Family, Portland and the search for Springers

I put my fly rod down this past weekend.  Bigger game was in our sites.  Columbia River Spring Chinook

Springers.

Daybreak on the Columbia

Trolling for Springer Chinook is very familiar to me.  It's how I grew up going after anything bigger than twelve inches and didn't come from a stocker truck.   I am not afraid to bait up a cut plug herring, lash on 6 oz of lead and go bounce the bottom.  It was very, very early for this run of fish.  Fishermen in our family are optimists, and if you're not an optimist, you wont last as a fisherman in my family

OMR and OMR Jr

The best part of this trip is the Mills family in Portland.  This town feels like a second home to me, as OMR's entire side of the family resides there.  Family dinners with 20 or more people at my uncles house are the norm.   His three boys are more like brothers than cousins, and my wife and I get the opportunity to hear legendary stories of our family, past down through oral history and aided by a generous helping of vino and spaghetti. 

Time on the water was a testament of will, especially on Friday.

Uncle Chuck, spry and fish crazy at 84

Layer after layer of waterproof clothing buffered us against repeated squalls and high winds.  Drift, reel up, repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  I was starting to see a similarity between swinging for Steel and trolling for Chinook.

Saturday brought much better weather, great conversation with OMR,  OMR Jr and his son Cole.  Larry, aka, ORM Jr. is a great boat captain on his home water, and I tried to learn as much as I could.

Boat traffic was way up, but nobody was catching anything.  ANYTHING.  In over 80 boats, we saw ZERO fish caught.  Of course, conversations with other boats hinted at success, but we hadnt seen anything.

The day drifted away and on the way back to Rodgers Marina, we hoped against hope and made one more drift.  And as you would guess....pay dirt

Twenty pounds of dime bright hatchery chrome threw our boat into a crazed mess.  The buck hit my cousing Cole's offering, only to wrap into OMR's herring, then circle under the boat to wrap into Uncle OMR Jr.'s rig as well.  Talk about a five alarm Chinese fire drill.   Four guys all 6'2 and above and all over 220lb....dancing around a 20 foot Boston Whaler.  With a tank of a Chinook hooked up as well.  Holy Hell

So you have three fishing nuts screaming instructions to Cole as he's attached to two other lines and one pissed off Chinook.  Finally, we determined what lines could be cut and the dance ended with this beaut on board. Nice work Cole!

What a great weekend with family, traditions and of course, that beautiful fish

Not  to mention that second slice in was phenomial tonight for dinner.

In the quest for Columbia Springers....

I caught a clam.  Oh, and a smolt.  Full trip write up tomorrow, but in a slight case of what those literary types call "foreshadowing"

Welcome to the addiction Harmon

Nice work on your first steelhead.  I bet you remember this little summer run hen for the rest of your life.

The Grande Ronde yet again the baptismal place of another new steelheader.  

Free Korkers and flies from April Vokey, for me?... God bless the interwebs

So I open up the ol' facey page tonight and what is the message I get from Korkers Footwear?

"JOSH MILLS !!! You have won our Korkers HardKor contest. Call us here at Korkers at 1-800-524-8899 or email me at Sam@Korkers.com We will be starting another contest with our new HardKor Fan being introduced this week- Keep posted!"

 



The Predator Wading boot, part one of my interwebs swag

Part two, the lovely Ms April Vokey of www.flygal.ca, and who rocks these boots on the water,  has also donated a steelhead fly or two from her vice to the contest winnings.  Thank you April!

Korkers make in my humble opinion the best wading boots on the planet.  I actually have a pair right now, but as hard as I am on gear....I will gladly accept.  All I did was become a fan of Korkers on Facebook, which you can do as well here

The boa system on these boots are an absolute joy.  Click, snap snap, your in.  Click...one small pull, you're out.  Easy as that

So thank you Korkers, keep kicking you know what!

Triple Secret Boat Project

Rescued from a barn near Nez Pierce, Idaho, we have plans for this little 10 ft beauty.

 

A trip to the car wash started the process to remove layers of old paint and dirt

 

 Local Lakes and Carp Flats...whaaaaach out

It's easy to fall in love with Belize...

Currents of Belize from McJ Digital on Vimeo.

Ok...I'm really done now....for reals

I'm done. Yesterday marked the end of fishing for quite possibly the greatest run of Summer Steelhead up the Columbia System that we might ever see

This run provided so much. So much learning, so many firsts. First on the spey, first year of steelhead camp, first steelhead for a few of my friends and of course so many great days with OMR. I hate to even say this, but this season there were Zero skunks. That alone should tell you what kind of year this was.


From the first fish of the year on the Ronde


To the last, it was one hell of a run

Soon, I will take my first trip to fish for the mythical winter runs of the OP. What I left with now is the realization that at my core, there isn't another fish I would rather chase forever. And ever. And EVER.

Apologies to all those around me, but I a slave to the Steelhead.