First trip to Brewster for fishing buddies Dave and Kat as well as the Fish Princess and me. Report is for two days, Saturday 8/4 almost all day and Sunday 8/5 morning.

Left town between midnight and 0100 on Saturday morning and arrived at the Bruce street launch in Brewster around 0430. Boat in the water and followed the crowd out to the area around the mouth of the Okanagon River with lines down by 5:30. Fished our usual Abe & Al #1 flashers customized with gold tape followed by 9" - 14" leaders with 1.5" pink mirror smile blades and 2/0 - 4/0 red or black hooks in tandem and tipped with cocktail shrimp marinated in Bad Azz Red UV bait dye and shrimp/prawn, krill, or freshwater shrimp oils. Also cured some of the shrimp in Herzog's secret sauce (see his Brewster IQ blog on Northwest Wild Country for the recipe). The Zog's secret sauce worked out really well because the shrimp really plumped-up and firmed-up in the brine making for excellent tasty sockeye treats.

The Saturday bite was definitely a first light kind of bite. We fished lines stacked at 15' and 25' on top and 30' and 45' on the bottom. Did our best to stay in the old riverbed with water from 45' to 70'deep. At the outset we fished sockeye gear on all 4 lines. We picked-up our first couple of fish at 25' and then switched one of the bottom lines over to king gear (heavier rod/reel/line combo with fish flash and plug cut herring). Altogether, went 4 for 4 Saturday morning. Saw many other fish caught, but not what I'd call red hot given the number of fish going through the Okanogan system. Wells dam showed that something like 300k of the 360k fish had already passed so we may have been a week or two late for the crazy sockeye action. Fish in this run were smallish by Lake Washington or Baker Lake standards (averaged about 3 pounds) and they dodn't put up nearly as much of a stink coming to net either (I suppose I wouldn't either after a 500 mile swim!). Dave and Kat hit 3 and I tagged 1 for the day. By the time the Fish Princess woke up from her morning nap at 0800 the action was over for the day. We stayed at it changing-up bait and gear as long as we could stand the triple digit temps and packed it in around 1300. Cleaned and iced the critters then retreated to the cool confines of the Apple Way Motel for an hour or two of A/C before we enjoyed an early margarita and dinner at Los Camperos restaurant. We reflected on the day's events and decided to make a more serious effort to get into a king Sunday and also to get an early start. Spent a couple hours reconfiguring some gear then got to bed in anticipation of the early day.

Up at 0230 and on the water by 0315 Sunday morning. Lines down by about 0400. Oddly the early morning bite failed to materialize as it had the day before. In fact, we did not have bite, scratch, or sniff numero uno nor see a net come up unitl almost 0700. Then the action took off with doubles on a couple of boats and action in ours. Went 4 for 5 on sockeye with the only loss due to a leader failure (we had tangled with a poorly navigated boat earlier and failed to check leaders before we resumed fishing - lesson learned). Each of us got one fish on our tags picking-up a sockeye about every 30 minutes or so. Again most fish hitting right around 25'. Sunday we fished king gear on the bottom line on both riggers. Fish flash and herring on one side and nickel with silver prism herring dodger and Brad's Super Bait (Jack Pot pattern) on the other side filled with tuna in oil and laced with bloody tuna scent. We were determined to get one or both of our ladies into a king salmon as neither of them has had the pleasure to tangle with one yet. As luck would have it, the Super Bait got hammered at 0930 in about 35' of water. I set the hooks and handed the pole off to the Fish Princess. As I scrambled to clear the other lines and the downrigger cable/ball from that side of the boat, she had all she could handle just to keep control of the pole. Dave and Kat quickly cleared the gear from the other side of the boat and we went into neutral to fight the fish. With her hands cramping the Fish Princess called out for help so I grabbed the grip above the reel and helped her steady the rod as she battled the fiesty king. Kat had passed the sockeye net to Dave who was at the ready. As the fish ascended he shouted back, "BIG NET, BIG NET" and the scramble was on to switch nets. Just as he got a grip on the big net the fish came to boat and he expertly snagged it. Just like that, the Fish Princess bagged her very first CHINOOK!! Swithched the herring rig out for another flasher and Brad's bait and trolled around for another couple of hours to see if we could repeat the success, but to no avail. A fresh slug of kings must have moved into the river though as we did see several others caught. In fact, when we got back to the ramp there was another boat in the lot next to us unloading 3 kings in the high teen to twenty pound class. The city of Brewster was holding its annual chinook derby over the weekend and more than 30 kings were on the board with top slot in the 30 pound bracket for adults and about 23 at the top of the youth leader board.

Total tally for the trip was 8 sockeye and one king about 8 pounds for 4 anglers over 2 days. Good first trip on this water and great adventure with fishing friends and family!!

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