Valentine's Day Spring Chinook!

No posts from me for a long time so I decided to write up a very annoying one for you nice folks:

Valentines Day is a little early to start springer fishing in the Willamette, but I had sweet dreams last night of rainbows and unicorns and seahorses and dolphins and kittens. I felt lucky. I just felt lucky.

Even though it was extremely early,  the conditions in the Willamette looked too good to ignore, so I sauntered out to my favorite early season spot around 12:30 to give it a go. There were a couple of boats out for the first hour or so, but I had the river to myself after that. About an hour and a half into my first outing of the season, I got the takedown that matters and I knew right away that it was a dandy that bit. The next 20 minutes or so were very fun and also very nervous with lots of time for me to do breathing exercised while this brute just bunkered straight down below the kayak. It just refused to take runs, or come to the boat, and it was just a total stalemate for so long that it was almost funny. Finally I got it in the hoop and I was seriously blown away to see that it was finless. I got loved-on, and it felt good.

For all of you kayak fishing folks that want to get into early season springers, I would suggest that you learn a specific spot, then concentrate very hard on fishing it well, and always believe.

Cheers! and looking forward to seeing some old and new faces out there this year.

F'n minnowmagnet!

Fantastic fish that blows away the idea all springers are cookie cutters.  Did you weigh it? 

WOW!   Congratulations on a beautiful fish.

Incredible springer!!!!  Congrats dude.

Awesome catch!!! Congrats!

Awesome fish MM! Well f'in done man!!

thanks ya'll. I didn't weigh it but it was an honest 38".
I'm munching on crispy grilled springer carcass right now and I would not trade this meal for anything. Something about eating the crunchy, oily morsels right off the rib bones after cooking the carcass on an old-school Weber with real charcoal is really amazing.
By the way, it bit a herring in 16fow and I was not using a flasher.

Hanapaa! Getting us stoked for the season!

What a fish!!!  Well done. You definitely have that spot dialed in.

Looking at that pic, I'm saying out loud, "Wow Wow Wow!"  In my head, I'm saying, "Damn, Damn, Damn!"

Time to dust off the Springer gear.

That's a dandy, MinnowMagnet !!!    You definitely got loved on by the Springers... go get some more.

What a beautiful fish!!

Nice fish!  springermagnet would probably be more fitting

That spot seems to attract the fatties. What a brute. You saw my best springer from very close to there.  Spent the weekend getting all the gear in shape. My have “Friday Flu” this week

See ya on the water