Columbia river

I have spent 19 of the last 24 days out on the Columbia River. What a great river! The current is ripping this year the dams are running with the flood gates open much of the time. Yes, a whole bunch of water. boy there is a great year class coming, they are about 17-18 inches right now and very tasty. Big fish was a 12.2 lber caught polelining, Thanks Bruce Deshano! that was a kick! hand over hand a 12 lb fish sometime!! My two girls joined me for some of the trip and they both really enjoyed the fishing and the camping. Maybe the highlight wasn’t releasing the 27″ fish the oldest caught(it was for me) but rather the batches of home made ice cream made, Oh Yeah!
If we could get the nets out of the river the big fish would be back. It is a shame that 12 lb walleyes are netted and sold for $2.50 as an incidental catch by the native americans in their commerical boats and nets. Get the nets out!! I got caught in a free floating net when the nets weren’t even suppose to be in the river! That was scary!

dan
Out in Oregon land where the walleyes grow bigger and the indians are netting them!!

Dan, good to hear from you! I was recently wondering what was going on out there in the western region! Hopefully the nets aren’t catching too many fish. Has Oregon ever looked at the financial benefits of walleye fishing? Just wondering if it’d be worth presenting???

Washington State is active in support of the walleyes, Oregon thinks that they are a predatory fish and should be removed from the salmon/steelhead habitat. Walleye fishing is on par with sheephead fishing in the midwest with regard to popular support. I don’t see it changing any time soon.

dan

Oh, oh..Don’t mention Sheepshead to the kid, he’ll be catching the next plane out there!
Tuck

Here’s the photo of Dan’s 12+ Lb walleye he mentioned in his post above. Beautiful fish and the scenery just screams “fish here!!”

If anyone else has a photo or two they’d like to share with us here at FTR, simply send the photo out as a .jpg attachment in an e-mail to [email protected] and we’ll gladly get that posted here just as quickly as we can.

Good fishin’,

EFN Webstaff

LOL!

You know, we know Dan’s got his head on straight even though the “Oregon Walleye” is misunderstood, much like the midwestern Sheephead!

Nice fish Dan! I have to agree with that scenery comment! If ever I get out that way, I WILL be taking a few days on the Columbia!