Fishing with Steelmon or how I wasted an hour at the dock.

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bagold53
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Took Steelmonkiller up on his offer for Wednesday with a friend of mine. Think he just signed up on OFF under Nat Pagle.

It was a great day to get out. I started my day with a shower, get dressed, grab my fishing license off the floor, were it had dropped and head out. Stop at a few places to try to get coffee at 4am, than to pick up my friend to head out to meet up with Steelmonkiller in Tillimook. We get to the boat ramp around 6, Steelmonkiller is already to go, and we start to get our stuff ready. Grabbing hats, double checking lunch bags and coats. Than time for a license check. Need to make sure I know where that little scrap of paper was so I could mark it with the sweet color of ink. Ok where was it, I know I picked it up off the floor and put it in my pocket, with my wallet. Pull the wallet out, no bright orange, go back keep digging in there got to be in that back pocket somewhere. Nope nothing left in there. Maybe try the front. As I vomit my pockets out into the back of my friends car. Everything is out and its panic time. There is no hint of that bright orange wallet that has my proof that I can fish or at least attempt to fish legally ... Panic time, Guide sitting at the boat, ready to go, and friend getting his stuff together. Had to tell my friend that I can’t find my license and then head down to the dock to tell Steelmonkiller. So I end up losing my license somewhere between me picking it up and getting to my friends place. This was figured out after I get to the boat ramp and am getting ready, with Steelmon killer all ready to go. 6am in Tillimook, Where does one get at least a day pass??? Option only start at 7 with either Freddies or the sporting goods store. So ended up hanging at the dock getting to know Steelmonkiller and wait the valuable time away until 6:30. Hit the Sporting goods store and finish waiting the longest 15 mins for them to open. Wait 5 mins for the darn dfw licensing machine to start and after 10 mins needs to reboot. Sorry not their fault try my luck at freddies In and out in 5mins and back to the ramp. Got out and started heading down river.

After getting on the boat Steelmonkiller was already to go and we headed down the river to find the spot he had picked out for the days adventure. Get to the spot and everything looks great we have fish surfacing and start getting some action. We start the fishing off with Nat Pagle, being a trout magnet. He gets 2-3 SRC throughout the day, with a couple other fish that really liked his presentation. We ended up moving a couple times to get away from the unwanted fish. And finally get to a spot that the little ones were not eating the bait as soon as it hits the water.
After a while (when fishing I have no sense of Time) I get my first bobber down and give it a good quick hook set and brought in the only salmon of the day. Took about 5 mins to get it to the boat and Steelmonkiller was thinking that it was native on the line and he was prepping to release it. He then sees or doesn’t see the all-important fin. In a split second he has the net out and scooping that fish out. He did it faster than I could pull line to give him some slack once the fish was netted.
first of the year.jpg
After that we had a little down time and had some lunch. After lunch we get our first Nook hit and busted Nat straight in the ribs. I guess he wasn’t ready for the fish to strike back. He set the hook but it didn’t stick. After that the fish seemed to have moved on so we did the same. Unfortunately, we never seemed to catch up to them after that and called it a day after around 5pm.
I learned some valuable lessons that I will move forward with not the least bit being to froggin check for the license every time u get in or out of a car.

Nat Pagle has a good pic of the little hen with her eggs.

Thanks Tanner for helping me get my first ink of the year, to bad it was on a day pass.

Sorry for the verbosity of the post.
 
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Nice chromer there. Did you ever find your license?
 
eugene1 said:
Nice chromer there. Did you ever find your license?

Yep it was between the center console and the drivers seat. can't believe I missed it when I did my looksie at my car to verify that I have everything and left said car at my friends
 
Salmon eggs.jpg
Bagold's hen with some beautiful eggs.
 
Those eggs look like they would be great bait.
 
You guys were a lot of fun to have on the boat. Can't wait to get you guys out for winters..

Sorry the nooks weren't cooperating fully!

As I told Ben, they went on the bite on Friday for another client who got his limit fairly shortly. He's new to the Forum and might make a post. I'll hold back on pics in case.

Cheers,
 
bagold53 said:
Thanks Tanner for helping me get my first ink of the year, to bad it was on a day pass.

Sorry for the verbosity of the post.

great report!
 
Great story! Nice fish!
 
Nice Job Guys!
 
SteelmonKiller20 said:
You guys were a lot of fun to have on the boat. Can't wait to get you guys out for winters..

Sorry the nooks weren't cooperating fully!

As I told Ben, they went on the bite on Friday for another client who got his limit fairly shortly. He's new to the Forum and might make a post. I'll hold back on pics in case.

Cheers,

Hope this isn't thread-jacking. If so, sorry guys!

Yes, we did have a good bite and a good morning. I just moved to the NW from the south (yep - Bass fisherman!) this year and spent most of the summer exploring all over Oregon and trout fishing. Started salmon fishing in August and had been having a lot of success with Coho, and managed to snag one nice Chinook, all from trolling spinners and plugs, so I was happy for the chance to get some tips on bobber fishing and any other techniques I could learn. I had tried some bobber fishing in June with no luck at Lorens drift on the Trask, and didn't much care for the elbow to elbow combat fishing, so gave up on that and went trout fishing all summer!

We started the same as above with SRCs and other tiny bait stealers causing us to move. 3rd or 4th spot the good fish beat the dirty little sculpins and perch to the bait and we landed a jack followed by a nice buck. Next cast landed another buck, but he was a bit chocolately, and after 3 fish in 3 casts, I was confident in getting a nice hen. Took a pic and tossed him back to try for that hen and had a good take down on the next cast, but wasn't quick enough on the hook set. I think Tanner only had to duck once from my deep water bass fishing hookset with the bobber rig flying at him like a missile! Then the bite died as the tide went to slack, so we waited a bit for the tide to flip to fish the hole from the other direction as the sculpin and perch went on a bait stealing frenzy.

IMG_3342.jpg

Current finally started moving a bit so Tanner repositioned the boat. First cast and about 5 seconds later I hooked that hen I wanted! From the family photo album: Mama, Papa, and little Jack.
IMG_3343.jpg
We got a fairly early limit. Tanner was very knowledgeable and was very enjoyable to fish with. A great morning.

My goal for the year was to learn and catch Coho, Chinooks, and Steelhead so I've got 2 out of 3! Looking forward to taking a Steelie trip with Tanner this winter to learn some Steelhead tactics and techniques. Thanks Tanner!
 
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bagold53 said:
Yep it was between the center console and the drivers seat. can't believe I missed it when I did my looksie at my car to verify that I have everything and left said car at my friends

Ben LOL dang boy gonna find a ditty bag for that wallet
 
Nice Tex!

Don't worry about thread jacking with your post at all.

Best,

BaldTexan said:
Hope this isn't thread-jacking. If so, sorry guys!
 

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