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PostPosted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 6:33 pm 
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This is the time of year in the Pacific Northwest you really look forward to as a fisherman; it's time to fish for steelhead and salmon. These hard fighting fish regularly top twenty pounds and when you catch one, you'll remember it for a long time.

Most of the time, the launch "beaches" are pretty small. Hauling your kayak and all your gear down a steep trail or along a cliff face is par for the course. No parking lots or launch ramps here, these spots are just what a kayak is made for.

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Calm days on the Columbia River are few and far between, you have to get out there when the conditions are right for kayak fishing.

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It looks nice, but when the fish are around, you can be sure there will be a lot of power boats in the area. Most of the guys are pretty considerate, but there are always a few knuckleheads that you have to watch out for. Some of these guys have the opinion that kayak fishermen don't belong here and that you are taking "their" spot, always fun to run into people like that.

I would have to say of all the trophy fish here in the Pacific Northwest, steelhead are the hardest to catch. Sometimes, you can fish all day long and not even get a bite. Getting a fish hooked up is not a guarantee you're going to land it either. Regulations dictate you must use barbless hooks for steelhead and salmon so you have to have use all your skills to try and land the fish. Not to mention your line snapping or one of these big fish straightening out your hook.

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How big does a fish have to be to straighten out a 1/0 Owner hook? About this big:

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So the steelhead and salmon season is underway, looking forward to it!

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 5:57 pm 
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Nice!


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 3:18 pm 
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I've posted a video of the 2014 summer smallmouth bass fishing season on my website; Click HERE to check out the video or click on the image below. It's a compilation of the great kayak fishing for smallmouth bass on the Columbia River from this past summer.

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I may upload it to YouTube later, but they really butcher the quality of the video, better to watch it on the website.

I'm working on a steelhead video and the chinook salmon are here so there should be some great kayak fishing action coming up!

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:07 pm 
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We were out fishing for steelhead and salmon and we wound up catching the two biggest smallmouth bass of the year. Click HERE to watch the video or click on the image below.

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Still working on the most recent steelhead fishing video but the weather looks pretty good for kayak fishing for the next few days, so we're probably going to be out fishing and it will be a few more days before the video is finished. You can click on the blog link in my sig to keep up with the daily fishing action.

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:46 am 
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Yesterday, I got the first salmon of the 2014 season and it was a biggie; a huge coho salmon, probably about twenty five pounds.

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This fish put up a fantastic fight for nearly ten minutes and towed my kayak down the Columbia River for nearly a quarter mile!

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 Post subject: Jumping Sturgeon
PostPosted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 5:29 pm 
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We've been having pretty good luck with the salmon fishing, but for some reason, the past couple days the sturgeon have really come out to play!

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 Post subject: More Fall Salmon Fishing
PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 3:25 am 
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The salmon fishing here in the Columbia Gorge remains pretty good. The weather has been exceptionally nice, which is fine today, but makes me wonder what's going on for the long term.

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Most of the fish have been coho salmon. The Chinook salmon bite seems a little slow, probably because of the warm water temperature, but there are a few around.

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There have been a lot of native fish, which is a good thing. The wild fish are stronger than the hatchery salmon and put up a great fight. We use barbless hooks and the wild salmon are all released back into the river.

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Coho salmon are good eating, especially if you prepare them a couple hours after they are caught.

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Looks like rain coming, never know how that is going to affect the fishing, so we are out there again today.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:50 pm 
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Well, the nice weather we've been having has come to an end, not a huge shock around here. Winter weather will be here to stay any time now. Spent a rainy day on the Columbia River yesterday, the weather was not that good but the fishing sure was. Lost a few, had a few more bumps and managed to get a couple nice Chinook salmon into the kayak, including the largest Chinook of the season so far.

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The number of salmon coming up the Columbia River and over the dams is dropping substantially, that means the salmon fishing may be slowing down. Hopefully, they will be another surge of fish before the season ends in November, but it's always a good idea to get out on the water whenever you can because you don't know what tomorrow will bring.

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 4:59 pm 
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I've uploaded a video of the steelhead kayak fishing action on the Columbia River from September 2014 to my website. Click HERE or on the photo below to check out the video.

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The quality of the video is much better on the website than it would be on YouTube and I'm not trying to sell you anything so all you have to do is enjoy the video.

The salmon fishing is slowing down here in the Columbia River Gorge, the fish are still there, but many of the salmon are reaching the end of their lives and are turning "dark" and are not as strong as they were a couple weeks ago.

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The weather is starting to look more and more like winter, no telling how many more kayak fishing days are left for 2014.

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 Post subject: Salmon Season Hanging On
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 12:11 pm 
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Well, the salmon fishing here in the Columbia River Gorge is definitely on the downswing, but there are still a few fish to be had. With the end of the fall salmon run in sight, it's time to chase the fish upriver and into the tributaries that empty into the Columbia River.

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The weather has taken a turn for the cold and rainy which makes it a little tougher to get up before dawn and get out on the river, but with only a few days of salmon fishing left in the season, fish are still biting and maybe the sun will actually come out for an hour or two, gotta get out there!

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It's been raining non-stop for the past few days, the rivers are going to be running high and dirty, but hoping to get back on the water soon.

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 9:29 am 
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The weather in the PacNW is getting worse by the day. Lots of rain, wind and looks like snow is in the forecast in about a week or so. A little rain is not going to stop anybody from fishing around here, but we've had so much rain, the rivers with salmon in them are running very high and fast, making kayak fishing difficult. The river water is also muddy and filled with silt, leaves and other debris. With those conditions, the salmon don't bite. The local sturgeon don't mind the muddy water, they are ready and willing to bite.

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You can catch white sturgeon like this all day long fishing salmon eggs just off the bottom of the river.

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We are not complaining about catching as many ten pound fish as you want, but we are trying for salmon because the season is almost over and there are not many salmon catching opportunities left. We headed back out on the main channel of the Columbia River where the water is not as turbid, but the salmon fishing is not as good, because it's the only place you have a shot at hooking up a salmon. The day started out pretty well with a spectacular sunrise over the Columbia River.

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The nice start to the day didn't last too long and it started raining shortly after sunrise and continued most of the day. The salmon fishing was better than expected.

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Hooked into a few fish; lost one at the kayak and one was too big to fit into my landing net and got unhooked when I tried to net it. That was a real heartbreaker. It was a big fish, could have been the biggest salmon I ever caught. That's fishing for you. Did manage to get one nice coho on the stringer.

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Hoping the weather clears up, but the sad reality of winter is that we are probably down to the last one or two kayak fishing trips of the year.

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 Post subject: Just One More Day.....
PostPosted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 4:24 pm 
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It is going to be a sad, sad day when the kayak goes in the garage for the winter, but until that happens, I am going to get out there every day I can...

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 Post subject: The End
PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 5:07 pm 
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It's been a great year of kayak fishing here in the Pacific NW; good smallmouth bass fishing in the spring and summer and the best kayak fishing for steelhead and salmon ever. Lots of big fish and great fishing adventures, but the salmon fishing is just about finished, there's snow on the ground and the temperature is in the teens so that's all she wrote for the 2014 kayak fishing season. There might be a day or two where you could go kayak fishing if you like sitting in a wet kayak freezing your butt off, but you can do just about as well fishing from the bank this time of year as you would in a kayak and kayak fishing in extreme cold and winter weather is not really enjoyable. If you want to go kayak fishing in a blizzard just to say you did it, have at it.

We managed to end the kayak fishing season with a bang, with a few days of catching a fair number of coho salmon.

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Catching the last salmon of the season from the kayak is just as much fun as catching the first one.

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Managed to get a few bigger fish which is a nice way to end the season.

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Might get out for a non-kayak fishing trip or two before the season ends, then it's into the studio to edit all the video and photos from the fishing season and get them on my website and start thinking about spring and the new fishing season.

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 Post subject: That's All Folks
PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 11:14 pm 
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Hate to say it, but the 2014 kayak fishing season has come to an end. It's been a great year for kayak fishing, especially for steelhead and coho salmon. I also caught some big smallmouth bass and had a lot of great days on the water. Winter has finally set in; it's getting colder and the nasty mix of rain and snow has left the rivers in pretty sad shape. The salmon run is just about over and any fish you do catch are "dark" and not really good to eat.

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Time to head into the editing room and go through all the photos and video from the 2014 kayak fishing season. I should have the 2014 Kayak Fishing for Salmon highlights video done in a few days, depending on how the Christmas shopping goes, so stay tuned.

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PostPosted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 5:09 pm 
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2014 was a great year for kayak fishing for salmon here in the PacNW. We started catching fish in early September and were still catching salmon well into December. We caught lots of big salmon and had plenty of kayak fishing action.

The Kayak Fishing for Salmon on the Columbia River - Fall 2014 video has been uploaded to my watermanatwork.com website. As usual, I'm not selling anything, all you have to do is enjoy the kayak fishing action in one of the most beautiful spots in the United States.

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Click HERE or on the photo above to check out the video. North Korea has assured me that they will not hack the website so everyone can see the video.

Happy Holidays!

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