I spent Saturday and Sunday on the mouth of the columbia outside of Ilwaco.

Day 1:
Saturday the fishing was slow and we only got 1 fish in the boat. Native chinook landed on a cut plug, cut for Coho. 23 inches and shaped like a goddamn football. 24 inches is minimum, so back in the water it went. Caught a few more Silvers, but they were all native, so cut them loose in the water. We were trolling between 1o and 65 feet deep depending on water depth with 2 downriggers and 1 diver. Most fish were hooked on the diver, but that could just be the dodger color. Our configuration was like this: Downrigger 1 had a green/pink flasher with a 6 foot leader on the end and a coyote 2 inch spoon(no hookups). Downrigger 2 had a red dodger with a 8 foot leader on the end and a cut plug cut for coho(multiple hookups, including the chinook). Diver rig had a red diver with a green and silver dodger and a 6 foot leader with a cut plug cut for coho(couple hookups, all native silvers). We fished for about 8 hours that day. It was foggy and windy with wind at a steady 20 MPH with gusts up to 35 MPH. chop started out ok, but towards mid day the swells were getting in the 4+ range. By noon the wind had blown the fog away and visibility went out to 2 nautical miles.

Day 2:
Switched the downrigger 1 set up to use cut plugs cut for kings, left the rest of the set up configured as the day before. Kept the same set up for the downrigger 2 and the diver. 25 minutes in diver hooks into a silver. Get it to the side of the boat and it's looking like a 2 foot+. Throws the hook while in the net and jumps out. No fault, the water was so choppy it was hard to get the net under the fish without bumping it. Rebait, 3 minutes later FISH ON! I hand the rod to another person since I was the one that kept hooking into fish. Get to the side of the boat and the fisherman lowered his rod tip just a bit too far trying to get the fish closer to the boat, throws the hook. Rebait. 10 minutes later FISH ON! I decide to take this one and reel it in slow and steady. Fish gets close to the boat, native chinook. Looks to be keeper size, so we net it and measure it. 24 inches. Keeper! That was the end of our hookups that day.

All in all I had an awesome time! Was fishing with my girlfriends dad and his old friend from when they were ironworkers. Great coupel of guys, taught me so much and I am grateful for the experience. I leanred a lot about fishing, downriggers, running the boat, rules and regs, and tricks of the trade from a 40 year fishing veteran that worked out of westport on a fishing charter before I was even born. I also caught my first ever non-charter Chinook, and the only sunburn I can remember ever getting.

---