Fishing....fishing.....and more fishing....

Sunday before last the Pennington's and the Upshaw's got together.Corina was going off to college in a couple of days and we were invited over to do some fishing at their pond. Lorelei took the next few pictures.

Below: Corina with a bluegill she caught on a hand line.

Adam and Pam drove over from Portland to join the fun. Below Pam holds a nice largemouth bass while Adam and Cody look on.

Cody pulled in a nice Crappie!

Below: Jon and Corina work together on another largemouth.

We had a great day with wonderful family and friends. Everyone caught fish. Adam took a couple of the bass home to eat. The Upshaw's insisted that we stay for dinner. It really was a nice day.

So then last Thursday I suggested to Lorelei that we go salmon fishing. I had a reliable report that the salmon were in, so we headed for the coast. The forecast was for rain, so we bundled up and headed out. It wasn't long before Lorelei had a salmon on the line. It jumped and ran and jumped some more. I told her it was probably foul hooked and then a few seconds later it was off. Lorelei was bummed but I reminded her that if it was foul hooked we would have had to release it. Now I should have stopped and explained every possible scenario for needing to release a salmon that you catch. Not doing this was going to bite me this day. See until this day Lorelei had not hooked, fought, landed and brought home to eat a salmon totally on her own.

So about an hour later Lorelei's rod bends over and her reel starts screaming. It's a beautiful chrome bright salmon, fresh from the ocean. As it swims by the boat I can see it's legally hooked in the mouth. Lorelei fights the fish all on her own. She did great!

As I scoop the shiny salmon into the net, Lorelei's hands are shaking and she is almost in tears of delight. As I look closer at the fish, I realize that it is a native Coho. Now I know the drill well and without thinking I say something like "well we have to throw this one back". Lorelei says something like "I know you are just kidding". One look at her face and I realized that she really did think I was kidding. When she realized that in fact I was not kidding I thought maybe she was going to throw me back and keep the salmon.

Below, Lorelei musters a smile before returning her salmon to the river.

About 15 minutes later, Lorelei hooked another salmon! This one was a big one, well over 20 pounds. She battled it until her arms ached. Since it was so big, I just knew it had to be a Chinook and legal to keep. We finally netted the huge fish.........and yes you probably guessed by now, it was the largest native Coho I have ever seen! Now if you have ever been in a small boat next to a 100 lb. bundle of dynamite with a fuse that is about to be lit, then you know how I felt at that moment.
To say the least, Lorelei was not happy about returning her two salmon to the river. Fish were jumping everywhere and she was determined to catch a legal one. She fished until I finally had to insist that we head for the boat ramp as the tide was going out and I was beginning to worry that we may not have enough water to make it back to the ramp.

We head back to the river this morning to try again.

Then on Saturday our friends Bobbi and Ron were here from California. Jon, Ron and I went over to the Upshaw's pond for some more fishing!

Below: Ron with a nice bass.

And Jon with another hog!

 

I sure am missing cross country this year but as you can see, fishing here in Oregon in the fall is really nice and it's something we have not done much of the past few years.

Take care all. Drop us a note. We love to hear from you.

You can see all of the Sept. pictures HERE

Glynn Jr.