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Willamette River (Or.) Chinook Report

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Terry A Turner

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Apr 16, 1990, 10:36:11 AM4/16/90
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I took 2 inexperienced fishing friends spring Chinook fishing this
Sat. with some great results. In the 1st 20 minutes we hooked and
landed a 27 lb. springer. Some details of the struggle follow.

I had pre-rigged 2 rods the night before so they were in the water
immediately when we started trolling. I was working on getting the
3rd rod in the water when the fish hit. Now the biggest fish Mike
had ever caught was about a 16" trout so had no idea about what to do.
We had just talked about setting the hook, getting the rod out of the
holder, keeping a tight line etc. When the fish hit, his mind went
blank. I am urging him to "reef on it" to set the hook which he
finally did and struggled the rod out of the holder.

The fish have been running small so I thought it was around 10 lbs or
so until it did something I have never seen a Chinook do. This fish
jumped straight out of the water and cleared the top of the water by
2 or 3 feet (twice in succession) right next to the boat. Needless
to say I went from calmly getting ready to land the fish to "GET
ME THE GOD DAMNED NET!" Well, the fish towed us down the river a ways
and some time later we landed the fish. Mike let the line go slack
on the fish several times and the fish was laying on its side ready
for the net but he had trouble getting it close enough for me to
reach it with the net, but finally, we did.

WE caught the fish on a Lucky Louie plug. (Luhr Jensen J Plug for
those of you not old enough to remember Louie.) Most people were
using prawns or herring (we were too on the other rod) but I seem to
consistently catch fish with these plugs every year. They were real
popular here for salmon 20 years ago until most folks switched to
herring. I started using them in Lake Pend Oreille (Idaho) for
Kamloops trout and used them for salmon when I moved to Oregon.


Fishing in general seems to be very slow with sporadic success in
certain parts of the river on certain days.


No fish for me yet but hopefully I' will get my chance.


Terry Turner

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