With not much happening in the Tri-Cities area, a couple of Yakamanians and I headed down to the mid Columbia to fish the mouth of one of the tribs for steelhead and maybe a Chinook if we were lucky. After Mr. Smallbladder squirmed in the passenger seat for a couple hours of driving, we arrived at our destination.

We opted to start of trolling and were quickly rewarded with a nice native steelhead. After re-deploying lines, we picked up another one within about ten minutes. I thought we were in for a busy day. However, the bite slowed after the second fish. We kept at it with bites coming sporadically in flurries with boats around us. A couple hours in, we get a really good bend in one of the rods.

First Fall Chinook of the year in my boat!



The wind picked up, but we kept with the troll making a few passes with nothing to show. With the slow action, we decided to try and drum up a food bite with one of the guys cooking some breakfast burritos. We made it through a full skillet with no signs of life. One pass later we get to bonk the first steelhead of the season on my boat:


Not a monster by any means, but it's smoke up fine.

As three o'clock approached, we considered the prospect of a long drive home. It was time to make the troll back to the launch. For the entire day, the boat had consisted of one person catching fish and two spectators. On the final approach, I felt a thud transmitted to the hull. I looked over and saw that same rod folded over. I put the kicker in neutral, and we two spectators started clearing lines. At that point, one of the other reels started screaming. Woo hoo, first double of the year.

After 140 feet of line peeled off the second rod, we watched a big steelhead tail walking in front of the nearest boat. I grabbed the nets and got ready to for whichever fish would give up first. The first fish stayed closed to the boat with short runs and sat on the bottom. The steelhead went on another 5 runs complete with cartwheels and tailwalking, but she was the first to give in. I wish we we would have gotten pictures, but it was a quick unhook in the water and time to tend to the second fish.

She dogged us for several minutes until we finally giving in, and I netted the second fall Chinook of the season.





I still haven't caught a king since May. It's not all bad being a spectator though. It gets me excited for this upcoming fall.