Got a call this week from buddy Craig in Longview that he was taking Friday off in honor of them keeping the Columbia open and invited me to join him for some springer fishing! Of course I said YES!!!

We knew we wouldn't have much of tide to work with for kwikfish fishing as low tide was 6:30 and both of us had lots of work to do Thursday to be able to take Friday off. so met at Fred Meyers in Longview at 6am and headed to the boat launch. Were on the water by 7am and motoring down to Clifton Channel to start our troll.

Put out a couple rigs set up with cut plug herring and short bus flashers to lead the way and worked our way on the south side along by the old cannery. About 8am we checked our baits to clear off some debris and had just got the rods back in the holder when my rod buries into the water and (love that sound) my reel starts screaming! We were only in about 15 feet of water so this fish actual goes airborne and does a couple flips; now I am not liking this as that is usually how they throw these barbless hooks but it stayed on finally got her in the net, check for fins and YES! A keeper! Nice little cookie cutter springer about 12 lbs so finally got my 1st springer of the season!

Set the rods back out with fresh herring and worked our way over the pilings when Craig's rod does a double tap and then buries into the water and it's fish on #2! Again this one stayed on the surface and after a couple nice runs got it in the net but alas, too many fins! Carefully unhooked this beauty in the net and sent it back to swim away with little tears coming down our face!

The weather had been pretty nice with just a nice breeze and sunshine but about 11am a westerly wind started to pick up and by 12:30 turned into a stiff wind that started whipping the water into whitecaps. We pulled in the rods and figured we would try and find a place to anchor up and wait for the tide to run out but everywhere we went it got worse and worse. We made it to the south side of Puget Island just upstream from the plunking shacks and dropped anchor, got the kwikfish wrapped with sardines but before we could even make a cast, the wind blew us sideways and realized this wasn't going to work so called it a day! Oh well, from what we heard back at the launch was that we were the only boat the got 2 in but of course, this is a big river and I am sure others had some fish stories to tell today.

We split the springer so the fillets are minus the back half of the fish but 'my oh my' do I love springers!! BBQ at Barry's tomorrow!!

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