by Mike Carey, September 23, 2014

Another Epic Ed Iman Fish Camp in the rear view mirror...

Every year guides, outdoor product reps, and media types meet at Peach Beach RV Camp at Maryhill, Washington to review new products coming to market, tackle test, fish, and generally have way too much fun than an angler can have in a four day stretch.

This year, I was looking forward to camp because the Columbia River was experiencing a record run of Chinook Salmon, and last year we had an outstanding four days of fishing, so it was sure to be the same, right?

Aaron and I arrived Sunday evening and we soon had our Monday fishing assignment. We would be fishing for salmon on the Columbia. Others got their fishing assignments, pairing guides, writers, and product reps together. We visited with old friends, had some delicious snacks curtesy of LaVone and Fred in the Camp Chef stocked kitchen, and settled into our comfortable tents supplied by ALPS Outdoors.

It's dark, 5am, and the sound of pots, pans and voices awaken me. When in Fish Camp I really don't need an alarm clock. There's also the familiar 3am train that rumbles by every night, I always get awakened by it. Not to mention, I'm way too excited about getting the day going. I get dressed and come out of my tent. There are Fish Camp people milling about, making their lunches, and getting breakfast, visiting with each other. Soon enough we are on the road, and then on the water. The level of anticipation builds to that exciting moment when I open my bail and drop my eggs to the bottom. Two cranks up, settle in and watch the tip of the rod. This is salmon hover fishing. Last year it was a deadly technique, and I am hopeful for more of the same this year.

We are fishing various locations for the Chinook this year, the mouth of the Deschutes and the mouth of the Klickitat being the prime locations. Each spot has around 50-75 boats plying the waters. Some are hover fishing like us, and others are trolling. The hover fish boat operators us their kicker motors to control the boat's drift, keeping the anglers lines as vertical as possible. Maintaining good contact with the bottom is essential to this technique. An ounce cannon ball weight, 2-3 feet of leader, and a small glob of Pro Cure cured eggs is what we are using. Make contact with the bottom, reel up 2-3 revolutions, and watch/feel for the tap of a chinook. There are a couple caveats to keep in mind. First, if you don't reel up, I can pretty much guarantee that you'll soon be catching a 2-3 foot sturgeon, which are abundant in the river (and closed to retention). Second, there is a small fish called a "pea mouth" that loves to steal your eggs. So often that tap tap tap is not a chinook, but rather yet another tiny fish stealing your bait. But don't lose your concentration because the next tap tap could be a 10-40 pound king salmon! If your preference is trolling, what's hot can be large flatfish wrapped with sardine, or a flasher with terminal bait such as a herring, of artificial lure. Any artificial on the terminal end of the leader can and has caught salmon. Trolling speed is fast enough to rotate the flasher, and anglers will use either a downrigger or cannonball weight to get the flasher rotating just off the bottom. Remember, it needs to be up high enough for the flasher to make a full rotation without hitting the bottom. One interesting technique we learned about at Fish Camp came from Loren Dunbar of Hevi Beads. He fished with guide Shane Magnusen and they would put a heavy bead 4-5” ahead of a Brads cut-plug or Quik Fish. Loren reports that set up outperformed the others in the boat 4 to 1.

In case you are getting the impression that Fish Camp means "Salmon Fish Camp", allow me to mention that the Columbia River is home to a variety of fish and at Fish Camp we go after them all. So in addition to the salmon anglers, there are guides going out fishing for bass, walleye, and sturgeon. We spent one day with Louie McMinds of EZ Marine fishing for sturgeon. We developed a system for underwater camera filming with our REEL cameras (similar to a Go Pro but with several superior features). Louie looked at our set up and made a couple upgrades and before we knew it we had some amazing underwater footage of sturgeon, coming to you soon on You Tube!

Back to the salmon fishing, for whatever reason this year was tough. It seemed like every day the boats would come back with some salmon, but nowhere near the numbers we caught last year. Salmon fishing can be like that sometimes. We saw some anglers having limited success, but nothing like last year when it was boat limits for all. Perhaps in a week with cooling water temps in the Columbia the chinook will turn on, or maybe they are racing up to Hanford and that area will be on fire. In any case, I would not give up on the fishing at all, not with our record run of chinook coming through.

For an outdoor writer, besides fishing, the fun thing about Fish Camp is returning from the days fishing to talk with tackle manufacturers about new products that will soon be coming your way. These “sneak prevues” give us a window to the newest innovations about to hit the market. From Mack’s Lures we learned about a new Spin Drift Series that they will be coming out with shortly. The series will include rigs specifically for walleye, trout, shad, and salmon/steelhead. The salmon/steelhead spinner was particularly interesting to me. Featuring a red 2/0 hook with a trailing treble hook, the rig is designed to be used for trolling shrimp. All the Spin Drift Series rigs have stronger hooks with a fish-attracting corkscrew rotation and less line twist. Lance Merz of Macks told me “These rigs are really an exciting new product for Mack’s Lures; they have a fantastic corkscrew action, even at slow speeds, that the fish will go crazy over.”

I mentioned earlier in this article the little Quik Fish trick from Hevi Beads. Well, they have a new product innovation coming out that you’re going to hear a lot about. Hevi Beads has developed a process that allows scent to be impregnated into hard baits, such as their beads and soon to come out, hooks. Called Hevi-Scent, initially they will have garlic and anise, with plans to add others down the road. The scent is impregnated so it doesn’t wash out after a few drifts, but will stay on the product trip after trip.

We fish a lot of eggs here in the Pacific Northwest and there are dozens of egg cure products out there. At Fish Camp we had Steve Lynch of Pro Cure visit with us to do some egg curing demonstrations. He showed off Pro Cure’s new product for curing eggs, Pro Cure Liquid Egg Cure. It’s a curing solution that is just what it sounds like, liquid. Drop the eggs in the solution, let them soak for a few hours, and take the eggs out to air dry. The bottle of brine will cure around twenty pounds of eggs so it’s very economical, and easy to use. Liquid cure comes in orange, red, or pink colors.

Izore Lines announced a new line of braid entering the market this year. Watch for it coming to a store near you.

I got to visit with Alpen Optics rep Vicky at Fish Camp. I have a binocular I purchased last year for my saltwater boat. Their products are so good, this year I’m picking up a light weight version for hiking.


We’ll end this little product review section with a new grilling product from Camp Chef, the Pellet Grill and Smoker DLX. It’s another great product from Camp Chief. Steve McGrath of Camp Chief described it to me as the best of both worlds, able to handle either grilling or smoking duties. The unit features digital temperature readouts with a temperature chip that keeps temperatures even and without uneven swings that cause for poor smoking/cooking. What this means for smoking is low temperature; slow smoking is easy to achieve. We were treated to a dinner of grilled steak and I can honestly say it was amazing. We always eat well at Fish Camp thanks to the wonderful cooks and Camp Chef products!

So that’s a little behind the scenes look at Ed Iman’s Fish Camp. By the way, Ed has been guiding on the Columbia River for many years and is an excellent guide for walleye. He is the co-author of Walleye Fishing Simplified, published by Frank Amato Publishing. If you have a chance be sure to pick up a copy. Better yet, give Ed a call to learn some walleye techniques on the Columbia, (541) 298-3753.

See you on the water!