Ok the wife is dragging me to one of her horse shows this weekend in the Vacouver area. Problem is I haven't spent any time down there fishing so I don't know the area.
Can you great fish slayers out there give me a couple of ideas. I'll be there Fri-Sun. The wife suggested I tow the drift boat along.
My 13yo son is looking for old dad to come through with a good experiance.
I have all the equipment to fish for just about anything, I do alot of steelhead and salmon fishing on the SKY\Snoh systems, just lack the knowledge of the Vancouver, Wa area.
HELP please!

If I was posed with the same delima (drift boat fishing near Vancouver) I would be thinking Drano Lake or the Lewis right now. The Lewis is 30-45 minutes back from whence you came, and is a nice drift (except for the savage bank fisherman at the meat hole, DO NOT FISH THROUGH THEM if you value your life). Drano lake is more of a plunking/trolling show and it's about 1hr 15 min east on hwy 14 (quicker down the OR side). Do searches on the board for either fishery and you should be set!

Good luck!

Holy cow, there are about 20,000 chinook going over Bonneville every day right now and they have to go right by Vancouver. People fish it with 12' Smokers and I've seen many drift boats. Just look for the boats, there may be one or two out there.

Go to Washougal on Hiway 14. About A mile past the papermill, you'll see a marina on your right. Put in, and motor upstream (I'm assuming you have a motor) about 2 miles. There will be a kazillion boats where the fish are. Anchor in one of the lines. Be happy. You can catch fish, but it's not quite as good, right out in front of the marina on the oregon side. There is a pronounced shelf marked by the red can. Also good fishing down near the mouth of the Sandy, which is across and down a mile or so.

Stay in the channel on the way up. About a mile above the marina, towards the washington side, way out in the middle of the river is a reef that may be close to the surface right now. It's near, and to the north of the green can marking the channel.

You'll need a good anchor and plenty of rope.

You might want to consider just takin' a fly rod and fishing the Kalama. It is about 30 minutes north of Vancouver. Good for both steelhead and silvers, picked up a 14# coho this morning, lost two.
Most of the river is also open for bait and hardware. Too low to float in anything but a pontoon.
E-mail me if you want more info.

Hey, thanks guys for the ideas. I think I'll end up doing the Lewis and maybe the Kalama. I'm leaving the boat behind on this trip and doing the old hoof thing. Again thanks for the ideas I knew there were a graet bunch of guys on this board!