Columbia Gorge Fishing Report November 16th

Jeff caught a nice little hen. 

Fishing Report

This last week was good for most of the area anglers that ventured out.  Our favorite summer steelhead rivers were kicking out fish and in great shape for most of the week.  While this weekend’s rains are not doing much to help the clarity, levels are going up and there could be some good fishing this week.  The weather looks unsteady and possibly torrential, but there should be some good periods of fishing this week. 

Chinook Salmon are mostly dead now.  There are a few stragglers holding on, but the rivers are full of dead salmon everywhere.  It is very much like Alaska in the Gorge right now. 

Summer Steelhead have been on the bite this past week.  While nothing was red hot, there was steady and consistent fishing for many anglers last week.  Jeff and Sam are visiting from Montana and they managed to pull a few out of the Klickitatduring their visit.  The Klick went out of shape on Saturday night, but could easily come back early in the week before the predicted big rains come in around Wednesday or Thursday. 

The Deschutes gave up a fish or two a day to most of the anglers that went out.  The lower river is definitely colored up as of Sunday from the White River pouring mud, but the river above the confluence with the White is in great shape and should likely stay in great shape as the week unfolds. 

The Hood Riverwas actually looking pretty good on Sunday morning.  We had a spike of water and the river is dropping and looks great as of Sunday. While the other local rivers were rising, the Hood was dropping.  No reports of any winter fish caught in the gorge yet, but there are a few summers hanging around. 

Trout fishing is closed on several local lakes and streams now.  Please consult the regulations before fishing. 

Areas closed for trout include: East Fork Hood, Hood River (for trout), Eagle Creek, and the Deschutes upstream of the northern boundary of the Warm Springs Reservation.  The White Salmon above the county road bridge below the powerhouse (old dam).  LaurenceLake is also closed, as well as the Metolius Riverabove Allingham Bridge. 

Areas open for trout include:  Deschutes downstream of the Warm Springs Reservation (Maupin area and downstream are open), Lost Lake, Goose Lake(WA), The White Salmon from the mouth upstream 2 or so miles to the old county bridge and Yakima River.  November trout fishing can be really good, especially big fish eating big meaty streamers.  Get out your favorite streamer patterns and go!

Travis took out his Winston Micro Spey 10’ 6” 4wt out to the Deschutes and had a good couple of hours pulling streamers for Rainbow Trout on Thursday.  He caught a couple of nice fish with minimal effort.  This is going to be a great fishery during the winter, especially during the drier periods when steelhead are hard to come by.  Instead of a down and across swing as you would do for steelhead, cast more across or slightly upstream and let your line develop a downstream belly. Then you are ready to start stripping the fly.  Anything between a little twitch and a fast pull will work, but they will generally be more receptive to one type of retrieval.  It is just up to you to find out what type of retrieve they are looking for. 

Smallmouth Bass are getting no attention right now, but with water temps dropping in the big river, the bite should be pretty good.  You just have to find some current out there, and there isn’t much to find right now.  It should be easy to find the fish once you locate some moving water.      

As always, we are happy to talk fishing any time.  Give us a call if you have any specific questions on local rivers, gear, and tactics, or if you just want some encouragement to get out of the office.  

Andrew Perrault
Gorge Fly Shop | Product Specialist
541.386.6977

"Fly Fish the World with Us"

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And now back to the trailer

Remember the trailer? This one, the one that almost killed us?

We left the shantyboat hull pretty complete. Now that the boat is ready to be flipped, we turn our attention back to the trailer.

It is really a rusty, janky old thing. Ive owned it for fifteen years or so, or sorta owned it since I bought it with Sean for our Burning Man theme camp, the Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet. Its been stolen and recovered, broken and repaired on the road. We used to haul that thing back and forth loaded to the gills over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, taking our lives into our own hands. Then we realized that if we stored it in the desert, we could save wear and tear on our mortality. So there it stayed for about ten years.

When the camp realized it could buy a shipping container and have it dropped off at their campsite every year without the hassle of dealing with That Trailer, the poor thing got abandoned for a few years out in the Nevada wilds. You remember that I drove out to the desert with Alex to rescue our friend the trailer, a trip with nearly fatal results.

So here it is, a 20 foot flatbed, maybe suited to my shantyboat, maybe not, needing suspension work, a coat of paint, deck repair, and maybe some repair welds.

The first thing I did was fire up my cutting torch and cut off the weird distinctive triangle things, and ground down the cuts. I always assumed they were there as a token gesture to structural reinforcement.

I replaced all the deck bolts that had rusted through, grinding off and replacing any that had loosened. The deck needed about 50 new bolts. This alone made the deck much more stable.

I gave all the metal on the entire trailer, top and bottom, a new coat of Rust-Oleum. I had to get suited up to prevent myself from being painted too thoroughly, climbing under the trailer and applying paint overhead.

It looked pretty good when I was done. Though crawling around under the trailer, I saw several places where the metal was cracked, principally around the lateral beam that joined the two pairs of leaf springs on either side.

For a while, Id been sweating how to make the skids that would hold up the boat. I considered using recycled railroad ties since I could get them for free at the local trainyard, but their height and condition were too inconsistent. Eventually I got a ridiculous deal from a friend at the local lumberyard who found me some 6x6 treated lumber seconds that had a barely perceptible twist or were split a bit at one end.

I positioned the skids so one set would lie just inside of the skegs, and the other set so they lay at the outside edge of the trailer, as far out as could be secured. I figured this would support the boat along the stringers as well as give it side-to-side stability, something I thought would be extra important as we were trucking down the highway.

I drilled bolt holes through the skids and into the support brackets under the trailer.

I put big long 8 inch carriage bolts through the skids. For extra measure, I painted the bottom and tops of the carriage bolts. Lawrence joined me for a bit and serenaded me with excellent banjo tunes.

To prevent the skids from damaging the surface of the hull, I chamfered the sharp edges of the skids with my skill saw.

I cut the ends of each skid at an angle to guide the skegs while the boat was being trailered. Though honestly, I dont think the skegs at the back of the boat will be anywhere near the skids, since that end of the trailer will be deep under water and the back of the boat high above it during a boat launch or trailering. But it seemed like a good idea.

Then I covered the skids with indoor/outdoor low-pile carpet, stapling and using roofing nails at the edges.

The result was surprisingly legit looking.

Then Jen and I sat on the trailer and had a beer.  Something about this trailer makes you want to sit on it and have a drink.  Whats that about?

Next, the superhero of heavy duty welding flies the trailer high into the sky and melts it with his heat ray vision!

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