Upper Columbia Guide Service - Founded and operated by Shane Magnuson, Upper Columbia Guide Service has offered outdoor enthusiast and first time anglers alike the ultimate experience since 2004. Hard work and dedication takes fishing and hunting to another level, and that is something we pride ourselves on. We provide a premier guided fishing and hunting service, and that is what makes memories! Year round opportunities depending on seasons for Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, Steelhead, Walleye, Kokanee, and Lake Trout.
My dad, my friend, and I got out on the water early launching while it was dark still. Once we got up into the hole we were going to fish it was daylight and my dad and I fished off the downriggers while my friend fished with a diver. We didn't get any bites all day until about 10 AM after I had changed how I was using my setup with the cutplug herring. After I changed it, about 10 minutes later I got a hit, got the rod out of the holder and it was taking some line already. I put my finger down on the line for a sec and gave it a good tug to hook it well and it was on, the fish starting spooling some line for a good 15-20 seconds then stopped. After that I really just had to fight it on in and my dad netted the fish after a couple of minutes. So we went back into the slot again that I got my first fish and I put my stuff back down while my dad and friend were untangling their stuff. About a minute or two after starting the backtroll BAM, my rod goes off again. I get the rod again and do the same thing, put the finger on the line and tug with a hookset. I tried putting my finger on the line while it kept taking line, bad mistake, got my finger burned and took it off after that. While I was fighting the fish I started noticing the boats go towards where we were fishing the slot, great now we won't be able to fish it. After some minutes the fish came closer to the boat, everytime I would get the salmon's head near the surface he'd dart back down, he did this about 10 times, spooling some line then having to do it again. Finally got the fish into the net and had my 2 adult URB Nooks, my first two URB's up in the Vernita area! Had to give it to my friend, he did a good job with the boat while I was fighting the second fish because it was taking me everywhere around the boat. After that we went back into the area, not being able to get to the depth we wanted because boats started crowding the area, oh well that's just how it goes. On our backtroll back to the launch my dad got a hit but we thought it was the bottom at first but it was 50 feet deep and his downrigger was only at 40 feet. The bigger fish in the picture was 40" long and the smaller one was 32 or 33" I believe.
There were quite a few boats out but it wasn't as crowded as what it will be in the next 2 weeks. I'm hoping I can hook up with one of the guys from another website in 2 weekends to get out there again. Last weekend it seemed like a lot of people were doing decent though.
1cast, they're fall fish. The smaller fish was actually in pretty good shape, no turning of the red color yet. It also didn't help that I wasn't sitting in the light for the picture lol, so it's darker than what it really was. The meat in both of the fish were good. You got to remember these things are traveling 300 miles in a river.
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Upper Columbia Guide Service - Founded and operated by Shane Magnuson, Upper Columbia Guide Service has offered outdoor enthusiast and first time anglers alike the ultimate experience since 2004. Hard work and dedication takes fishing and hunting to another level, and that is something we pride ourselves on. We provide a premier guided fishing and hunting service, and that is what makes memories! Year round opportunities depending on seasons for Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, Steelhead, Walleye, Kokanee, and Lake Trout.
