Was invited to go hit the Columbia today with buddy Craig so made the drive down to Longview Friday night after work and pulled into his driveway about 10:30. Like 2 little kids we played around with set ups and what we were going to use plus got caught up on things but before we knew it it was close to midnight so quickly hit the hay setting the alarm for 3:30. Not sure what happened but suddenly at 5:15 Craig knocks on my door and we fly around trying to get ready and down to the river!

Not a good start as by the time we were on the water it was 6:30 and we ran up to see what spots were left to anchor, unfortunately a guide was in Craig's favorite hole where he caught a 14lb buck last Saturday and tied into a June hog before it popped off. So we anchored just above him and set out our lines using a 3.5 maglips hot red and pink smeared with Mike's shrimp lunker lotion. Over the next 3 hours we watched the guide hook up about 7 times, losing 3 and landing 3 nice steelhead and 1 29lb June hog which he had to throw anchor and chase down river. During out lull we broke out Craig's new grill and made some killer breakfast burritos with some of his fresh chicken eggs, ghost pepper mango salsa, spicy Italian sausage and ghost pepper jack cheese! Wow that hit the spot so now back to fishing!

One thing about fishing the Columbia this year is location, location, location! We had had enough of watching this so pulled anchor and moved down river. Passed some guides that we knew that pointed us to a spot open not too far below them so tried to find a point that looked good and get into about 8 feet of water to work the rest of the out going tide. Right away had a couple drive-by that didn't stick so around 11am Craig mentioned that about 20,000 sockeye were going over the dam each day so let's set up one rod with a cured prawn tail cocktail and try to entice one plus knew steelhead love this set up too. Put the prawn set up on the outside line and sat back to watch for a bite~ didn't take long for that rod to start to tap tap tap, pull pull pull.. wait for it.... them WHAM! It hammered down and it was fish on! (very hard not to grab that rod when it does that!) This fish starts peeling line and we are thinking June hog and may have to throw anchor but soon get control and start to work in but then goes nuts again and comes flying out of the water so now we are thinking sockeye! Not acting or looking like a steelhead and has a lot of power so keep working him closer until finally Craig is able to get the net under him. We check fins and see it's clipped so bring it into the boat and see it's either a jack springer or smaller June hog but either way, a very nice little chinook!

So you guessed it, put the rod back out with another prawn cocktail and did the same with the other rod to finish out the tide. It had been your typical Columbia river day but I liked fishing this side of the river as opposed to fishing Puget Island which we usually fish for springers as the scenery was spectacular! Now as we are sitting there we hear an Osprey screech and see it trying to bomb dive an immature bald eagle perched in a tree across from us. Soon he is joined by another and I am able to at least get a picture of it before it takes off but here is the coolest part. When he takes off we follow his flight and he swoops down by the beach down river from us and grabs something big that is laying by the bank. Turns out it is a big dead salmon and he tried to pick it up and take off but it is too heavy so he grabs it with his talons and works his way up the beach to log pile to have some lunch but the osprey's want lunch too and start to swoop down as he is working his way up the beach. We are too far away to film this but are watching through our field glasses and each time the osprey got close the eagle would jump up with his talons to fend off the ospreys! It was a spectacular sight to watch and he finally made it to the log jam on the beach but was still getting harassed by the ospreys so finally someone shot off a rifle to scare them off as I think he was worried the ospreys were going to get hurt. So after we pulled anchor went over and beach the boat and I ran up to get a picture of what the eagle was eating and it was a native salmon that someone had probably had to release that did not survive.

All in all, another fun day with my old high school buddy on the Columbia, not red hot fishing but got one and rated it a three due to company, scenery and the spectacular display of nature at it's purest! This week it's time to get on my "big boy pants" and get the Tin cup ready for some salt fishing!!

See you on the water!

---