Springer's Challenge

With a strong outgoing tide all morning I slept in knowing it'd be a long day on the water for the late swing. I've been fishing different areas of the Columbia more this spring & experienced how trolling uphill during the strong outgoing tides can get old real quick. Anchoring offers respite & a nice change to paddling against 3mph currents all day, but I havnt seen or experienced any success yet on the hook this year.
Paddling uphill all day can be arduous depending on the tide & I've overthought whether springers will offer a bite on the up-troll.
I met up with Onefish & we decided to paddle upstream a ways before joining the trolling lanes on the downhill. We did this all morning without seeing a single hookup till the tide changed in the afternoon. The uphill paddle eased up a bit so we trolled & concentrated our efforts on an area where we had witnessed the few bites of the day. We passed the time reflecting on how we missed the smell of fresh salmon blood in the yak, with that metallic iron taste that lingers in your throat & sinus.
Later in the evening I reeled up to a tangled mess & chose to cut off my flasher & quickly re-rig with naked herring as to avoid loosing time & drifting farther down river. It was getting late after a full day & for the fourth time I told myself "just one more pass." Trolling uphill, 26 FOW, on bottom, I had a few rapid bumps on the rod so I stopped & let the bait fall. A few seconds, or minutes, later my rod buried & I lifted to feel the pulsing tug of head shakes. Onefish cheered on as she ran a few times and I put the wood to her to bring her right to the net. A tail biter, my herring was still in tact & the trailing barbless hook was nestled in the corner of her blackmouth. I think she was still stunned because after I netted her she freaked out & gave me hell so bad it took some time to recover. Thank you Onefish for the good company & inspiration to stay on the water & pound it out.
As not to waste a bit, I took my time cleaning her & chose to use the method Funngunnin demonstrated where you go in from the belly with the head removed first. All bones scraped clean & remains in the compost, not one bit of this fish went to waste. My wife didn't know how much she loved crispy salmon skin. The eggs were of course undeveloped & I've heard of people eating these brined with sea salt.
They say it takes around an average of 80 hours to catch a springer. From my experience this year I'd say that's about right. The springer's challenge teaches patience & humility.
Her belly was empty. She was 37"x19.5" & 19lbs bled.

Very nice! Thanks for sharing!

Jealous!!!!

Fantastic day on the water w Mursestrong!  A last pass 19 lb chunky spring blinding hunk of chrome.  Best part was his hoots and hollers' lasting echo off the tanker docked across the river.

That's awesome. You are really putting the time in. Sorry to hear your time on anchor hasn't been fruitful so far - I'm curious to hear more about that if you continue working on it. Great pictures, too - whoever did that did a good job.

Congrats, I'm making my 1st run on the water tomorrow am out of St Johns.  Hopefully I'll get lucky.
John

Awesome report! Thanks for sharing!

Excellent!  Was anticipating the long version. Great story, way to put in the work. Thanks for the report,Hugh!

Nice job buddy and nice write up.

I guess that Chinook skunk smell is officially gone.   

-Mark-

Great job man! Beautiful fish

Way to go Hugh! 

That salmon has some beautiful deep orange colored meat.

80 hours? 

I have my work cut out for me then.   

Very nice stoke-building story.

Great report and way to stick with it.  Hopefully #2 will take a bit less time.

Awesome Fillet job!
Next time cut the cheeks out!