A day on the water with my son.

bass
bass
Had a great day on Sunday (July 14th) with my 9 year old son, Zach. We took the Nucanoe Frontier down to the Tualatin river and had a great day together, although the fishing was slow.

We got to the launch at Tualatin Community Park around 9am and I unloaded the kayak and filled it with all of our stuff. Zach asks "Where's my life jacket?" I can't believe that I forgot the PFDs :doh:

I called home and my wife said she could bring them down to us :pray: Whew! She was a lifesaver. It would have been a huge pain to load the truck back up, go home, get PFDs, come back and then unload again. She is an angel. Zach didn't mind since to him it was just more time on the playground while we waited.

We finally hit the water around 9:30am. We fished a couple of spots with only a couple of short hits to show for it. However, we did spot a blue heron stalking the shoreline and sat and watched it for a while. Zach was hoping to see a strike, but apparently the heron was having similar luck to ours.

After that we paddled upstream, making a few casts here and there, stopping and eating blackberries when we found them and stopping scanning the shoreline each time we heard something rustling around in the brush. When we got to Fanno creek Zach wanted me to paddle up it. This is a tiny creek that is barely 15' wide in most places, but he was calling the shots. I was amazed that after a shallow start that the creek deepened and we were able to explore pretty far up the creek. Made for a really cool experience.

Eventually we headed back out to the Tualatin and paddled our way up to Cook park. There, Zach saw a boy about his age playing along the edge of the water. Zach asked if we could go in so he could play. I said sure. I dropped Zach off and then went across to the far side of the river. I soaked a nightcrawler thinking that I may be able to at least catch a carp. After moving my cast around a few times I started getting bites and caught this little smallmouth.

em6rg3X.jpg

Encouraged, I put down the bait rod and picked up a rod with a baby brush hog on a shaky head jig. A dozen casts later I picked up this largemouth.

MwsSrQL.jpg

After that I missed a handful more fish without hooking up solidly again. We had been there for a while and Zach's new friend was getting ready to leave so we decided to do the same.

We headed back down the river towards the launch and stopped to fish near one of our favorite shore spots. Here I missed a few fish before I picked up another small smallmouth on the shaky head before snagging it up in the seemingly endless bottom brush in that river. I offered the rod to Zach to reel it in, but he really wanted to net the fish. Funny what is important to a 9 year old :)

After that flurry of action it was getting to be late in the afternoon and we were hungry (I had not packed a lunch since I had not guessed he would want to stay that long!). So we decided to pack it in and head home. On the way back, Zach decided he wanted to try jumping in from the kayak and climbing back in. I told him that was a good thing to practice.

Here he is enjoying a day with his old man on (well in) the river!

XTh1OQM.jpg

So, not the best day of catching but still up there with one of my favorite days of fishing. I would have liked Zach to have caught a fish, but he was happy to just be out there and proud that he netted my fish. As we paddled back in he asked, "Can we do this every weekend?" I am still smiling.
 
Chromatose
Chromatose
:clap::dance::clap:
 
troutdude
troutdude
bass said:
"Can we do this every weekend?" I am still smiling.

That comment right there; is priceless!
 
Casting Call
Casting Call
Thanks for a nice read. You made the best hook up of the day ,your son. The smile on his face says it all. Reminds me of my two sons on an outing years ago on Putah Creek near Davis Ca. CC
 
rogerdodger
rogerdodger
excellent.
 
H
Hawk
Sounds like you both had a wonderful adventure together... :D:cool:
 
bass
bass
Thanks guys. We had a great day!
 
G
GODUCKS!!
I didn't know there where Largemouth in the tualatin anymore! The smallmouth have taken over.
 
bass
bass
GODUCKS!! said:
I didn't know there where Largemouth in the tualatin anymore! The smallmouth have taken over.

Yes, I was pleasantly surprised to catch that guy. I would say that 5 to 7 years ago we used to only catch largemouth in our favorite spot. Then there was a year where we caught half and half and since then I have not caught a largemouth out of that spot. I think smallmouth spawn earlier than largemouth so maybe their fry end up eating the largemouth fry or at least getting first crack at that year's food. In such a small ecosystem there is probably not room for them to have separate areas. Just a guess, although I am puzzled why it seemed to happen all of a sudden.
 
D
dtikey
That's awesome Bass sounds like a great time by all for sure with memories to hold on to
 
GungasUncle
GungasUncle
bass said:
Yes, I was pleasantly surprised to catch that guy. I would say that 5 to 7 years ago we used to only catch largemouth in our favorite spot. Then there was a year where we caught half and half and since then I have not caught a largemouth out of that spot. I think smallmouth spawn earlier than largemouth so maybe their fry end up eating the largemouth fry or at least getting first crack at that year's food. In such a small ecosystem there is probably not room for them to have separate areas. Just a guess, although I am puzzled why it seemed to happen all of a sudden.

Could be the annual flooding and high water moving stuff around - has the bottom structure changed much from the largies-only to smallies only time?
 
bass
bass
GungasUncle said:
Could be the annual flooding and high water moving stuff around - has the bottom structure changed much from the largies-only to smallies only time?

That is a good thought but the hole where I used to catch largemouth but now seems loaded with smallmouth is about the same. Slow, deep eddy with a lot of brush on the bottom. Perhaps there was some odd weather a few years back favoring the smallmouth spawn vs the largemouth spawn.
 

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