Trip report, "buoy 10"

OK blame the noob if I'm posting this in the wrong place.

So I put quotes around buoy 10 in the title because as I understand the regs, the zone goes all the way up to Tongue Point (correct me if I'm wrong please).

I fished upstream of the HWY101 bridge, thanks Kyle for steering me in the right direction.  I got in the water about 3 hours into the incoming and after 10 minutes was on my first Columbia Sleigh Ride of the morning. Never saw the beast as it came unhooked after a good ten minute battle. The runs were long and sizzling fast and the power boat guys were tripping. 10 or 15 minutes later saw a beautiful wild buck King come to the boat around 12lbs. Several more rides ensued but resulted in unhooked fish then the King in the photo came to my plastic tub. Hatchery fish around 15lbs. One more wild buck Chinook came to the yak but smaller like the first one. Crazy because last week it was Coho City.

I was almost bummed to not take home a fish but I did take my work camera out with waterhousing and was pleased with the image below. I'd love to go out with a couple more anglers one of these days and get the shot from the water instead. Be much easier if it wasn't my fish I was shooting. Be fun to do some over/under shots.

Those are great pictures.  Too bad you couldn't keep the nook.  Ndogg had to release a nice mid-upper 20 lb hatchery Chinook today. We launched out of Ft. Stevens in hopes of the triple coho limit.  It didn't happen.  I wish we could have kept 3 last Monday when you couldn't keep them off the line.

Thanks Craig. Didn't mean to post it twice. Here's another shot. I started at Ft Stevens at 6:30 but didn't like the wind. Did you get some good hook ups?

I had one good hook up which I long line released. I am sure it had to have been a native.    I then had one somehow suck all the meat off my herring without touching a hook and later in the day I had a few drive-bys, but overall it was very slow and the conditions were horrible.

 I also met up with Craig and Nate out at Ft. Stevens . They were just about to put in when I arrived. It was a lot windier out there than at Knappton and didn't look to lay down any time soon. With a NE wind I figured I would go back over to the Washington side and fish a little more out of the wind. Sorry guys---- I love to fish with you cause you guys have soooo much fun.... but decided to go with what I know.
  The north side was so much calmer than Clatsop Spit. Small waves , minimal wind, and only an hour into an in-coming tide. At Knappton, I prefer to fish the last couple of hours of an out-flowing tide-- down to shipwreck-- then let the tide work me back to the launch. Didn't work that way Saturday---- but you play the cards you're dealt !!!!
 Coming out from the pilings Lowrance was marking a lot of bait and a few fish scattered in with them. Tide coming in at a good clip now so hard to make much progress against it. Okay... back and forth across the trough that is there. Pulling spinner behind 8 oz. When turning against the current 8 oz was not enough weight. Current would pull  lure too high. My opinion is you really need to be near bottom fishing here. Heavy up to 10 oz. and much better control. Make a turn around and Take Down. Turns out to be a nice 8 lbs native--damhik......
 Work a few more hours with a couple of drive-bys but not the serious action I'm wanting. By now my Fish finder was blinking on and off. Losing charge......damhik..... Okay--maybe time for something different.
 The relaxed possession limits above Tongue Point sounded like something I wanted to tap. I had no idea about launches in that area so I went exploring. Found the John Day County Park launch off hwy 30. Turned in to check it out. Real nice concrete launch into a small lagoon that leads into the John Day River. Head down river, past an old Rail Road trestle and the river opens up into the Colombia above Tongue Point. Not too bad an access if you'd like to target this area. You'll have a couple mile trip to get out into the Colombia proper-- but this is the only access I have found so far.
 A little after I went past the RR trestle I felt a pop in my right knee. Now it's starting to get uncomfortable. Oh shit... I have a following wind and an  out-going tide working against me to get back to the launch. Duh..

 Like most fishing on the Colombia-- it's all about the tides..
 Next time --if I put in at John Day-- I will ride an out-going tide to the area , fish a few hours at change , and use the tide to get home. So much more efficient for ease of use that way. And it seems a fishy place. Quite a few guides use the river so there will be some traffic coming in and out. No big deal--- most are courteous. Some of the private boats less so from what I saw.
 
 So----- no fish home with me this time. But did learn of 2 other possibilities for future reference .
 My knee is a little tender this morning but not swollen too bad. Will have to see what happens there.
 That is all for now...............

Good update Mark. Sorry you had no keepers on this trip.

Mark sorry to hear about your knee. Thanks for your report of the pilings area by the put-in. I was there with a buddy last night during the outgoing tide. We paddled against it for about three hours. My friend boated a beautiful native coho and I got skunked. Knowing full well the bite is better on the incoming, we had a lash anyway. It was completely fishable with our method of slowly paddling against the outgoing current, slow enough to keep our 6oz weights and plug cut herring on the bottom. We'd get slowly sucked down river then we'd paddle over to the shore then paddle up current, through the pilings and do it all over again. Beautiful grey evening for a paddle.