighty CR, is those spring kings are going to come into the main stem whether it rains or not. That will not be the case for their migration up their spawning tribs such as the Clackamas or the Sandy or even other rivers further up the Gorge. This will of course cause issues for their future stock if they cannot get up there to drop and fertilize. Hoping that is not the case, we’ll push forward with our best effort for catching a fish lately.
There are several places along both the Columbia and the Willamette that lend themselves nicely to a bank chinook plunker. What rod does a guy like that use? A big ass bank sturgeon rod will due just fine. In fact, you’ll pretty much use the same lead you would use for sturegon as well. Considering there is quite a few of us out there with dusty bank sturgeon rods, let’s take this opportunity to target these migrating springers with our big sticks!
The set up is super simple: You will rig your main 30lb line onto the nose of a trolling spreader or a three way swivel. Your leader and your lead lines simply oppose each other just as a trolling rig would. The main difference is the longer lead line required for the bank angler. Simply use a bead on either side of a spin/glo to ensure a friction-free spin. It helps to also use a bead chain swivel on your leader…..usually mid way. You can tip your rig with a bait of roe or a shrimp, and waa-laa…..there is your bank spring chinook plunking rig.
I’m giving it a shot later this week…..I’ll keep you all posted. AND, if any of you find a tributary with steelhead in it…please do let me know.
H3llcat, site founder and administrator
