First Attempt at Salmon Fishing from My New Outback

The plan was to meet up with Insayn and bluewrx02 at St. Helen's and try our luck below Sand Island.  As I get about 30 minutes away from my house I reach down to grab my coffee cup and realize that I forgot it.  That's a bad start to a day of fishing.  As I get to Warren, I get a phone call, "there are a lot boaters here and the water is pretty fast and there is a lot of fog.  I don't think it'd be a good spot for your first time on the river".  Great, can this day get any worse (hold that thought)?  I decide to try my luck on Sauvie Island.  I do a U-turn and head back towards Portland. 
I pull into the parking lot at the Gilbert River boat ramp and the river looks ok.  There is still some fog but not too bad.  There are some power boaters on the river but not too many that I would feel uncomfortable with.  So I get out of the Jeep and start unloading my gear.  Damn!  I forgot my cooler and ice too.  I decide that the chances of me catching a salmon my first time out are pretty slim so it's no big loss.  I continue to gear up.  I head down the ramp and get my boat in the water.  I stop and talk to another fellow kayaker and he tells me he missed a nice one here yesterday.  After talking with him (I never did get his name, Damn!) I hop in my boat and get my paddle out and start rowing.  The current is swifter then I had realized and the next thing I know I am pinned up against the dock.  I use my paddle and push off a little but its not enough and I go right up against the dock again.  I push a little harder, still didn't work.  I give a good push with my paddle... well lets just say that my new home made leashes work great and that dry suit finally got the "dunk test".  I was so embarrassed.  There were a couple of power boaters up on the dock and they came running thinking I was going to drown or something.  They realized that I had on a PFD and their eyes shrunk back down to normal size.  They helped me get my stuff situated and then asked me how the water was.  I told them it felt good and that they should try it... mostly joking.  Yep, the day can get worse.  I should have just packed it up for the day and tried again later but now it was personal.  I get everything re-situated in the boat and tried again (this time I stayed away from the dock). 
After my successful second attempt I made my way across the channel and started my troll.  Once I got going it wasn't too bad.  I dropped my bait to the bottom cranked it up a few cranks and away I went.  On my second trip back up the channel it happened... I got a hit.  I thought great my luck has finally changed.  Now, I don't have a rod holder on my kayak yet (I know, I know) so when I felt that hit I broke the all important Rule #1... DONT YANK THE ROD!  I couldn't help it.  It was instinct, as soon as I felt the hit I swung for the fences!  Needless to say, I missed it.  I made a few more trolls up and back down with no luck.  I only saw one fish caught today so things were kind of slow there. 
Even with all that went wrong today I still had a good time on the water and with that little bit of excitement of getting a hit it was worth it (it would of been more worth it had I actually caught it but there's always next time). 
So, what did I learn today?  I learned that, I need a rod holder on my kayak.  Not only to keep me from doing something stupid again but because I could hardly lift my kayak onto the roof of my Jeep after holding that rod while trolling (OUCH).  I also learned that when launching in a river, stay away from a dock if the current is flowing that way.  I also learned that while pushing off of something don't push too hard and lean into it.  And last but not least, I learned how to do the backstroke while holding on to a kayak.   
Sorry no fish porn to show you all from this trip but minnowmagnet has everyone covered for that.   

Look on the bright side: in addition to learning many useful things, you got a bite.  I have plenty of days where I don't learn anything, and I don't get any bites.

I'm so glad you got on the water and had some fun today.  I really felt that the conditions we launched into and dealt with might be beyond your comfort level with only a few clear day, flat water experiences under your belt.   It may have been different if you had been able to launch with us, but to come out an hour later and try to find us without a compass in that wild current, insane traffic, and dense fog.   

Blue and I got our asses handed to us early in the morning launching from St. Helens.   
The fog was so thick we could hardly see the water from the truck only 30 feet way. 

Once on the water, we were committed and pretty much prepared for fog (not the traffic).  As we pedaled our way upriver we noticed how the current was ripping harder as we got closer to the tip of Sand Island.  Once we passed the tip of the island, boats were coming and going in EVERY direction at all kinds of speeds and it made it sporty trying to figure out who was trolling, who was traveling, who was just being "dick", and who was on anchor.  It reminded me of that scene in The Fast and the Furious when they did the "scramble" weaving cars and trucks all over the place as they came out of the warehouse. 

With the amount of full boats out there, I wondered if anyone at all went to work today.   

Clearly this was a popular place for damn near anyone with a freaking boat in the PDX area.  We eventually found a reasonable trolling lane, but had to bob and weave between random trollers going against the grain.  Then although there is a huge river channel right in the middle of the river, there was a surprising number of "dicks" that felt it was a great idea to just go full speed weaving through the slow trollers and anchored boats.  What they gained doing that was beyond me.  Only had one boat with a pair of "dicks" that felt we kayakers have no business being out there.  We could hear them talking about us we maneuvered in and around all the other boats out there.  If they felt that maybe we were causing some kind of a hazard for them by being out there, then they should have a chat with the drivers of the many other aimlessly driven boats out there making it a hazard for us being out there. 

Other than heavy fog, crazy currents, insane amount of boats, we had a good day. Even without a single bite to get the juices flowing, I learned a few things about kayak salmon fishing.  Cutting plugs that successfully spin the way I wanted them too. Adjusting cannonball weights to accommodate the up hill run vs. the down hill run in the heavy currents.   Getting my groove down on making sure my cannonball was on or damn near on the bottom at all times as the floor changed depths throughout the troll.  And one that has held me back from the whole river salmon fishery.  I never liked "combat fishing" with 200+ chaotic boaters.  Now that I have this all under the belt (and all in one shot), the Willy sounds like a cake walk and can see the upside to looking for "Nooks" away from all the "dicks" and guide boats that flocked to Big C like today. 

Insayn I'm glad you didn't kill anyone out there and had a blast, I probably would have lost it and boarded someone's boat and threw them overboard. I hste azzhole boat operators. 

Insayn I'm glad you didn't kill anyone out there and had a blast, I probably would have lost it and boarded someone's boat and threw them overboard. I hste azzhole boat operators.

I was packing camera, and all I need to sink a "dick" boat that may have caused an actual safety issue, is the reg numbers off his boat, and a filed complaint with the Sheriff. 

Have to hand it to you guys for trying. Those conditions sound awful. I would get discouraged pretty quickly by all the power boat idiocy.