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AIRASSAULT

AIRASSAULT

PMA Member
I was at Ft. Lewis, Wa for my Mobilization to go to Egypt from early Feb. through mid-March. I was fortunate to get a four day pass to do what ever I wanted, so, I paid $160 for a guide on the Columbia River knowing that it was going to be my last chance to fish for a year. It was March 16th, opening day of the Chinook (King Salmon) season. I fished with another couple that was from Washington (the lady in the pic) and we fished most of the day without a bite. The lady caught the first fish weighing around 15 lbs. I caught mine at about the last hour we fished. It is my biggest fish to date and also my first salmon, weighing at about 25 lbs. I didn't really realize how big it was though, but the guide said it was really unusual to catch a "Springer" of that size, especially as early as it was. We got back to the dock and all you could hear was people saying "Did you see the size of that Springer!?" Needless to say, I was very proud at that moment. I think I will definately go back there some day and fish once more. I guess in May the fishing is non-stop action. I originally wanted to try for the giant freshwater sturgeon (up to 12ft in length), but I guess the best time for them is the last week of May.
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AIM-N-HIGH-.. We started off the morning trolling up and down the river with a basic three-way swivel with a drop sinker on the bottom and about a three foot leader to the hook with a chunk of herring on it. We also had a huge flash thing above the swivel. We didn't have any bites on that setup but out of about 200 other boats on the river we saw a few people catching them that way. We then decided to just anchor in a line with other boats(basically looks like a wingdam of boats going halfway across the river to block the schooling salmon) We tied on a lure called a Quik-Fish and also had a small piece of herring tied around it. The lure was also tied on with the same rig we were using with just the herring while trolling, minus the flash thing and you just cast it out and let it sit. This is what I caught my salmon on... and man they hit hard!
DBL THROAT PATCH- yea, it was a blast reeling it in, and by far some of the best fish I have ever eaten. The "Springers" are claimed to be the best tasting salmon in the world and some people are willing to pay a price for them. My guides told me that if I were to sell my fish at a market, I could have made close to $300 off of it. I found a sweet recipe on the net though and grilled all of the fish up in one night and shared it with my unit. I couldn't cook it fast enough and it was gone.
Another neat thing is that, the whole time we were fishing, there were these giant sea lions swimming around. The locals said that they are really smart and basically will watch people fish. They are very well known for noticing when u have a big fish on and they will swim up and gladly remove it from the hook for you before you get the fish in. That would have sucked. I did see some sea lions catch a couple of salmon.
 
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