by Mike Carey, October 04, 2011

Four Days of Fishing at Ed Iman’s Fish Camp 2011

Like a salmon returning to its native stream, each year a group of guides, outdoor writers, and gear manufacturers migrate to Peach Beach RV Campground in Mary Hill, Washington. While salmon migrate to propagate the species, our objective is more modest - to learn about the latest products and outdoor innovations coming to a store near you. And of course we get in some quality fishing and camaraderie. It’s an odyssey I look forward to immensely each year. The fishing can be amazing, and getting to report to you about new products coming soon for the angling/camping enthusiast is a blast.

Aaron Borg and I arrived on Sunday afternoon and meet the crew – Fred, and camp cook, Lavon, camp assistant, and of course, Ed and Pam Iman, the founders and brain trust behind Fish Camp. We select our tent and settle in for an evening of good natured ribbing and BS’ing. It’s good to see old friends, and to meet new ones. Every year Ed lines up a great group of sponsors and guides for we writers to meet and learn from. This year is no different. After catching up on the year’s goings-on, we settle into tents provided by Browning Camping, a part of ALPS Mountaineering. Of course, we have cots and sleeping bags provided by ALPS as well. They call this roughing it? I call it living the good life.

Morning comes quickly. We are awakened by the sounds and smells of breakfast being made by Fred and his crew. Each morning (what a treat!) we start our day with a delicious warm breakfast to jump start us for the day ahead – a day of serious fishing. Because as we all know, anglers take their fishing seriously. Imagine a group of outdoor writers, anglers all, dividing up the various trips being provided by the Fish Camp guides. Aaron and I are assigned to bass fishing with Nolan Morgan, a tournament angler out of Oregon. Nolan takes us down past the town of Dalles on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. We launch from the Hood River boat launch and motor to a few prime locations on Nolan’s go to list. It doesn’t take long before we are into Columbia smallmouth bass, ranging 2-4 pounds. We’re casting Reaction Strike soft plastics with Daiichi Bleeding Bait Hooks, Rapala Shad Raps, and Mac Lures Promise Keepers. Fishing is good, but not great on this day. There are a lot of variables that affect fishing on the Columbia, including river flows from upriver dams. In our case we find willing fish but by early afternoon the wind has come up and it’s getting hard to keep our boat on the fish. None the less, we had a good day and caught quite a few quality fish. I love fishing the Columbia for smallmouth bass! I know when the fish are active I’ll catch more than my fair share of quality smallmouth bass. It’s a great bass fishery.

Day Two and it’s off on our next adventure, and what an adventure it is! Up at 3am, we hit the road with Mike Gibney. Mike is another tournament bass angler, but today he’s going to show us a new fishery. I’m excited as can be because we are off to Merwin Reservoir in pursuit of trophy Tiger Muskie. We will be joined at Merwin by Ed Walzer, a member of Muskie’s Inc Chapter 57 in Washington. Ed is an expert on Merwin reservoir muskies. He has the fishery dialed in. He’ll be taking one boat, and we are off with Mike in his boat. Our pattern for today will be to start at the far end of the lake by the dam and, working our way back along the shoreline, cast to fallen wood structure and deep drop off weed lines. We’re casting Reaction Strike swimbaits. These baits are made for BIG muskie and pike. Beautiful, life-like finish and double-jointed bodies give them a natural, wounded bait appearance that soon had us watching some nice muskies follow the bait right back to our boat. Sad to say, despite trying boat side figure eights, on this day the muskies were just not interested in striking gear. The fish of a thousand casts, we must have been short by three casts. No matter, I’ve scoped out a new place and species to fish for. Just the sight of those majestic muskies at boat side was enough to convince me that I will return! We returned to camp late, but not forgotten. Other, luckier anglers from Monday’s fishing trips had supplied Steve McGrath of CampChef with salmon for smoking. I’ll tell you what; eating freshly smoked salmon after a hard day of fishing is a treat to be savored. I have a Camp Chef Smoker Vault and have been having a blast this year smoking up pink salmon. It’s hands down one of the better smokers out there, in my opinion.

On days three and four we focused on one thing and one thing only, Chinook salmon. Our destination was the mouth of the White Salmon River, on the mighty Columbia. On our first day we fished with Herb Good. Herb is a retired Columbia River guide with a sharp sense of humor. I was his target for ribbing this day, but it’s all in good fun. Today we started a little late, line in the water by 7:30 am. We are fishing with a technique called “hover-drifting”, which is basically a controlled drift with kicker motor running to allow slip-sliding around the anchored boats. At the business end of our line was a one ounce cannonball weight and Daiichi hook on a three foot Izoline leader. Our eggs were freshly cured using Pautzke Baits“Balls O’ Fire” Fire Cure with Pautzke's new, highly acclaimed Krill attractant in flame pink. Drop the weight to the bottom, crack up two revolutions and hang on. You’ll get bit by something called a pea mouth (a kind of a sucker), but you’ll also have a shot at some awesome salmon. “Fish ON! I hear Aaron call out within minutes of starting our first drift. I look over and his rod is doubled over and line is violently peeling off the reel. Aaron patiently worked the fish in and Herb put the net to our first salmon, I bright 15 pound buck. Maybe it was Herbs guiding skills, or maybe it was our freshly cured eggs, most likely a combination of both. We had a day to remember. Twelve salmon composed of five jacks, five kings 12-15 pounds each, and two hogs of 26 and 27 pounds. And all around us were boats with no nets waving. But we ended the day with a triple, amazing! Now that is fishing in the fast lane.

The second day we again set out for the mouth of the White Salmon River, this time with guide Steve Leonard of Steves Guided Adventures. Steve has over twenty years of guiding experience in Washington and Oregon and he knows the Columbia River salmon runs as well as any guide around (not to mention a whole lot of other rivers and fisheries in Washington and Oregon). Once again hover fishing with eggs is on the menu, and once again Aaron hits pay dirt on one of our first drifts. Bam! Fish on and it’s a good one. Talk about déjà vu all over again. This was Aaron’s trip for sure, two days of big fish and lot’s of them. We make a few more passes but the pea mouths are bait stealing our eggs like crazy, plus, the famous Columbia River west wind has started kicking up. Now, this wind may be great for the wind surfers, but it makes fishing eggs on a drift really tough. Being a veteran guide, Steve has a Plan B and switches us over to trolling bait wrapped kwikfish. It’s a smart move as we begin to get strikes. First outdoor writer Jim Goerg. catches a bright jack, then Aaron gets a ferocious take down that unfortunately comes un-done. Finally, I get my turn as my rod slams downward from the weight of a solid fish. “Fish, fish!” I call out, and grab my rod out of the rod holder. It’s a solid fish and makes multiple line stripping runs. I work the fish patiently in and Steve nets my 17 pound, chrome bright White Salmon King. I gaze at my fish and stop to appreciate what an excellent season this year has been for Washington salmon anglers. What a great two days of salmon fishing Aaron and I have had! By this time we have waves breaking over our stern and Steve wisely decides we should call it a day. When the para-sailors and wind surfers are going faster than you are the old Columbia is telling you to be safe and go in.

Back at camp, outdoor writers, tackle reps, and guides compare notes and relive the last four days of excellent adventures. An amazing meal of corn fed Oregon beef, baked potato, and corn bread, with peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream for dessert finish us off. Of course, the friendly ribbing and tall tales go well into the evening. Fish Camp 2011 as been official drawn to a close by Ed so we can stay up as late as we want. Tomorrow it’s back to our daily routines, revitalized by four days of amazing fishing and friendship. The thing that strikes me about our outdoor experience, fishing and camping, is that this type of adventure is available to all of us here in Washington. We have so many opportunities for making memories that last a lifetime. I hope you, your family and friends establish your own “Fish Camp” tradition. We are truly blessed to live in Washington State with all these experiences in our back yards.

Here’s a list of Sponsors at Fish Camp and their web site links. They have some of the best outdoor products I have ever used. Check out some of their gear and I think you’ll agree.


ALPS Mountaineering Lot's of great camping gear.
B & D Meats Corn fed Oregon beef -yum!
Cabelas What more needs to be said? The premier outdoor store.
CampChef Lot's of great products including cafe stoves, smokers, and portable firepits.
Coast Knives, flashlights and much more.
Columbia Sportswear Some of my favorite outdoor clothing comes from Columbia. Constant innovation of outdoor clothing.
Fishermans Eco Soap A new, unique, biodegradable soap to remove human odors from your fishing gear.
Darex makers of Work Sharp Tools Hands down they have the BEST knife sharpner on the market today.
Izorline Makers of great fishing line.
Folbe Products LLC (Seattle, WA, maker of high quality rod holders)
Lamiglass Some of the best rods made come from Lamiglas.
Luhr Jensen and Smokehouse Products Great fishing lures and products.
Mac Lures Check out those smile blades to give your presentation that extra attraction.
Pautzke Baits First class egg curing products.
Rapala One of my favorite lure manufacturers.
Reaction Strike Amazing, life-like swim baits and more.
TTI Blackmore Makers of a variety of excellent lures, hooks, and more.