Had some time on Sunday morning to spend on the river and decided to get more acquainted with a few spots I ended up scouting out last time at the river. Although I found out talking with several other anglers Sunday these are pretty well known. That morning me and a buddy hit the river trail at around 8am and there were 6 or 7 other anglers along the bank in various spots already getting after it. Almost everyone was float fishing in this section of river.

My buddy and I ended up walking down river quite a ways and checked out some holes and threw some lines in testing the waters so to speak. We stopped up by the golf course and we didn't see much activity early in the morning in these spots. As we worked back up river we ended up seeing some rollers - some greenish and some dark.

I started and spent the majority of the day using a 1oz clear float with about 12" of leader on a home tied marabou jig. I tipped some of the float drift marabou jigs I had with some store bought sand shrimp, but to no avail. I ended up spilling half my sand shrimp into the river too. Doh! I spent a good 3-4 hours working several holes to no avail. I found one spot that had a great downed tree structure creating a nice slow spot. After the first few drifts I thought this was a great spot to mark on the map until after that I might have lost 3 or 4 jigs on branches or something that was hanging away from the structure underwater. I figured when the water is lower and more visible I could probably swing this spot but not this time.

As my buddy left - due to inactivity on the river to watch the Seahawks game - I ended up working my way back up to the car. I stopped by a hole that was at the very start but skipped due to other anglers fishing it. I later found out this spot would be a soon-to-be combat fishing spot for these chums when they get thick in the rivers. After about an hour of drifting the last 2 jigs I had on me I saw a few rolling on the surface and opted to switch to a #3 BF spinner. Chartreuse/purple/pink UV style. I used a 12" fluoro leader and tied it off to my braid and let her swing down river free drifting and slowly retrieving.

After 30 minutes of nothing, I made yet another cast and I noticed something surge up in an instant, a dark figure swiping at my metal offering toward the back end of the drift, but it missed! Spilling out of the water into the air and back down in the drink, I noticed the fish missed my lure. Damn. So close. I swung my spinner out another 30 minutes while another float fisherman joined me. Within 20 minutes he had caught the one I probably missed on my spinner, 15 feet away from the bank. It was cool to see him land it and he was very excited as he just tied his pattern jig the night before. After taking a quick picture he quickly released it into the river as he was all about the C&R.

Anyways - after a good 6 or 7 hours out on the river, empty handed and some gear lost, I figured I'd pack it up and head home as some rain started heading in. Although empty handed, I think I came out of this trip with some great knowledge, practice on float fishing (I've only done this a handful of times), and met a few good people out on the river - I consider it a great day. I hope to make it out again before I get out of town this weekend. Good luck guys and stay safe.

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