Although somewhat planned we ended up with a welcome but rare free weekend. Not to let an opportunity pass we loaded truck, hitched up the boat and headed east. The plan was to camp in Bridgeport and then fish the Brewster Pool, the Wells Dam Pool or tailrace or as a back-up a bit further downstream on the Columbia in the vicinity of Wenatchee. As it turned out we concentrated on just the Brewster pool and did not fish the other areas. The weekend was a bit challenging, 3 AM get ups, a 5 year old who is defined by routine and temps in the 90s make for a very cranky little boy. That said he had a great weekend with many new experiences and personal growth opportunities.

One of the experiences was catching his first Brewster Pool sockeye. Saturday morning we focused on Chinook. Although we had multiple takedowns none stuck. Going into mid to late morning our boat was fish-less so we did quick tactic change and focused on sockeye. After a few drive-bys Karen put the first sockeye in the boat. The next fish headed for the ice chest would be Brendan’s but it took 9 hookups to ice his fish. With the barbless hook requirement, the rock-n-roll nature of a sockeye’s attempt to escape and a 5 year old’s enthusiasm putting one in the box was quite a task. We had a good little run on the sockeye, I think we went 12 for 2 with both Karen and Brendan each getting a fish but it was hot outside so we made the decision to wrap it up and head back to camp. Although we only put two fish in the box the days fishing was not a complete bust. We had action most of the day and I was collecting information while putting together my attack plan for Sunday morning.

After losing way too many chinook earlier, back at camp I make a few gear adjustments. Typically when running Super Baits I run a single # 5 Gammi Big River hook rigged so that it dangles just behind the bait. With the string of missed fish earlier in the day I needed to make a change. I re-rigged a few of my Super Baits with a double hook set-up. Using 30# fluorocarbon I set up a leader where the lead hook nests up in the tunnel and the trailing hook running just behind the bait. When finished the Bait would be running 46” behind the flasher. Knowing that we would have to be off the water early Sunday, while the rest of the gang was napping I reviewed lessons learned from Saturday and laid out the game plan for fishing Sunday morning.

Sunday morning we were floating by 4:30 and fishing by 5:00. I ran three sockeye set-ups and one Chinook rig. My plan was to fish shallow and focus on catching a Chinook but wanted the sockeye gear working just in case we had a lone school of sockeye pop up on the meter. We fished 30-45 feet of water and targeted suspended meter marks. After an earlier drive by with nobody home at 5:30 the downrigger pops hard and it was fish on. I think that the fish had planned to head back down the river to Astoria, the first run was a screamer and knowing it was a big fish the initial run gave us time to clear the gear and prepare for battle. A half hour later and after many epic runs Karen expertly slipped the net under a beautiful 24 pound Chinook. It took us a while to get the gear back in the water but when we did almost immediately we were rewarded with a second knockdown. Although the fight was intense we did not get # 2 in the net. It was a still blast hooking up instantaneously after getting back to fishing.

On Sunday, I was running a Mountain Dew Super Bait 46” behind a chrome agitator flasher stuffed with oil pack canned tuna and garlic. We were running at approximately 1.4 mph or just fast enough to get the flasher to roll in a complete ark. As mentioned earlier we were targeting meter marks in 30-45 feet of water. All of our Chinook action Sunday morning was off of suspended meter marks. The first fish was at 21 feet in 42 feet of water. The second fish hit at 12 feet in 34 feet of water. We had a number of other drive-bys again all suspended fish in the shallower water.

As scheduled our trip had to end early Sunday morning, we still had to break camp, pack, drive home, unpack and clean fish. Not lot in the fish box but through two days of fishing we had fairly consistent action and had a great trip. The little guy finally found his groove, enjoying his many new experiences and we are considering a trip east of the mountains for Labor Day weekend.