Paddlepaloosa Portland? April 28/29 ?

Sounds like an outing in PDX is growing. April 28/29?  Allen (polepole) is here for the Alder Creek Paddle Fest. Mike is coming up from Corvallis. Will is here, and this is where I live. Sounds like the makings of an outing to me!

 Some of the best Spring Chinook, Steelhead, Sturgeon, and Walleye fishing is about 2 miles (as the crows flys) from the paddle fest in the Columbia and late April is the very beginning of the Shad run. Silver Lake is just a bit north of the fest and should be good for pre-spawn Smallies. Tillamook Bay (ocean) is about an hour away for Sturgeon, Ling, rock fish and crabs as well as the tail end of the springers. Finally, the weather should be downright,,,,, tolerable.

So anybody interested?

I am SO THERE!!!!

Let's hit the springers on the Willamette or Columbia.  It's been on my "list".  How does that sound?

-Allen

Oh and the Alder Creek Paddlefest  runs 9AM-4PM on Saturday so we should be able to get a little before and after fishing time in.   

http://www.aldercreek.com/Festivals_&_Demo_Days/Spring_Paddle_Festival_Portland-e17-m4-y2007.html

-Allen

Gents;

You have the worst timing.  I haven't been around lately because my wife and I are trying to buy our first home.  If we don't fall out of escrow, it will close on 25APR07.  We were planning on moving in that weekend.  My idea was to move in on Sunday, 29APR07 and Monday, 30APR07.  This would give me a chance at going, but I haven't put this past my wife yet.  I figure I have about a 50% chance of going (My birthday is next week and I could maybe swing this as a gift).  I'll let you know.  But this does sound cool.

It looks like to Lower Columbia is due to close this weekend.

So how about the Willamette?  How is it fishing for springer?

-Allen

I've heard that the Willamette has been relatively slow this year. The WA tributaries (Lewis, Kalama and Cowlitz) have been better. Drano Lake put out it's first springers this week.

Drano Lake put out it's first springers this week.

I don't think I've head of Springers.. what are they?
Z

Hah!  Spring run king salmon.

-Allen

Hah!  Spring run king salmon.

And the Cali boy shows his true colors 

Z

The dates is getting close.  Any of you OR guys have any lines as to a hot bite to check out on the 29th?  Or at least one starting to warm up.

-Allen

Time to fish!

The event is in Lake Vancouver which is just east of Frenchman's Bar Park. Frenchman's is a nice park on the Columbia with an easy beach launch to very good Spring Chinook fishing. The bad news is that the Columbia just closed to Salmon    The good news is that the Willamette and Multnomah Channel are wide open and hot.  I'd suggest Coon Island. It's in the Multnomah Channel on the other side of Sauvie Island just across the Columbia from Frenchman's Bar Park. I'm going to fish it tomorrow and Sunday and I'll post a report.

That area holds Sturgeon, Bass and Walleye as well as Springers so that might be the spot. AND the Shad may be starting.  Be warned: "normal" Springer fishing can often entail dropping the anchor, bounce a qwikfish back 75 yards, then put the rod in the holder and sit back and shoot the breeze with your buddy for the rest of the day. In other words, it can be slow. Trolling is the probably the best option for this area for Springers from the yak. However, all the other fish will generally produce more action. I have not fished Sturgeon from the kayak, but the standard in this area is to anchor and set a bait on the bottom. Problem is Sturgeon fishing is in 50' to 90' of water. I'm still working on deep water anchoring technique. Shad fishing is anchoring in 6' to 30'. Bass is just cast and move and Walleye is trolling a worm harness. Steelhead also are breezing through this area. Coon Island is only about 5 miles as the crow flies from Frenchman's, but we're not crows. It's a good bit of a drive from the Demo Day (30 mile drive from Vancouver Lake) but it should be worth the trip. Be nice if I could figure out some kind of shuttle across Sauvie Island though.

Here's a link to the area. Sauvie is the big island in the middle of the screen with the "x". Vancouver Lake is just to the right across the Columbia. Coon Island is not shown on the map view but is clearly visible at the top of Sauvie Island on the left side in the Hybrid and Satellite views. 

http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=h&q1=97223&trf=0&lon=-122.783546&lat=45.681239&mag=7

FFTW, where's your report from last weekend?  Where are we going this coming weekend?

-Allen

So, I plan on being at the Vancouver Lake site this Sat. (4/28) around 10AM, primarily to shake some hands and tryout some boats. I'm obviously still shopping for my boat, but fishing in the afternoon is definitely and option, providing someone drags along an extra yak.

If the fishing event happens, anyone know what and where, so I know what gear to throw in?

As I did not hear from anyone about fishing on Sunday, I'm going to head home Saturday night after the Paddle Fest.  It's probably best anyway because I have some "real work" getting in the way.

See you on Saturday ... whoever shows up at the Paddle Fest event.

-Allen

Sorry for the late posting. Just got BUSY at work and had to travel more than I wanted to. <can you hear the violins yet?>

I got out last week for a short trip to coon island for nada. Sunday, however, got one BIG nate.
 My suggestion is to go a bit higher in the Willamette. Best exposure looks like a drift from Clackamette Park in Oregon City to Spring Park or the Milwaukie Boat Ramp. That’s a 7.2 mile drift with a 13 minute drive time from top to bottom. There are a number of shorter options if need be. Anybody still up? PM me and I’ll give you my number and some better directions.