More salmon that you can shake a rod at!

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!