Today I had free time from noon until 4 pm. Hooked up with the Fish Whisperer to do another salmon run on the American. We met at the Howe American River Access. This also happened to be the first time that my canoe, the Ave Maria, equipped with a 40 lbs. Minn Kota trolling motor, entered the American. It's hard to say, but I either fumbled the controls in the beginning of the first troll or the Fish Whisperer hooked into a big whooper! We started out near the Watt Ave. Bridge by the concrete pipes where ProFisherman and I landed a lot of fish in the past. I wrapped the sardine just like the way the Pro taught me. We pulled plugs for steelhead and salmon; Arkie and Hot Shots were for steelhead and sardine wrapped Kwikfish for salmon. We saw some salmon jumping, some beat up salmon swimming around, and some carcasses showing the that the salmon have complete their life cycle. As a bonus, I saw a beautiful steelhead shoot straight out of the water about two feet high!
The first past, the Fish Whisperer using a 13X Kwikfish, sardine wrapped, sees his plug going the wrong direction. His pole bent; I stopped the trolling motor; he pulled the canoe upstream? It's ridiculous! Unfortunately, after a little while, the line snapped. So I quickly wrapped a K14 Kwikfish that I got on one of my Oregon trips and repeated the trolling again.
The second take-down. I put the Ave Maria on reverse to troll upstream. The Salmon Slayer was in the rod holder. Bam! The take-down was so violent, the Fish Whisperer had a hard time removing it from the rod holder. Once again, after a little while, we only got our plug back, but no fish.
The third and fourth take-downs both happened on the Oregon Kwikfish. The Fish Whisperer was holding on to the rod when the salmon took it. One was on and off. The last one, the Fish Whisperer got to fight it for a little bit and even saw its head when it spit out the plug.
Although no fish was boated, it was a blessed trip. I now know that I can load and unload the Ave Maria by myself on the Fish Mobile. I learned that the 40 lbs Minn Kota can handle the swift current of the American by Watt Ave. I preferred to troll in the forward motion rather than in reverse. Until next time: tight lines....
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| Reworking this K15 to a gold color. |
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| The finished product is in third row down, to the left. |
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| More of dead salmon are seen now |
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| We were the only fishermen on the river. |
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| The Fish Whisperer: he called; they came; but we didn't conquered this time. Next time, my brother. |
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