Yup - There are fish down there!

Between busy schedules and baseball season, we haven’t had a lot of time to go out fishing this summer.  The other day the stars aligned and my nephew Henry and I connected up for an evening on the river.  We headed 5 minutes down the road to the (not so) mighty Tualatin, rigged up the canoe, grabbed our fishing rods and life jackets and hit the water. We headed up stream a short distance to a rocky shoal and tail pool that has been known to produce Smallmouth Bass.  We fished the area, then back along the many docks and snags that line the river.  We saw beaver, wood ducks, herons and kingfishers.  We chatted with other paddlers and anglers.  We discussed how the river flowed and why it looked the way it did and watched the fish we weren’t catching with the fish finder.  The only thing missing was actually catching any fish.  

Henry developed his basic casting skills and reel handling playing with Backyard Bass in his backyard over the past year or so.  It served him well as he informed me that bobber fishing wasn’t too exciting, but casting spinners was a LOT of fun.  He took a little while to adapt to casting while sitting in a canoe seat, and watching his back cast so he didn’t hook a 180 lb uncle.  It didn’t take much time before he was putting the spinner pretty much where he wanted it.

As we pulled in and loaded the canoe in the last glimmers of the fading day, we both agreed that it was a pretty good fishing trip despite the lack of fish.  We’re headed out tomorrow to the St. Louis Ponds where, if we hold our mouths right and the fish gods smile, we’ll actually practice the catching part of fishing…. Wish us luck!