Buoy 10 Fish Camp 2014 – A FISH PRINCESS ADVENTURE

This combined report covers Sunday, 8/24 – Friday, 8/29.

Friends were already camped at Cape Disappointment State Park since Thursday. Had a text message from friend Kat that she got her first-ever king salmon on Saturday so I made plans with my lovely wife for me to head out with the boat at 0 dark-thirty to fish with friends Sunday and she towed the tent camper to the park later in the day to check-in.

Four of us launched at Astoria on Sunday and fished primarily in the Dismal Nitch hole. Dave and Kat were aboard Mama’s Mink and I hosted friend Rob aboard the Get Reel. It was a crazy jack chinook show for most of the day. Rob and I hooked and released 7 jack chinook on our way to a keeper apiece for the day. One was close enough to measure and taped out at 23 7/8, just short, so splash he went! Dave and Kat also hooked and released several jacks and ended their day around mid-afternoon with one hatchery coho in the boat. Rob got a hatchery coho somewhere around mid-afternoon. Up to that point and for a few fish following, none of the fish we hooked were big enough to pull much line off the reel, even with relatively loose drags. Late into the afternoon my pole got slammed hard and the clicker was screaming – we knew we finally had a keeper size chinook going. I snatched the pole out of the holder and just as the fish surfaced about 125’ from the boat a healthy size sea lion popped his head up about another 125’ further from the boat. I fast-played the fish and once Rob had net in hand I had him swing the boat around between the fish and the sea lion. Thankfully, the plan worked to perfection and I tagged my first fish of the trip, a healthy and bright 10 or 11 pounder. We packed it in and got back to camp around 1800 with just enough time for me to get the tent camper up before we sat down to eat. Tally for the day was 2 coho and one chinook for 4 anglers.

Monday – Did not fish – Slept-in then spent the day installing a new wheel hub on the tent camper due to bearing failure. Also helped Dave and Kat move their campsite and move-in Dave’s sister who joined us that afternoon.

Tuesday – Five of us headed for Astoria to fish aboard Mama’s Mink. Dave captained the boat and I was deck hand for the day with the objective to get the ladies into some fish. This was the only fishing day for the Fish Princess and we also had Kat and Dave’s sister, Marlene, on duty at the rods for the day. We fished a total of four rods split between 2 fishing leads on the bottom and two fishing divers just below the thermocline. Had a long release or two and a drive-by early but no fish to the boat. Saw lots of fish rolling and jumping in the Dismal Nitch hole during our various drifts and decided to rig a rod with a spinner to see if we could entice one of the surface runners to bite. No sooner did I start to rig a spinner rod then the Fish Princess gets a takedown and it’s game-on. She did a nice job working the fish to the boat and I managed to net it right out of the air as it leaped near the boat. To the Fish Princess’s dismay, it turned out to be a native coho so we unhooked it and sent it on upriver. Appears I should have threatened them with the spinner sooner as this seemed to turn on our action for the day. The Fish Princess had one other fish on and lost it then tapped out so Kat could get a turn at the rod. Kat proved to have the hot hand for the day landing two coho. Her first came shortly after switching out with the Fish Princess and was in the 6 pound range. Meanwhile Dave had one takedown that he swung and missed on and almost immediately upon resetting the gear he landed a keeper coho of about 5 pounds. Marlene had a couple of fish on during the day including a king jack that we had right up to the boat. I got one swing at it but it was ahead of the net and headed away up stream so I didn’t really have a shot at it. As she attempted to play it back around for another net attempt a massive sea lion grabbed it and took her for a ride. He finally surfaced about 75’ away from the boat and gave us the eye as he waved the fish around defiantly. With a final chomp he swam off and Marlene reeled-up just the head of her fish! At least we got the gear back. A couple of hours later Kat landed our best fish of the day, a mint bright coho pushing 10 pounds to tag her limit for the day. Total tally for the day was 3 keepers for 5 anglers in the boat (all coho) with several others released and one sea lion battle. Dave and I took the Mink back out of Ilwaco in the afternoon and also hauled about 8 or 9 Dungeness crab although it took 3 soaks on 4 pots and LOTS of culls to get a few keepers and we lost one of Dave’s pots to the river current.

Wednesday – Dave, Kat, Marlene, and I all fished aboard Mama’s Mink. Headed for Astoria a little later on this morning as the fishing did not heat-up for us until after 10:00 on any of the previous days. Launched and shot over to Dismal Nitch – just scraped the sand bar going across on this day as the tide was outbound and getting toward low slack. We had steady action for the day, again using a combination of two rods with lead and two with divers. The lead rods were fished with a Fish Flash attractor while the divers were fished with long leaders straight to a bait with no flasher. Our bait was mostly fresh plug-cut herring with a few fresh chovies and some brined herring occasionally in the mix. On this day we learned that at high slack with neither the river current nor the tidal current to associate to, the fish (especially chinook) tend to associate to the bottom structure of the bridge abutments. Just about at high slack we were trolling parallel to the east side of the bridge headed toward the Washington shore when Dave got a solid take down on the pink diver fished with about 55’ of line out. He played and landed a decent king in the 10 pound range. Earlier Kat was teasing him about his ‘manly’ pink diver. Dave got the last laugh proclaiming that the pink diver looked pretty manly with a feisty chinook in tow! We also ended our day with a double header going. Marlene hooked up and was playing her fish. As Kat picked-up her rod to clear it she got bit as well. It was fun directing traffic as the gals played out their fish, crossing over at least once during the mayhem. Eventually Kat lost her fish but we got Marlene’s to the boat and it was a keeper!

We had a somewhat abbreviated fishing day as I had to get back to camp to pack-up my girls and the tent camper for the trip home as Ms. Fish Princess had school orientation on Thursday. Also, Dave and Kat decided to go back out of Ilwaco at the afternoon slack current to see if they could locate the lost crab pot. At the close of our day we each had a keeper boated with other opportunities where fish long released or were netted and released because they were undersize chinook or native coho. Dave and Kat were unsuccessful in locating the missing crab gear and broke off the eye bolt on the bow of the Mink when they were putting her back on the trailer that evening. Tally for the day was 1 chinook and 3 coho for 4 anglers.

Thursday - May have been my favorite fishing day of the trip. Kat decided to stay in camp as it was her birthday. At the same time, she offered to cook breakfast for Dave and Marlene and me before we went out. I have to say it was nice to start off the day with a hearty breakfast before heading out on the water. We fished aboard the Get Reel, again launching out of Astoria and motoring across the sand bars and over to Dismal Nitch. Thankfully, the shallowest the water got on this day was about 4.5’. We had steady if not hot action having at least a take down on almost every drift of the day. There were some drifts as we got on into the afternoon where we had 2 or even three fish on at various stages of a single drift. Marlene kicked the skunk out for the day boating a decent silver of about 8 pounds fairly early into the program fishing my Kufa 10’6” rod paired with Tica line counter reel. It was fished as a lead rig followed by a customized Short Bus carbon fiber rotator and a fresh plug cut herring. This set-up was trolled just off bottom. In due course David landed a smaller silver for our second fish in the box. A few drifts later marked the highlight of the trip for me. We were headed downstream toward the bridge with plans to turn right and head for the Washington shore as the tide was turning and we figured we’d troll across and then start the upstream troll close to the shoreline. However, I decided to modify the plan as there was a distinct current seam toward mid-river form us and I saw a couple of rollers on the surface in that direction. As I approached the bridge I hooked a left instead of a right. I followed the bridge a short distance and then swung left again to line the boat up with the current seam where I had seen the rollers. Just as the boat swung back into the upriver direction Marlene’s rod went down hard. She set the hook and it was clear that we had a decent fish on as it was peeling line regularly and at will. Dave and I cleared our lines and I kicked the boat into neutral and manned the net. Dave did a nice job coaching his sis through the fight and she was equal to the task. The first time the fish came up we all got really excited to see that it was clearly the biggest fish any of us had hooked thus far during our fishing days. I had to take a few deep breaths and remind myself to relax and not rush the net job. Marlene had the fish up toward the boat 2 or 3 times and on each pass the fish would take out a bit more line and pull away from the boat before it was in net range. Finally she got it headed toward the boat and I dipped it cleanly with one smooth stroke. As I brought it on board she was squealing like an 8 year-old! We all let out a hoop and a holler as a mint bright 18.5’ upriver fish flopped on the deck. I have to say it was really a treat to play host to that experience and share it with my fishing buddy and his sister! A passing boat hollered over to us that in all the excitement we had knocked a raincoat overboard. I kicked the fish out of the net and successfully dipped the raincoat too. It took a few more drifts and a couple of drive-bys for me to finally land a keeper coho and we packed it in for the afternoon to go celebrate Kat’s birthday. Marlene was the big winner for the day tagging a fine mixed limit. Total tally 3 coho, 1 chinook, and a lifetime memory for 3 anglers! After we cleaned-up the boat and fish and ourselves we joined the rest of our group for a nice dinner in honor of Kat’s birthday at the Hungry Harbor restaurant in Long Beach. It was a fine day end-to-end.

Friday – Dave, Kat, and Marlene had to pack up their camps to be out of the park by 1100. I was just camped in a two man backpacking tent with limited ‘stuff’ to put away so I decided to get some packing done Thursday evening so I could hit the river one last time on my way home. Boy am I glad I made that call. Got up early and quietly packed my sleeping bag and tent. Left a ‘gone fishin’ note at the friends’ camp and was on my way to Astoria. Stopped in Chinook for bait and ice then stopped at Safeway to grab a sandwich for lunch. The lady at the sandwich counter was teasing me about being ‘late’ at about 0700. Have to admit I did have the launch somewhat to myself as most of the crowd was already out there. Shot across to the Dismal Nitch hole again and noticed a really solid foam line marking a current seam so I set out my spinner rod and started a downstream troll while I rigged-up my lead rod to fish the bottom. No hits on the spinner in the few minutes it was running so I baited the lead rod with a fresh plug cut herring and sent it to the bottom in about 28’ of water and set to cutting the remainder of my bait. Before I could even get two dozen herring cut I had two take downs and one fish in the boat, a nice 8 pound hatchery coho. All together I think I only made 4 or 5 drifts on the day. I had at least one take down and sometimes several on each drift. I had 10 total take downs and 8 fish on to get my two fish limit in the boat for the day. I managed to hook one hover fishing just above the bridge with about 65’ of line out in 80’ of water. Lost several right at the boat with the challenge of being my own net man for the day including one that was in the net and tail walked out before I could snap it shut on him. Worked out for the best as it was about a six pound silver and my ultimate limit fish was about a 12 pound king. Great day to wrap-up the B10 adventure for 2014. Was packed-up and off the water by 1100 and even had time to meet up with the gang in Long Beach so I could pick-up the rest of my fish which they had in cold-storage and caravan home together. Tally for the day was 1 chinook and 1 coho for one angler.

Already looking forward to next year’s adventures.

Good luck and tight lines everyone!

Fish Dawg

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