Bottom fish colors for 4th of July :)

This time of year in Astoria is simply amazing. The August crowd's haven't arrived yet and quick limits are as regular as a Rolex. Today we left the dock at 6:30 to get across the Columbia River bar before the tide went out. My clients were a grandfather and grandson. The grandfather had fished the area quite a bit, however he retired, sold his boat, and moved to Arizona. He wanted to show his grandson what salmon fishing could be like. After a run out and getting the rods in the water I aimed for a current seam and fairly quickly a rod started shaking and pulling towards the water. The first hatchery coho, and the grandson's first ever salmon had made it to the boat. A quick debate on whether this was a "fish to keep or release" happened and we brought a 5 lb coho on board. That would be our smallest kept fish of the day. Throughout the morning we worked through several double and triple hookups and sorted through about 15 fish in 3 hours to choose our limit. We released 3 hatchery fish and significant number of wild spawned fish before finally tagging a nice for July 10 pounder to finish out the limits. A not so quick (and a bit wet) run across the bar during the ebb tide finished off the day. While grandpa and grandson retired to the motor home for some dry clothes I got to work filleting the fish. It's not just anywhere that you can go out before breakfast and have a boat limit (including me tagging two) of coho in time for lunch. I can't wait for the next trip!

The ocean's been a bit rough lately but we took advantage of the window and ran out past the jetties into the ocean today! Within a couple of minutes of getting the rods in we had our first fish on. A small chinook that had to go back, but a good sign for the rest of the day. With the fog making it difficult to navigate we pushed on and had several more on and lost. Finally with a little practice we managed to get the first keeper on board. A few more passes on the same spot and it was time to make a move. We dropped into another spot and within minutes we had another fish on. This one popped off but the second one didn't. That one went in the boat as well. The choppy water made it difficult to find the seams but all in all we had 7 fish on and one drive by to make for an exciting morning on the ocean and while we didn't take any fish pictures, we have the scales on the boat to prove it!

This awesome family joined me for an amazingly fun sturgeon trip. We only had a short time but still managed to get over a dozen to the boat with nearly all of them over 6 foot. We did find a few "smaller" ones that we could bring out of the water for pictures. To make the trip special we also had a rare green sturgeon make an appearance. To make it even more special, Noah set the record for being the youngest person to bring in an oversized sturgeon on my boat at 7 years old! I can't wait to get these guys out for more adventures. They're an awesome crew and a great family :)