Being in Portland for the week, I had the whole afternoon with nothing to do so I decided to cross back over into Washington and try my hand at Shad fishing for the very first time. I'd gotten some tips so I had the right gear and was told to head to Bonneville, so I did. Once there, I stood at the top of the hill and watched what people were doing for awhile. Noticed who was catching the most fish, what people were using, and how they conducted themselves with eachother. Once I felt like I had a good feel of how everything was working, I went back to the truck and got all my stuff ready, and headed down stream from the crowd so I didn't jump right in the middle of everything when I was still unsure of what I was doing.

I tried everything I was told, saw, and could think of with no luck. I did notice that the closer to the dam people were the more fish they caught, and I was the furthers downriver haha. So as the crowd began to thin in the evening I began to work my way up stream spot by spot. And WHAM! Fish on! I landed my first ever shad and what FUN! It ran, dodged, and even jumped! After a fun little battle I lifted it to shore and on the stringer it went. Moved up again, and snagged a sturgeon and caught two more shad that I got to have fun fighting but they both came off at my feet.

I enjoyed an evening of watching Osprey dive and Sturgeon jump, with pretty nice weather, and lovely senery. This was my first time on the Columbia, and I even managed to catch some fish! Great day!

By 9pm the only ones left were myself and a family upstream from me. I'd decided to make one more cast when WHAM! something hit it hard! I set the hook, felt a few head shakes and the top of the water exploded as it lept, flashing silver in the setting sun. A few more head shakes and it took off like a rocket! This was no shad!
I tightned my drag down a little and prayed the cheap crappie jig I'd been using would hold up to the abuse as the beast on the other end ran upstream, downstream, and even straight at me! The fish probably ran 6-7 times, coming in just close enough to see a flash of color before taking off like a bullet again! I finally got it tired out and manuvered it into a deeper pool in the rocks where I could tail it without harming the fish.

It was a Chinook! I couldn't believe it! Sadly it had an extra fin, so I had to let it go, but I thanked it for the wonderful end to the evening, and it swam off happy and strong!

All in all it was an amazing evening! I may not have caught a ton of fish (but there were people there who did which is why I gave the day a 5) but I caught my first Shad and first Springer ever! Now I know why everyone talks about the Columbia the way they do... I think I'm hooked, and might never want to leave!

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