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...

Fishing Astoria

We went to Astoria and I think we got it right. Lasttime we went we didn't do anything wrong we just didn't put in the time and be consitent.
We went down on Wednesday(8/19) and Saturday(8/22). Both days had great weather for Astoria, little wind and lots of boats made for rough water. Wednesday we hit a few cohos and a small chinook, it seems that most of the days fish were native Coho (bummer). Saturday we did the same and hit them hard. My boat can troll 4 poles on a good day so we put 2 poles out each side with 10oz of lead and 2 poles out the back with 8oz of lead. I think that if you get to fancy you are just giving yourself a headache so we all used moching rigs (5/4). I put a #4 spinner blade and 4 red beads on my rig, it hit a springer this year and hooked a Chinook and the largest Coho Saturday. We used anchovy and cut herring soaked in rocksalt water. We trolled infront of Warrenton in the shipping channel at about 2mph, just fast enough for the stuff to work right.
For the day we boated 3 Coho returned 4 Coho and lost 2 fish which one was a chinook.
A great day if you ask me!

crab map

oh I printed a little map and added some notes.

The yellow line is hyw 101

The shaded box if jetty fishery

The Xs are the two spots I put the traps

The red buoy is on the bottom

The train bridge is near the top

you can see a map without my note at google maps if you type in Brighton, OR

crabbing

I am one to love a crab or two. So in the spirit of the hunt a few years ago I went and bought some rings. I soon came to the opinion that that was to much work. I really like the crab traps or pots as they are called. I have crabbed a few places but lets get real I like to do it the easy way. Yesterday I went to the Nehalem bay and launched my boat at the Jetty Fishery (for $10) and went crabbing. So I took 5 traps and 1 ring as my weapons of choice. Most people seem to use the line pattern, that is they put the traps in a straight line from the ocean into the bay. Yesterday I went with the wall pattern. I went from one side of the bay to the other. I like to start 30 minutes before low tide and have the traps baited and ready to go in the water. I put the first trap 20 yards inland from the red buoy and about 10 yards toward the jetty. The next trap went 20 yards inland and about 10 yards on the opposite side of the buoy. I kept moving over 10 yards for each trap. Next I pulled the boat about 20 yards toward the ocean and anchored up in about 15 feet of water. With the anchor out we just put the ring out the front of the boat and hooked the buoy to the back for ten minutes and just pulled that one. When we were all done placing the traps it was about 5 minutes before low tide. The kids took turns pulling up the ring and it was full many times, but mostly females. After about an hour we went back for the traps, starting with the deepest one first. Would you know that that one just had a few small crabs and the bait was mostly full. As we pulled the traps in shallower water more crabs showed up. Then we moved up the the railroad bridge, placed all the traps in a straight line and went to have crab for lunch. After lunch we picked up the traps and headed for home and a scoop of ice cream on the way. For the day we only got 8 crab, 5 six inchers and 3 seven plus inchers (we weighed on at 2lbs). For the amount of effort it was a fair number but next time I am not going deeper then 20 ft.

clear lake, Mt. hood, Oregon

My favorite mountain lake is mt. hood's clear lake. From my house it is about an hour and a half drive to the boat ramp. Most days I can get there in the morning and leave by lunchtime with a limit of nice rainbow trout. There is a few brook trout in there but it is mostly a stock fishery with all levels of camping for city fokes. I think Reserve America  has the twenty plus improved camp sites for reservations.

When you fish the lake in a boat you have four main areas, dam area, the spring area, the creek area and the middle. It is not a large lake or deep lake but when the snow is good or spring rain is heavy it can be great into late summer and never count out the last two weeks of the season because the fish know it is closing(hahaha). I am going to breifly discuss each area now.

Dam area. (SE)

This is the deepest area of the lake at 16 to 24 feet depending on the water levels. The key to how you fish this is really the wind, no wind you use a standard trolling rig, with wind you anchor 20 to 30 yards from the dam and try on of the three main ways to fish most sites. 1 - bobber with 36inches of leader and a worm(my buddy always uses potskys eggs), 2 - half a once lead with rainbow powerbait(but given time most power bait flavors will work), 3 - casting roostertails or small blue foxes toward the dam, let them drop deep then bring them in slow, the fish that hit this are fewer but bigger.

Spring area(or spring arm) (North)

When you are standing at the water on the boat launch look to the right and way way way down there you will see a field of green grass, that is the spring. This works very well if you have high winds, motor up to the end of the lake(watch for stumps). Turn toward the dam and watch you depthfinder when the bottom levels out start trolling. In early june(2009) the depth was about 12 feet but normally it is 9 or 8 feet. You need to keep a good trolling speed (about setting 3 on my medium size boat or 1.1 mph) and slowly let out a lot of line(40 pulls or about 60 feet plus). ALWAYS ALWAYS set your pole down and let the spinner work(a ford fender should tap tap bump tap tap bump), this is a good thing. If your pole is pulling hard you are going to fast, if you pole is going bump nothing bump nothing then go faster now or you will catch the biggest fish "the earth", you really don't want that.

As your boat enters the wind you should turn down your trolling motor because the wind will push you. The best bite should be right where the wind gets a good ripple on the waters surface because the fish can't see you. I prefer to troll 20 yards off either shore switching each pass.

Creek area(or creek arm)(West)

From the shore line of the boat launch if you look straight across and just a little to the right you will see the lake fade into the shore and appear to go around a corner. Motor your boat up there and you will see it gets very shallow up in the end. I have seen people fly fish in the shallow area and even seen a fish caught that way. I take my boat to the gravel boat launch and setup about 40 yards off shore. I start trolling straight for the middle of the lake and after about 60 yards I slowly head left to get about 25 yards off shore. There is a spot on that shore that comes out to a point and the fish there can be the best, most of my brook trout have been caught there. Always error on the slow troll there and watch out for shore fishermen, it is the best spot in the lake to shore fish.

The Middle

You can fish the middle on all kinds of days and it is more active for metal(triple teasers, roaster tails and wedding rings). I like to start in the spring arm and troll through the middle all the way down to the dam avoiding the boat launch side of the lake. When you are directly across form the boat launch you can see mt. hood, grandma said "If I can't see mt. hood I can't catch a fish".

general rules

I only use ford fenders or a knockoff. If it is cloudy silver, if it is sunny gold. The last few trips I picked up a few split gold and silver and they have worked very well.

I use half a night crawler on a eagle claw #6 worm hook with 24inches of 6lb leader, they have a nice offset and if you are having a hard time hooking them you can take your needle nose pliers and open them up a bit. You can use metal but if you do you might never hook a brook trout, which I prefer.

I don't used weight in clear lake, it is far to shallow and spinners are running $9.00 these days.

Overall this is a great place to take the family to fish, camp and swim.

todays try

So the fishing thing didn't quite go the way I planned. I went out after a short day of work. I got out there and the place was a zoo. Big boats and jet skiis everywhere made huge waves up by the shoreline. I got some sun and went for icecream on the way home... hahaha.. I am thinking that I will try this again when the rain comes..

time to go fishing

I am going to give a try to a new thing for me.. I am trying to catch squaw fish on purpose.. I know how novel I normally catch them when I am trolling for steelhead in the sandy river. Today I am going to fish above the river with worms and corkies. so if you have any ideas let me know......

North West Oregon fishing

Favorite fishing spots for sturgeon:

My favorite spot for fishing for sturgeon is the 100 foot hole just down from the fishery launch on the Columbia River. This year we hit a number of shakers, a few keepers, and landed 1 oversize.


My favorite spot for salmon:

For springers, I like to troll up-river under the I-5 bridge.

For summer, my favorite spot is up the mouth of the Sandy River in all the holes.

For fall fish, my favorite place is anchored on the main channel next to the rock wall on Government Island.