07-07-2005, 03:45 PM
My wife, son and I went to the gorge over the 4th of July and had a blast. We fished Saturday morning for kokes and it was kind of slow, but we still bagged 4 nice kokes between 3.9 and 4.5 pounds. It was 90 degrees in the heat of the day and without any kind of cover on our boat, we don't usually fish in the afternoon. Saturday evening came and there was a terrible wind storm. Gusts were strong enough to rain down large branches from the trees in Manila and damage the siding and roofs on several businesses. So . . . no fishing that night. Monday morning we were at it again and the fishing was much faster. We found a nice school and just kept trolling back and forth over the top of them, catching at least one salmon every pass. We thought we had a double at one point, but it wasn't a true double, one was one of those stinking ugly little 3lb macks. By days end we had about 16-20 salmon with the smallest one being 3.9lbs and the biggest being 5.0lbs. Not equivalent to a day on the water with my mentor, Sockeyeslayer, but a whole lot of fun nonetheless. Pics attached, enjoy! The last pic is the 5lber. He had a remarkable girth and must have been 4+" across the back. He also had a cool hooked jaw/nose and a mean looking face, an awesome fish! We almost lost him. When he got to the boat he started jumping up into the air and thrashing violently. I couldn't tell where he was in the splashing water, then I'd swing at him with the net and BOOM, he'd shoot up two feet in the air! Hot lures were anything Shasta, with the best luck on the green cripplure.
[signature]
[signature]