Chinook Fly Rod Traditions.. Pic heavy mega post!

For the last 20 years I have spent in Oregon I have fished with many many great anglers and a ton of up and comers. When I look back at all the places I fished with all these people I see that fishing friends tend to re-connect around that "certain" time of year when something you have in common begins to occur all over again. I have a pretty rich history fishing with Mike Braun and the rest of his outdoor loving family. Mike and I tend to go our seperate ways for much of the year but there are several fisheries that pull us back together throughout a years time, some of which we label as tradition. One such tradition occurs on what I like to refer to as "little river" near the town of Astoria Oregon. For almost as long as I have been in Oregon Mike and I have had a tradition to get together on little river and whack the living heck out of chinook salmon on nothing but fly rods.





After spending many seasons on little river we know that if the first thing you see is fish blasting the riffles you know your in for a good day. We had arrived a bit later in the day than most trips but our first sightings of fish came as soon as we got out of the truck. It was pretty obvious that little river was going to produce today...



Mike was fast into a super nice buck as the first few fished began to pass with the evening tide. We find that if we bounce around a little bit we can pick up a few extra fish while we wait for the push to build. Who knows what causes fish to move around the way they do but in places like this fish can appear out of nowhere at any time.



Our poking around this day lead to a solid connection with this overweight tule hen. Hens in these lower Columbia basin stream are often well over 20 pounds and although they can appear brown can often cut red as this one did. A non destructive hatchery controlled source of salmon and roe. About half of the streams on the Oregon and Washington side of the lower columbia basin have hatchery controlled runs that are designed to benefit both sport and commercial interests.







Moving on toward dusk we had settled on our final location for the day and things had improved to our expectations. we spent the next 2 hours enjoying fishing that could only be compared to Alaska. Catching and releasing king after king on 10 weight fly rods until only the darkness could stop us and send us on our way.







Some traditions are meant to be kept and more still some traditions are meant to be kept just between friends. I can remember years when salmon did not come and many long days spent waiting in our best spots turned out fruitless leaving us with only the long drive home. I can also remember years when so many salmon came it was simply overkill. Most important to me is that I remember every single one of those years I spent walking little river was with my longest standing fishing partner Mike, the one who showed me about the magic of little river so many years ago. Good times and rich history for our families, a tradition that must repeat again.

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The Spoils of war





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