I met Duane at our meeting spot and we headed downstream to launch the boat at the "Pink House Hole!" We launched the boat and then drove the trailer down to the Harper Bend launch. I picked Duane up from the site and we returned to the boat at the Pink House Hole launch.
There was a lot of fishermen in the river. A lot of guide boats made the traffic heavy.
We quickly made our way down river to the McGill Hole. There was several boats anchored with a number of bank fishermen casting bobber and jog rigs. We watched as a fish was netted ahead of us.
We watched as the guide boats netted several fish. They all were caught on spawn.
Duane stayed on the outside of the traffic and as we drifted by he had a strike! He was hooked up to a nice fish. I held the rod as Duane got out of the heavy current. It was quickly in the net. A nice 6 pound hatchery fish went into the box.
We changed locations at noon and launched the boat just below the Six Mile hole. There was a lot of ice at the launch so we put the boat in on the sand beach below the hole. Duane rowed the boat back up into the hole. I had a strike as he headed up into the hole. Duane rowed the boat out of the current and I quickly brought the 8 pound male into the boat. As Duane slid the net under the fish I could see the adipose fin. A native fish that had to go back!
Less then 20 minutes passed before I had a solid strike on the blue/silver Hot-n-Trot #25 plug. It was a real nice fish that didn't want to come near the boat. He finally came up
close enough for Duane to slid the net underneath his massive frame. WOW! What a fish!
A quick inspection showed an adipose fin! Back into the river it went to finish it's trip back to the spawning grounds.
We had another two strikes before we called it a day and loaded the boat back onto the trailer.
