by Dave Graybill, October 22, 2013

I’ve made two trips down to Vernita since my last column. I enjoyed some great weather, and had terrific days on the water. My luck getting fish in the boat varied on the two trips to this stretch of water. There are tremendous numbers of fall salmon in the river down here, and time is getting short for those who want to get in on the action.

My wife Eileen and I went down last Wednesday. This was her first trip to this area, and it was a real eye opener for her. She was amazed at all the trailers and RVs parked in the launch area, and just how rough the launch was. I decided to head down river, where on a previous trip with Shane Magnuson, we had a super day of fishing. There were quite a few boats in the vicinity of “Reactor B”, the landmark for this fishing spot, but I saw very few fish on the finder, and we saw just one fish caught while making two drifts. We were fishing eggs on jet divers and this is a great spot to use this technique, when there are fish around to eat them.

I brought in the gear and we headed all the way up the river to just below the dam, to the spot where I had great fishing with my brother Rick. As I came around the corner I noticed that there was another boat in the spot I planned to fish. It appeared to be a guide boat, and I didn’t want to move in on the water he was fishing. It had been a while, but I figured trying the other side of the river was worth a try.

On the first drift the rod bent over and the reel screamed as a big fish picked up the eggs and headed down river. The fish came up to the surface and I saw a huge head that at first I thought was a very large king. The fish then ran up stream and a very large sturgeon jumped with my hooks in its mouth. It was both exciting and disappointing. It was quite a site, but I didn’t want to wrestle with the fish in the heavy current. It would have taken a big chunk of our fishing time to get this fish to the boat and retrieve our hooks, so I broke it off.

I got re-rigged and headed back up to the top of the hole, and on the next drift hooked a good fish. It wasn’t very big, but in the fast current it took a while to get it to the net. Eileen did a great job landing the fish and was very excited about getting a fish in the boat. On the next drift another fish crushed the eggs, but missed the hooks. The same thing happened on the following pass. Then next time back-trolled down this same slot we hooked up again. This fish had a bit more weight to it and took longer to get to the net. I got a jack on one of the drifts through this area. I hooked and lost another fish on the next pass, and since the bow mount was losing its juice I decided to head for home. We had a very busy couple of hours that afternoon.

Two days later I had a different experience. I was joined by Brian Anantatmula, Jim Passage and Tom Bartlett. It was the fist time all three of these anglers had been to Vernita, and they were all excited after I told them about the day that Eileen and I had. We started at the Power Line Hole and we did get a good hit there, but didn’t hook up. Brian was going to have to leave early, so I pulled in the gear and headed for the spot that had provided me such great action last time. Sure enough, when we made out first drift we got a hit right away, but darn, didn’t hook up again. We had some other good rod bending hits, but not hook ups.

We made a quick run back down to the ramp and sent Brian on his way and then headed right back up to the same spot we had been fishing. I noticed that the boat that had been in the spot across the river had moved away, so we set up drift there. On the first pass the rod bent over tight, and popped straight up. Before I could even get it out of the holder the line broke. Darn! We made some other drifts on the other side, again missing fish, and only getting a small smolt up to the boat. It was a frustrating time, fishing wise, but in retrospect it was a very fun day of fishing. Passage, Bartlett and I had enough action to keep us on our toes, and we had a great time reliving past fishing experiences and telling stories. It was a great day on the water.

Steelhead season opened on most of our area waters on Wednesday, October 16th, and anglers have been champing at the bit for this opener. The steelhead season is one of the most cherished of fishing seasons here in Central Washington. Chasing these prized fish in the fall is a favorite pastime of anglers here. Our steelhead seasons are an example of using sport angling as a management tool that has been successful. More and more wild fish are returning to our area streams each year. The result of being able to keep adipose fin clipped hatchery fish, to enhance the ability of wild fish to spawn. On Wednesday, the main stem Columbia from Rock Island Dam to Chief Joseph Dam opened. Barbless hooks are required but bait is allowed. The Methow River also opened and there are some special boundaries that anglers should refer to in the official news release from the department. Bait is not allowed above the bridge at the mouth of the Mehtow. The Okanogan River opened on Wednesday, too, and the Similkameen will open on November 1st. It is important to note that these seasons are maintained through funding provided by the Columbia River Salmon and Steelhead Endorsement program. Please check the WDFW web site for specific details on the regulations.

I plan on making one more trip down to Vernita before it closes next week, and then it’s time to switch to steelhead fishing. Hot dog!

By Dave Graybill

FishingMagician.com