I decided that since I live in Oregon now I have to suck it up and get outdoors in the rain as well. Therefore, at about 3:45 pm today I donned my trusty Seattle Sombrero and Goretex rainwear, grabbed my little cedar strip SINK and tossed it on the family truckster. I drove the arduous 2 1/2 miles to Brownsferry Park on the "mighty" Tualatin River. I learned very quickly that you can't get close to the water with a vehicle. D'oh! I didn't bring my cart. I strapped the paddle to the yak, put the rods inside, donned my PFD and humped it to the water. I was thankful grabbed the lightest boat i have. Next, I learned that you have to launch from the dock and boy the current was swift today. Hmmmm! I have never climbed into a SINK from a dock before. I shoulda wore the dry suit, there was a good chance for a dunking. I would have worn it, but it was hanging in the closet next to my daughters crib and if I woke her, it would be game over.
I removed all valuables from the yak and climbed in. Thankfully, and to my surprise, it was actually very easy. Then, I paddled out into mid-stream. It was like a tread mill. A lot of paddling, but didn't get anywhere fast. I decided that paddling and casting wasn't going to work real well, so I paddled closer to the shore and headed upstream. I went 0.6 miles, which was a little beyond the I-5 bridge. It took about 20 minutes of non-stop paddling up-current. I realized my paddling muscles were a little out of shape.
I started drifting back towards Brownsferry Park at about 4:30 pm and was casting towards the bank. I was drifting so fast that I decided it would just make more sense to troll/jig close to the north side bank where all the docks are located. I let about 15 feet of line out and jigged it up and down while drifting downstream. About 100 yards after drifting under the I-5 bridge and about 2 minutes after switching to this technique, it was fish on! Yay! I caught my first Oregon smallmouth. Actually, it was the first SMB I have ever caught. I have caught lots of stripers and LMB, but never a smallie.
Now, the problem was that I didn't expect to actually catch a fish. In fact, I only had the one lure which I tied on Texas-rigged at home. I did bring a camera, but since lighting was crappy and I did't expect to catch anything, it was in the rear hatch of the kayak. It is accessable, but I have never done it before while holding a floppy fish. And to top it off, it was in a dry pouch that had a velcro seal. I found out that my neoprene gloves were not conducive to opening velcro. I took them off, and unbeknownst to me at the time, dropped one in the river. Did I mention the current. It got carried away before I noticed it was gone, so I didn't actually notice it was gone til sometime later. Anyways, I did not bring anything to measure it with either. Then, I realized that my rear hatch is made of alternating cedar and pine strips. I layed the fish across the hatch and photographed it.
I released it and the fish had something to be thankful for today as well. It was getting pretty dark so I drifted back towards the launch jigging as I went. No more fish were caught, but I noticed what looked like a bloated hand floating under the brush along the bank. Crap! I hope thats not a dead body. I haven't had my Thanksgiving meal yet. Upon closer examination, I found a partially submerged neoprene glove that looked just like the ones I had with when I had started out on this expedition. Wait a minute, that is my glove. Well, that is something else to be thankful for I guess.
I returned to the dock and managed to safely climb out of the yak. I humped everything back to the family truckster (aka sign of male fertility, the mini-van) and loaded up. Upon my glorious return home, I photographed, with scale, my rear hatch so I could determine the size of this monstrous fish. I estimate it was about 14 1/2 inches. That is monstrous isn't it???
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
-Craig
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) for a majority of its length. There are log jams that are two dangerous to cross in some areas and they shift from year to year. It is a very popular paddling river. Very few power boats will use it because in the summer it can get quite shallow. The current can really pick up in the winter when it is raining.