Though I didn't get anything to the bank, what a great day! I went fishing for Salmon for the first time on Friday with my new rod and reel in which I had been saving up for for the last year or so. I knew there was an expected late run of coho so I decided to target them.
I started off at the Swim hole about three miles upriver along Washougal River Rd. that requires the Discover Pass. Here, after a few minutes of rigging, a build up of excitement, and FLING! I make the biggest backlash I could possibly imagine. While trying to untangle my now disabled reel, my bobber goes under. But not because of a fish. I was snagged. Dang. So much for a good start. After a few minutes, I gave up, went back to my car, and pulled out my trout rod with a size 4 purple blue fox and started casting that. I worked my way from the rapids directly below the lot all the way up to the next set of rapids. So, about 150ish meters. Nothing. All well, I told myself. I'll just try Mt. Vernon Bridge.
Expecting a crowd, I braced myself for a packed bank. But, nothing. No one was there. Puzzled, I made my way down to the bank. Here, I noted roughly half a dozen fish holding just beneath the bridge, within a few feet of the southern bank. I was using the same Blue Fox as before. On the second cast, a coho, I'd guess at 14 pounds, follows my lure. But, at the last second, turns tail and flees downriver. Another thirty minutes of casting the lure produces nothing. Going back up to the car, I took the time to fix my new reel and get a bobber and egg on it. Another half hour of casting this produces zero fish. On the flip side, I was able to master my new level wind reel. Plus, it was quite the experience watching these fish, some still in the sea-run form and others half dead, fight there way upstream. Obviously, the high waters have caused the fish to focus on one thing only. Move up stream. So that's what I did too. I moved another mile or so upstream to the WDFW public fishing access.
Here, I had plenty of hits. I even got a hook up. But, I wasn't able to land the fish. Neither did I get to see him. All the fish I did see however were well into the spawning process. This was the only location that I encountered another angler. I was a ways from him and couldn't tell if he had caught anything.
As an end note, there are fish in the Washougal River. They're just hard to catch at the moment because of the high waters. The night before, the guy at Fisherman's said that a bobber and egg would be my best bet. While I got more action from casting a lure, I think that's just because I'm new to mending my line.

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