"Padishar Creel" wrote in message
...

The mouth of the Washougal River is a great place or so I have heard. I
don't think many folks here fish for Shad...Since Chas has posted this
Trip
Report, I am heading up to the mouth of the Washougal and give it a
try...

More later, Chris
----------
As promised a bit of a trip report:

I caught and released 16 shad today (I had suprisingly few long distance
releases today, I credit the offset small Gamakatsu octopus hook - size 6)
using a Clouser tube fly pattern tied with red over white wings (with a
bit
of sliver flashabou) on an 8 weight and a fast sinking tip line. This is
my
first experience with Shad and they can really put up a fight for their
size...I was very impressed!

I took a little boat over to a small island off the mouth of the Washougal
River...

Shad seem to be an underutilized fishery in our area...

One guy, near me, caught about the same maybe a few more on spinning gear
G; so I felt pretty good. He tried to get me to give him my Shad
instead
of releasing them. "Them damn good Sturgeon bait!"

Chris

PS I have been fishing recently with Randy the Roffian bugcaster and I
was
hoping he would post a TR for the group (after all he was the host and I
wouldn't presume to address the group on his behalf) It was a grand
float trip and I enjoyed catching and releasing a few nice fat rainbows.

Congratulations on the shad fishing. That sounds like a good time for a
poor man's bonefish.

Chris and I drifted the Santiam river a few weeks ago on our pontoons.
Earlier in the month we did the same section of river in the drift boat with
Chris having a take from a steelhead, but otherwise no fish. The caddis
were thick and we had to concentrate on keeping our mouths shut to avoid the
dull taste of dusty caddis wings. When I dipped the oars into the water, a
raft of caddis would build up on the water.

The second pontoon trip was a chance to work out the rowing kinks and get
ready for using the pontoons on the Western Clave. The water was down a
little from our last outing but we were thinking the caddis might return.
The fish did not cooperate with my offers, but Chris did well with a few
larger trout on the foam seams from islands. The largest fish gave Chris a
battle, and although I was out of range for a photo, the couple in the drift
boat passing seemed to enjoy the splashy release. As Chris caught the most
and largest fish, he kindly offered to buy a round and pizza. Since I had
snacked enough for two weeks, we had one beer and hit the road.