So my brother got me a cool sweatshirt to help advertise his bbq and smoked meats business in Napa CA and I promised him I would wear it one day in honor of him and post some pictures of me holding fish and wearing the shirt.

Being the good brother I am, saw an opportunity today to fulfill my promise and arranged a float trip on the Wynoochee again. Now the reports have been dismal of late but I was not concerned because I had confidence in who I was going with that we would have success and boy I was not disappointed!!!

Brother in faith Ron Brown and I started our journey over to the river around 4am and were happy to see some cloud cover as knew this would bode well with the low water we were anticipating encountering on today's float. Arrived at the 'fish house' and one other guide was just setting out to try his luck ( skills!)

We were informed we would be fishing out of a raft today instead of a drift boat so I was excited to try a new way of fishing for me! We dropped the boat into the river at the 7400 road and started our drift down river. Today we were not going to plug as the water was too low and with a raft, was going to be a long 16 mile drift but instead tossed a set up which included a 2 bead set up below and drift float.

The other rod was fished with a jig with cured shrimp. As we hit about our fourth hole I had a nice bobber down and it was fish on!!! This baby made some impressive runs and had some shoulders to it but as we got it near to the boat, saw an extra fin so it was carefully unhooked and released without a net- Not long after Ron got a take down but this one didn't have too much fight and was a bit beat up so again, was released with out a net so now we were 2 for 2 with no fish in the boat yet.

After working out way through some more fishy water Ron had another bobber down and it was a keeper!! He fought it valiantly and soon was flopping in the raft and about the receive it's final love tap and we bonked it and now 3 for 3 with 1 in the boat! I was wondering if I should switch but what happened over the next 2 hours changed my mind!

As we were going through a drift my bobber disappeared and once again was fish on! Now this guy somehow got into something in the middle of the river and thought I was going to lose it as the fish was making runs but my line was hung up on something in the middle of the hole. The only thing we can figure it was was a bunch of line because the fish would run but when I got it back to a certain point would just stop- after making a few circles it finally came free and we were able to get over to the bank and net it! Nice hatchery fish but was not easy!

What happened over the next 2 hours was about a fish every half hour and none easy and we had one run under the boat, another one had to jump out of the boat and chase down river and finally had our limit by 1 PM! Another stellar day going 8 for 8 with 6 in the well and now an 8 mile drift back down to the take out.

Saw bald eagles, a falcon and just a beautiful way to spend the afternoon working our way down river! I was glad to have made my brother proud and let him know he was well advertised on the Wynoochee river today but of course, now he owes me a slab of his mouth-watering finger-licking baby back ribs on my next visit to Napa!!

See you on the water!

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