Fished below Bonne today, saw about 125 fish caught. Saw 3 of them go back in the drink. Everyone was catching multiple fish. Whata day! Get out there before Tuesday!

Hey Zaq, why the angry face at the end of your post - that's a good thing happening, right? I fished out of St. Helen's yesterday and it was quite slow where we went. We still managed 1 big one and 1 small one. Seems the hot spots have been in the very lower river out of Cathlamet and up below Bonneville. I think I'll be fishing below Bonneville Mon. &/or Tue. - Going to eat a springer steak right now. Back after dinner.

RT

RT: enjoy the fish. I had mine last night. REEEAAAALLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYY GOOD;

Fished with Zaq and Eggs today. Eggs finally got one of his own.

Giz...

Hay Giz and RT GOOOOOD !!!! numbers out of Cathlamet This week but has slowed fri and sat Bathtub Bob is tired....

Hi Giz, thanks for another report from Bonny. Tell Eggs to get over here and register to tell his side of the story. He can post at both boards. Tell him I said "Holy Kwikfish Batman, Eggs caught a springer. Then anyone's grandma can backbounce one out of that area!" .... Just teasing Roy, he's a top fisher that has had a string of bad luck fishing the slow Willamette at O.C. before work each day. He just needed to get out in some flow, and in the flow . Yeeeehaaaaw! ...

I have also heard that fishing deeper water has been best up there. 20' to 40' depths, unlike the lower river. Using the huge Jumbo Jet Planers to get the Kwikies down deeper is gettin it done! I like to run the Kwiks and Mag Warts from the 'Oar Tree' hole on down below along Ives Island in 15' to 30' of water also. Can't wait 'til Mon./Tue! Has anyone been gettin 'em on twirling prawns up there? Should be deadly for them up there too. Later. - Steve

Edit: Bob, your post popped after I clicked mine in. You should be tired! You've been hammering those springers down there out of Cliffton Channel for a few weeks now. You gettin tired of eating them yet? ... BTW, get reel Zaq & Giz .

[ 04-14-2001: Message edited by: RT ]

Thought I'd join Zaq & Gizmo The Reel Timber man

Ya RT - It was a glorious moment. Once The Reel Zaq and the Reel Gizmo Man came out of shock that I was playing with a fish - I finally got them to net the fish.

Your comments on depth to fish below Bonneville were right on target. The one thing I might add is I saw lots of bait being used yesterday. Prawns and Roe were doing well.

TRBOE---you weren't suppost to tell what they were hitting on.

The reel story head lines for the day """
Eggs lost his virginity....Blood all over the boat...." film at 11.

RT.. no way you making your run from the oak tree down.

There were hog lines from 300 yds below the ramp at Bon. to past Beacon rock.


BT Bob...How's it going. We need to go fishing again. Had a great time. Where are the pics.

Giz..

[ 04-15-2001: Message edited by: The Reel Gizmo Man ]

you guys can have bonniville. Fished there last week and the week before and I am tired of the crowd. Took yesterday and today off and will fish mon and tues. yes fishing is great up there at times (our best two days upi there were 16 hooked on day and 7 kept then 17 hooked and 9 kept) not worth the crowd though. Fished lower on the river and caught fish everytime out and didnt have more than a couple boats within 100 yards much more relaxing. Have at it up there.

Anyone going out Monday? I need one more chance!

RT, I hate to answer for Zaq but the reason for the angry face is that too many people are thumping wild fish. I don't know if it's because of a sense of urgency due to the up-and-coming closure, but it was especially bad on Sunday. Due to a late start my fishing buddies and I opted to plunk below the dam. The bite was very good by both bank and sled standards. From mid-morning to about 4pm we went 8 for 11. Of the 8 we landed 3 were hatchery and 5 were wild. The 5 wild springers were carefully released by our crew. But, for the members of the hogline out in front of us the hatchery to wild ratio was apparently 100% hatchery Every one of the 20+ springers brought to net got thumped. Also, later in the afternoon a few of the guys in the line (probably after a few brewskis) started sarcastically whistling and howling after each wild fish we released. Needless, to say this mockery didn't sit well with the fellas. Fortunately, cool heads prevailed. We did call the poaching hotline on our way out, though. We also stopped by the ramp to inform the fish checker, but to our surprise with us standing there he turned a blind eye to 2 wild springers mixed in a creel of 8 fish and all he said was "nice catch." Now I can't fault the fishchecker because he's there mainly to record catch numbers and he probably wants to avoid as much conflict as possible. But, you got to think that our enforcers and managers are indeed watching and will factor in poaching as a large part of that incidental take of listed springers. If/when the closure is confirmed later this week, sportfishers, as a group, have nobody to blame but ourselves.

peace out...

Stories like that really make me mad.

Ho & Zaq, even though most of those unclipped fish are of hatchery origin it is very unfortunate that some guys are keeping unclipped fish! Some of those being kept are native fish needing protection!! And also because that can only hurt our chances at a re-opening. There are plenty of clipped fish to go around. Glad you called the poaching line Ho. ...

Hi Eggs! Sure glad to see another friendly face from my neck o'the woods here . Good going on the springer. After this closure be sure to keep me in mind for a couple O.C. mornings when that comes on. Hey, is it true what I heard? - that you finally got so mad at the slow fishing at O.C. that you cut a power line into the river and scooped up about 100 fish? Naaaah. But I heard you saw this unfortunate event? What happened?

RT

As a follow-up to Hoh's comments, the fish checker is there to check catches, not enforce - they lack enforcement authority in part for that very reason. However, they record marked and unmarked information with the catch data, and that will be used to calculate whether the sport fishery has reached its quota of incidental take of wild springers. The knotheads could end up reducing fishing opportunity for everyone else by retaining unmarked chinook. Makes me want to sink a boat sometimes . . .

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Where's Fishcop when you need him. Hard to beleive that WF&G and OF&G don't watch that area carefully with the high numbers of fish below the dam. Should have been some boats, rigs and stuff confiscated and some big tickets levied.

here here!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys fished the wind yesterday, the wind kicked up, and the fishn got hot for abuot 25 boats while the other boats wernt doing very good, the fish were mostly in 1 spot, we went 6 for 8 fish were averaging 15,16lbs. A friend of mine that guides there had 5 customers in his boat and got skunked ,we told him to slow his troll down he didnt. We were using a scent that I found in a past post, I think it came from RT, about a year ago, it was a mixture of a bunch of oils. If this came from RT . Thanks alot Im going to use it also in the fall

Good day Fishbear! And thanks for mentioning the custom baitoil posts I put up long ago. Cna anyone good with the search feature find them and bring them back up to the top again? would appreciate it much; would save me from having to rewrite them. These combo do work really well.

Planned on fishing Frenchman's bar. Never got out of the Willamette. Hooked six fish for 4 poles and boated two keepers. Best day of the year for us and it was not in the columbia - go figure.

Heck, with the lower river closed and the damn netting in the upper area, Where does a guy need to go now.