Fishing Trip

This past weekend I had the chance to catch up with some old friends on a Fishing trip to southern WA. Sean flew in from Chicago and we headed down on Sunday. We met Nello and Mike on the Kalama and setup camp. The Kalama is really cool right now because it is Fly Fishing only which is right up my alley. Sunday night we fished on the Kalama until dark. Mike caught a nice Steelhead, then we had some hot dogs and chili. We then adventured out on a first for me, Night Fishing on the Cowlitz. I didnt know what to expect, but it was interesting. I was really surprised to see how many people were there...probably 50 or so. This was a bit different kind of fishing as we used glow in the dark lures and spinning gear. Except for Maggie Lake, I have only used Fly Fishing Gear so I just wasnt that good at it. In the end we didnt catch anything that night, so I am still not "hooked" on spin fishing :-)

The next morning we got up early and started fishing on the Kalama. Nello landed a nice fish, then we headed out to the Toutle. This again was spin fishing and we got totally shut out. The only thing we got was wet! We were caught in a rain storm and I decided to camp out in the car while the other three crazies exercised their arms some more. We headed back to the sunny campground and after some lunch fished some more on the Kalama. Nello, Mike and I worked our way up to what they call the Parking Lot hole and at about 7pm, the fish started biting. Mike had 5-6 fish on in about 1 hour, Nello hooked into a couple and I landed a Fall Chinook. I am not a good judge of weight but it was a big fish. It took me all the way into my backing and I finally landed it. We headed back to the campsite and enjoyed a great night by the fire. We burned through a bunch of wood and a box of paper I brought down.

The next day we got up and had breakfast, another fire, and toyed with fishing or not. The day before was a long day and I for one was sore. We decided to break down camp and go to the "Beginners Hole." It was sunny and the fish were moving in. With polarized glasses you could see the fish coming into the pools. Nello and Mike fish this a lot and they said this was nothing compared to when the fish really come in. However, that also means a lot more people. Mike and I were upstream to start and joined Nello and Sean a little later. When we arrived Nello said that the fish were biting...I scaled down the rip rap bank to find a spot. Lucky for me on my second case I hooked into a nice Silver (Coho). It was a hatchery fish so we kept it..Before it was cleaned up (thanks Hopper) we got a picture. I felt lucky to fair hook the fish as everyone was hooking into fish, but not in the mouth.




All in all this was a great trip. Really enjoyed hanging out with old friend and trying to figure out where all our high school mates are now. I caught and landed my first salmon on the fly so that was great. Thanks to Hops and Nello for being the guides...Thanks Buck for coming out.