I survived

A full week in the mouth of the Columbia River that is. I just home from some very hard fishing down at the mouth, I stayed with 4 other guys in a fishing hideout, and it was pretty fun.
Day one, I went out on a fantastic boat called the Surf Scooter, 60 feet of salmon killing fun. We went over the Columbia bar at about 0530 and headed south nearly 15 miles. It was a long trip but we got into some big salmon numbers, and even got to watch a few whales working the same bait balls we were trolling through. I got to see a few guys puking and others trying to sleep it off, lol, all the while the fish just kept rolling in. We boated about 30 salmon, 20 of those went home. Not a bad day, if you like that sort of fishing.
Day two, I jumped in a Striper with the boys, and we fished what we knew hard hard hard. We saw a half way decent bite go through the river so our hopes were higher than the first day, where they had only seen 3 fish caught all day. I broke a nice fish off, donating an expensive diver and flasher combo to the depths. Immediately after retying and rigging, fish on............nice little chinook in the net, our first of the day. Slow for us, but getting better.
Day three, I was in my boat, and the bite was even better. We got one stinking fish, one of the largest hatchery Coho's I have ever got, but still only one fish. What the heck???
Day four, this time I was in an Arima, and we hit it from day break until 3, saw a ton of fish caught and only went 2 for 4. What the heck? We did release a LARGE tule that had it been caught the day before would have hands down one the big tule pool that was going.
We played lots of poker, I did well until the last night, my head just wasn't in it. I had a blast and would do it again in a heart beat, thanks all who were in there with me.

Jacks or better

Man, I played my first game of poker last night since my slaughter victory on the 4th of July. 7 players, and I placed 4th, What the hell? I played at a game that I have NEVER done well at............these people are good. I have come to realize that in order for me to win at poker, I need to be playing really marginal players, even more marginal than myself. Even though I stunk it up, I had fun and had a few laughs with some good people.

Hopefully this week at the coast, I can win my money back.

Wow what a week, not....

The week went by pretty uneventfully. I don't know about you guys, but I don't like boring weeks. I like there to be some story to come out of each and every one.

On my day off I put all my rafting paraphernalia away, and bought a couple fish for the kid's aquarium. Woohoo........
I was a bit pumped to go play the first poker game I have been ready for in a month or more, and the 5 o'clock bell at work couldn't come soon enough. Once out of "the rock", I drove over to Gateway and parked outside of the house where the game was going to be. I was on the phone with a good friend, talking about poker, how original, the owner of the house came walking out with a can of spray paint. He walked up to my truck like he was going to tag it or something and I rolled down my window. He asked me if I was there to play some poker, I told my buddy on the phone I would call him back and answered YES! R. tells me that the game isn't until tomorrow night, WHAT! I guess I should look at my emails a little closer from now on, CRAP! I said see ya later, and fought the traffic back to Beaverton. Watched an episode of American Chopper and got myself all jazzed up to buy a bike again, and than went to bed.

Exciting, yeah right. I have next week off, I am staying at a house with 5 other guys in Longbeach, WA. We are going to fish our little black hearts out, so I should have a story or two from that, until than GFY!

Rafting sucks

This past weekend was hot! I drove over to Maupin Friday after work and as I went through Sandy my temp gauge said 77 degrees. The sun was setting and the sky was blue, I got to Maupin an hour and a half later and the temp read 85 degrees. Welcome to the Oregon desert!
My buddy popped out of his truck and immediately hit the water for some last light fishing. Nothing..........the only thing that was biting were the mosquitoes. Within in 10 minutes I had around 50 bites and that was just the warm up feast I was later to find out. The bar was the normal Maupin bar scene, a mixture of locals and Portlanders. Not all that exciting anymore to tell you the truth. When we got back to camp, I tossed my mattress and bag into the bed of my truck and watched the meteor shower until I fell asleep. That's when the swarm descended on me, I woke up to the warmth, I mean scorching blazing hot rays of the morning sun only to find out that I had been the main course at a mosquito 3 course banquet. My hands being the first two courses followed by my face to round it off. Nice!
The raft trip with off without a hitch, the old Ghetto Goo in the picture there held up for what may have been it's last voyage down the river. My crew was good and hit everything just right. I couldn't ask for any more from them. After the trip we sat about having a beer and watching the impressive meteor shower again for a second night. Midnight rolled around and I got a wild hair up my ass, I stood up shook peoples hands and got in my truck. Giving a little tap on the horn, I drove home. It was a little rough driving, I was dead tired and all I could think of was getting home to my bed, my mosquito-free bed.......I stopped a couple times to run my head under the cooler water and grab a burrito from Taco Hell but I made it in at 3am.
What a ride, thanks all who were there I had fun. Frank, I hope it washes off.

Weekend cometh

Raft is loaded, paddles are bound, jackets are piled. This weekend is going to be a wet one!!!!!

Tattoo it

Had yesterday off. I scrounged up some money and made an appointment to get some tattoo work done. I am working on a half sleeve, and I am almost done. After yesterday I am down to 1.5 hours left on the inside. The grand total is going to be like 21 hours, 21 hours of pain. And that doesn't include the lovely feeling you have the following two days after getting it.
Yesterdays was the most painful for some reason. That inside arm and armpit is SENSITIVE! The lines and the shading didn't hurt all that much, but we did color background yesterday and that hammered me............Today it feels like someone hit me with some 60 grit paper and a baseball bat.

Pain, they say it makes you stronger, but last night I had trouble lifting a glass of ice tea up for a drink. Stronger my ass!

Uneventful weekend

OK, I am getting dull..............I woke up at the crack and a half before dawn on Saturday and met my buddy for a trip to the coast for some fishing. Passed a few boats on the way and dumped her in the bay. Trolled for 8 hours, we had one fish on that I promptly lost and that was it! Did get to see some friends out there, kinda funny, when you get to a certain level of fishing, not matter what time of year it is and with no prior planning, you seem to fish around the same guys all the time. It is kinda nice, we get to talk and yell at each other when we are fishing. Makes a no fish day a little bit better, a little bit.
Sunday I woke up with the worst sunburn of the summer, my legs. I can't put on shorts pants nothing! It sucks..........we had plans to go to the beach today, but I don't feel like sitting in the sun. So i washed the truck and did a test blow up of the raft and got a few things ready for the rafting trip coming up this weekend. Hopefully that will render more interesting blog inserts. Till than, KMHWA!

Summer of steel

Ehhhhhhh ehhhhh ehhhhhhh ehhhhhh, that is what I woke up too last night at 0230. I stood up and turned off the alarm. I couldn't figure out what was going on, than I remembered, fishing day............................ding, woke up now.

I got dressed, loaded the rig and headed North. Met a friend and hit the river. The morning was cold, but with a forcast of 100 degrees I knew it wouldn't last. By 7 am we had four fish in the box. I had limited and we were well on our way to a FBL, (Full boat limit). Skipper lost a nice fish on a screaming run, and I lost one that just went completely mad when I set the hook. The 5th fish was caught and we struggled for the 6th, FBL, for the rest of the day. We never got it, and the temp did in fact hit 100. Fat guys don't do well in that heat, I am going on a diet.

The release

The kid and I woke up early this morning. The alarm went off at 0400 and I laid there in bed trying to figure out what that noise was. My brain grudgingly clicked on and I got up. Loaded the car and woke up the kid, we were on the road to the fishing hole. Now it has been 90+ degrees here for the last 5 weeks or so, so we were in shirts, sweatshirts and flip flops. When the sun popped up, all we could see were big thunder heads and it began to rain. This was going to be an interesting day.
We went about our work, setting the lines out and readying the anchor rope bag and other tasks. Our hog-line neighbors were pretty amazed to see a 9 year old girl doing all this hog-line boat work. I am not, cuz if she doesn't she has to swim back to port. After an hour or so, I think I dozed off, only to be awaken by that lovely sound of an angry reel. Our lure had done it's job and fooled the wily steelhead into investigating a bit too close. The reel clicked as it tried to stop the fishes first run. I jumped up, kinda dazed, and picked up the rod, the action on the rod was gone. Our neighbors said something along the line of, tried to fool ya didn't he. I gave them a shrug and pulled back on the rod, trying to get the plug working again. I didn't feel anything, not the weight, the plug, nothing. I kept reeling, HEY! the fish is on the line and running right at the boat. I hand it off to the kid, only to find out it has run across my other line and we now have two rods fighting this one fish. The kid pumps and oohs and ahhs at the steelhead thrashes it head back and forth on goes on a couple of good runs. She gets it close to the boat and I see that it is a decent fish, probably close to 12 lbs or so. Nice fish, I pat the kid on the back and say do what you gotta do to keep em there I'm getting the net. As I turn back to the stern with the net, she says he is gone. I look out and sure enough, the fish had escaped her. No biggie, she got to do the fun part at least, the battle. Heck, what do we need fresh fish for? Come to find out the fish had plain straightened the hook on the lure out and got lucky enough to not have to take a tour of my net and get his picture taken.
That was our only chance, I have been giving the kid a hard time about loosing the fish all day, but truth be told, she did awesome and made me proud.