What an epic weekend of fishing and some great catching but most of all wonderful memories with some old friends and family! This report is for day 1 at buoy 10~

With my best buds birthday being on Sunday he was invited to join a friend of his on his guide boat but just as friends for both Saturday and Sunday and said he could bring whoever he wanted. So Saturday it was Kyle, Craig, myself and his friend Tim so we met at the Chinook launch at 6:30 for my 1st experience of fishing this great fishery!

Tide was running out with a low at 10:41 so we started our troll almost at the Astoria bridge and strictly used whole herring. We saw people with fish on around us but we only got one fish to the boat and it was a nice 17lb hatchery king caught by Craig. With the tide running fast it didn't take long for us to be all the way down by the buoy 10 so we pulled up and ran back for a second run. This one proved to be better with us going 3 for 9 but only one keeper as we had to release 2 due to natives (thanks to the powers to be for changing that rule on Friday!)

By noon we had a few more misses with the barbless hooks taking their toll on our batting average so the tide was starting to run in so started hover fishing close to the Chinook launch and had a vicious take down and this fish was screaming line up river! We actually had to chase it and at one point thought we may have hooked a seal. Finally got some line back and after 2 or 3 more screaming runs got it close to the boat. Just as the net was going in the water he turned his head and out slipped the barbless hooks! He sat there for a minute not ever realizing he was free but finally bolted away into the depths! sigh! it was over 30lbls and a hatchery fish to boot.

Picked up 2 silvers before the day was through and got to witness a feeding frenzy of some pelicans on bait fish near the surface only about 20 feet from the boat! Got a great video of it so if any of you know how I can upload it to view let me know. Finished the day hover fishing by the Astoria bridge against a ripping incoming tide. It was pretty rough at times today with some big swells and wild currents that only the mighty Columbia can throw at you!

Final total 4 for 19 with 2 silvers and 2 kings!

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