My Hunting & Fishing Reports

Couldn't stay away from the water today. After working in Corvallis today I decided I better take advantage and stop at Willamette Park and try my luck on the Willamette river. I had the size 10 brown Woolly Worm on that I had been catching green sunfish and bluegill on at the pond at Periwinkle Park, in Albany. I tried that for a few casts and didn't catch anything. Then I decided to tie on a size 12 brown soft hackle. A few minutes later, at the end of the swing, about 30 feet down river and not three feet off the bank, I hooked a fish. I was so stinking excited! I reeled it in and it looked like a steelhead smolt (about 10-11 inches long), so I released it. I tried for a few more minutes and just as I decided I had to go, a big fish surfaced not five feet from me. It came all the way out of the water and I saw its brown back, with black dots on it. It looked like a trout to me, but I wasn't sure. I tied on a size 14 parachute adams and casted to it but I didn't get any hits, then I quickly changed over to a size 12 yellow Humpy and didn't get any rises. Unfortunately, I had to get back to Albany to attend to some errands. I will not forget that place though. There were a couple of hatches coming off. I believe they were dark gray caddis flies and some green caddis flies, but I am no entomologist. I wished I had a camera, but I didn't.

I went and took care of my errands and then we had a little bit of time before it got dark, so I took my son down to Periwinkle Park here in Albany, to fish at the pond. As soon as we got there and started getting our rods ready, I noticed he was shivering, so we got back in the car and headed home to get him a coat. We drove back to the pond and started fishing. About five minutes later he was jumping like a little jumping bean and said he had to go to the bathroom. Now, if you haven't been able to tell by now, I am a little immature at times and get way to excited about the fishing, so I got kind of ticked off that we had to leave again because there was no public restroom in sight.

We headed back to the car and drove down Columbus St, and on the way I thought I'd go stop at Grand Prairie Park because I was pretty sure they had a bathroom. Indeed they did, so we did our duty and then decided we might as well try to fish there at that park. We caught the same species of fish as I had at the pond at Periwinkle Park. It was a little tough trying to get my son into the fish, but I at least hooked a couple and let him bring them in on the fly rod. It was fun.

*Weather - About 55 degrees. It was a little breezy and cool. There were some clouds in the sky. Great fishing weather.

*Flies - size 10 brown Woolly Worm, and a size 10 olive hare's ear (accounted for the biggest fish).

*Fish - about 10 green sunfish and one nice sized bluegill.

*Time - between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.

It was pretty fun. When you are catching a bunch of small fish and then you hook a bigger one, it can be pretty exciting. Those bluegill are great fighters.