Hi all,
So I guess I have been missing from the blog. I was looking at info on running a blog and #1 most important thing is posting at least once a week and I am kinda a fail at that, lol. So that being said I am going to try to post a small amount of information about each trip. I will not be over sharing info on small bodies of water but as for the big places I am a tell all kinda person...
Monday 5/15/17
I went to the wind river and met up with a friend and his son. Last week I picked up a fish by myself running Pro-trolls and 3.5 spinners. I use both Pro-troll brand and Short bus 360 and find the only difference in results is more matching the color to the conditions. I have better luck in low vis with the bright short bus gear and in high vis I do best with Pro-troll silver with a purple stripe. As for the spinners when I buy them I have had equal results with Simon and VIP spinners, I am a big fan of the candy backs, maybe just confidence but I have been getting fish on them.
With our 2 pole endorsement we ran 5 poles and right off the bat we had I bit but it didn't hook up. I am thinking since we were going down river it might have hit from the side and just had the blade. As the day went on the wind just got worse until it was to hard to keep good action. The guys bobber fishing were doing a little with the fish on the point, we saw them pick up a few but the fish looked darker then normal, I don't know what to think about that.

Tomorrow I am going out, I will post a little about that.
Tight lines,
Robert

Hey everybody,
Last week I went fishing at Henry Hagg Lake. For most of the day the weather was good with light wind, sprinkles and only a few showers. The day started with a great trout right off the bat, it gave me hope.  But lots of actions was not to be, we had a few bites but just couldn't seem to catch anything so because we couldn't feel our feet I decided to call it an early day and after travel time got back home before 3:00. After dinner I loaded the video into my laptop and another disappointment was to fallow. The water clarity was worse then my last trip and with the light conditions lower it was hard to see anything at normal trolling and when we went deep the video was just black. I deleted the video and moved on.

I really wanted to get out on Wednesday or Thursday and get some good video so Sunday I looked at the weather forecast and saw a bit of hope, Wednesday is was going to be overcast and dry.  I was hoping to get down to some of the small coastal creeks but the forecast call for record rain Monday, and it didn't disappoint with over 3 inches. Every river, creek and mud puddle was totally blown out. Wednesday came and I thought that the Columbia was the only river that had a chance of being able to be fished. I went to my home launch and headed up river to the Sandy River area and it was a swirling mess of sticks and mud. Then I went up farther and checked out the holes one by one until I found one I liked. I started the day with a plan, I brought out for cameras, the Canon for shooting video in the boat, the Polaroid action cam for shooting poll action and 2 Okuma under water cameras. The plan was to fish a sturgeon pole while shooting a how to cut plug video. In the water went the sturgeon pole with squid and no problems. Then with no rain I set up the Canon and started shooting the cut plug video and it went great. When I put the cut plugs in the water I could not see then which was my biggest concern. I finished me video and started packing up. Pulling up the sturgeon pole I brought up a little guest, the biggest crawdad I have ever caught. Until a few weeks ago I didn't even know that the Columbia had a crawdad population but I guess all the times we thought we had scalpin it could have been crawdads. I packed up and shot a video of the ride home.

After dinner I popped out the video and loaded it into the laptop, what a disappointment, all the underwater video was unusable. The sturgeon camera was just black with no light penetration to the bottom and the cut plug video was around 6 inches visibility. All the silt or mud in the water just made it impossible for light to pass through the water or the camera to shoot through it, more garbage video. On the plus side the surface video was great now only If I had underwater video to go with it.

At this point it looks as if I will just have to try again next week, there is no record rain in the forecast so I will just shoot for Wednesday because the clearing on Tuesday might clear up the big rivers.

The season has changed and the Columbia river Chinook are all but gone so yesterday I went sturgeon fishing.  The dinosaurs were biting light and you just have to leave your pole until they are taking line. I find that in areas of slow current they tend to bite light, in areas like the wall above Roaster Rock on the Washington side, which is a great hole, they tend to hit hard because the bait looks like it is going to wash down river. I put up a video on my you tube channel of the best one, and I was totally not watching my pole. I didn't know I had the fish until he was jumping, thanks to the fact that cameras don't play solitaire we got the video.
I guess I should have known this but there is Crawdads in the Columbia river, for some reason I thought they would be in small bodies of water or mountain lakes. You could totally put a trap in where I was and hit a few Crawdads, I am not suggesting that I would eat the ones from the Columbia but you could catch them there...
Happy fishing and enjoy whatever you do outdoors

https://youtu.be/O5pNNeGFOjY

Hello people,
I have started a new youtube account. Currently it is just underwater video but I am going to add some beginner how to setup videos real soon. I think that most amateurs like myself are just not sure if they are doing the right thing and when they see the pros catching lots of fish get a little discouraged, DON'T BE, they do it everyday, all day. So I just want to pass on a few things I have learn and show you some cool video that supports some of these things.

I bought 2 new cameras that perform better under water than the Polaroid. These Okuma Water Wolf cameras are smaller and have a more streamline shape which makes the troll perfectly so you can see all the action.  The only down side is that you have no setting control, on and off.

My biggest pet peeve is hitting the bottom hard to fish the bottom, I have seen on the video that when you hit the bottom your gear stops performing and you are not fishing. I am not saying that a bump here and there is not ok, but shorten your dropper and don't ground out (lol).
Here is a picture of the cameras and you can see some of the video on my youtube channel, it is the same name as my blog with no spaces, the search will want to add the spaces, or try the link below.

www.youtube.com/channel/UCTqNye5k94DYmQjJ5AASAKw

Hi All,
Look what I got for Christmas, it is a Polaroid action cam XS100.

I have been looking at this camera for quite sometime so I put it on my Amazon wish list and under the tree is was. lol. Last weekend I took a broke flasher and with the help of a drill and a few bolts I made a camera planer. I tested the troll but due to mental error I was not able to get and video yet. With any luck I will be getting some video of some rainbows in the next few weeks. Wish me luck...

to long between fish

So it has been a while since I go a salmon, maybe 4 weeks, lol. I went out on the Columbia river by the house a few times during the peak of the run but they just weren't biting, even the big dogs had a hard time. So I gave up and at this point I need to learn how to back troll a kwik fish, "next".
On wednesday we put a few crab traps in the boat and grabbed the salmon poles, off we went. We drove down to Tillamook bay with the plan of placing the crab traps before the tide turned and be fishing as it came in. We put the crab traps baited and out, then we started cutting the herring and putting them on the hooks. Before you know it we were all fishing. It was foggy and the bar was closed. We trolled between the jetties for about an hour and was nothing. We went over and checked the traps, they were full of baby crabs eatting our bait, bummer. We rebaited what we could and off we went to fish. The bar had open while we were doing the traps so we slowly motored out to the bouy. When we got out there we saw a boat upside down. We called 911 and they said the people were ok and they would send the Coastgaurd. We saw them coming and we went back to fishing. I pointed the boat to the North and started trolling. Around we went and didn't get a thing, then we saw a boat in front of us get one but it was not a keeper. I looped us around about three times then we headed in for lunch. We grabbed the traps and still only babies with us out of bait. After lunch we headed straight up the the ghost hole and trolled the top of it. Lots of fish were jumping in the 8 to 10 foot depth, seals might have been the cause of that. As soon as we got a good troll and cleared the grass it was bam bam "fish on". He fought a bit then he rolled over and wrapped himself in the line, he was done without a chance. I reeled him up and made a possitive ID on him then clubbed him, "good night". After that chinook was put awaywe restarted and when we got to the end of our hole I started to turn and boom pole went down. Jason passed the pole to his son and he brought that fish up. I netted the fish and snapped the line at the same time, but after I IDed the fish it had to go back in the water, nexttime. We trolled back towards the dock and headed home. I think it was a time thing. Our method was the same as we use anywere just a bit less weight and fresh or frozen herring plug cut.
Happy fishing!

anchor up

Well I guess you have to put your misses as well as your hits. This week and weekend I spent my spare time at home on the Columbia. It is nice to be able to drive down the street and be in the water. I got to tell you the fall river run has been my slowest fishing of all time. Yes I have caught a few big fish on the fall run.
On Thursday after work I went to bouy 49 and anchored up on the shelf on the Oregon side. We sat for hours and seen one fish. Some people came and went, then a guy pulls up next to me and puts his line out. Five minutes go by and he gets a steelhead. I reeled up to check my stuff and he says you got to much line on your weight. So I reduced the line to 32 inches. He said "that when fishing in 15 to 25 feet of water you never want to use more then 36 inches of dropper line". I am never one to turn down free advise but still no fish.
On Saturday afternoon that spot was full so I hit tried a spot lower but no luck there, so I move to the line at the mouth of the Sandy. We sat there most of the time and saw a few fish caught around 6pm. The way I got it figured is that a bit goes around one hour past high tide, might just be nothing, oh well.
Sunday was a joke by the fish gods so I will omit that one...