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Sinker
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I finally made it out to do some bank fishing on the Willamette over the weekend. What follows is a brief comedic tragedy.
I got a late start on sunday morning, largely due to the misadventures of Saturday night - Too much Mexican food and a bacon wrapped hotdog. In retrospect Portlands Cinco De Mayo celebration is perhaps the most expensive carnival I have ever been to.
Anyway .. By the time I got in my truck it was technically afternoon. My goal was to head down 99 and stop at the parks I saw on the map to see if anyone was fishing and what they were up to, and if I saw anything that looked promising I would drop my line.
Which led me to Rivervilla park. I got there and did not see any bank fishing going on, but there were several boats off shore and one of them was bringing in a nice looking fish.
I decided to give it a try, but I second guessed myself the whole way back to the truck thinking alternately, "but why is no one fishing here," and "you aint gonna catch anything without your line in the water.
So I got to the bank with my pole rigged with an 8 oz pyramid and all the tackle I put together after reading the plunking tutorial, hammered my pipe into the ground valliantly walked to the rocky edge and confidently heaved my precious salmon slaying fish magnet far out into the river. Oh the joy of the first cast.
And down it went, and down and down and down.
And all the people in the boats just sort of looked at me. I sat there, red faced and tried to look like I knew what I was doing until they moved on and I could privately confirm the obvious; I had just thrown my gear into a hungry black hole from whence it shall never return.
So after the boats moved on I tried to reel everything back in and of course it was hung up on the underwater cliff. If any of you boaters saw someone waist deep at Rivervilla park almost take a swim, that was me.
I even asked someone paddling by if they would mind yanking the line away from the cliff. They kindly declined.
So I gave up on catching anything for the day and drove up to the next park where there were a dozen people bank fishing. I found some nice people to talk to and told them my story as we watched boat after boat drop out of the line and drag monsters out of the river.
I got a late start on sunday morning, largely due to the misadventures of Saturday night - Too much Mexican food and a bacon wrapped hotdog. In retrospect Portlands Cinco De Mayo celebration is perhaps the most expensive carnival I have ever been to.
Anyway .. By the time I got in my truck it was technically afternoon. My goal was to head down 99 and stop at the parks I saw on the map to see if anyone was fishing and what they were up to, and if I saw anything that looked promising I would drop my line.
Which led me to Rivervilla park. I got there and did not see any bank fishing going on, but there were several boats off shore and one of them was bringing in a nice looking fish.
I decided to give it a try, but I second guessed myself the whole way back to the truck thinking alternately, "but why is no one fishing here," and "you aint gonna catch anything without your line in the water.
So I got to the bank with my pole rigged with an 8 oz pyramid and all the tackle I put together after reading the plunking tutorial, hammered my pipe into the ground valliantly walked to the rocky edge and confidently heaved my precious salmon slaying fish magnet far out into the river. Oh the joy of the first cast.
And down it went, and down and down and down.
And all the people in the boats just sort of looked at me. I sat there, red faced and tried to look like I knew what I was doing until they moved on and I could privately confirm the obvious; I had just thrown my gear into a hungry black hole from whence it shall never return.
So after the boats moved on I tried to reel everything back in and of course it was hung up on the underwater cliff. If any of you boaters saw someone waist deep at Rivervilla park almost take a swim, that was me.
I even asked someone paddling by if they would mind yanking the line away from the cliff. They kindly declined.
So I gave up on catching anything for the day and drove up to the next park where there were a dozen people bank fishing. I found some nice people to talk to and told them my story as we watched boat after boat drop out of the line and drag monsters out of the river.