Fishing

Went fishing on Saturday morning. Yeh, me fishing, go figure. If you don't know me, which most of you probably don't, I'm not a hunter/fisher. I couldn't stand fishing because it was sooooooo boring. These are memories from my childhood. Don't you also have those memories of going out in the cold wet river and just sitting there waiting for a bite. Yeh, remember? He Heee. Well, a year ago, my brother turned me back on to fishing. I went to a Sturgeon derby with him and my father, both avid fisherman. I was so green at fishing I didn't even own the right clothes to fish in. I showed up in Diesel jeans, a J Crew sweater, Pumas and a Von Dutch baseball cap. I was the best dressed fisherman there. Playing the naive game, my brother was more than willing to bait my hook and everything. I loved that. Over the course of the derby - 5 hrs - I caught the most fish. None of them were keepers, but I was the better fisher.
On Saturday, we began our day on he Columbia just north of Kelley point. If you've never been out on the Columbia at this point, it's kinda surreal. On the weekend (and probably weekdays also) there are large container/grain/fuel ships anchored in the river. It amazes me that they are anchored in the middle of the river, just hangin' out. I make up stories about who's on board, where the boat's been, what may be going one that we don't know about and so forth. Well, I digress.....
Fishing for the first hr was bunk, so we moved on down to the Willamette. I was cold, but excited. I have always wanted to see Sauvies Island, Linnton, St. Johns, The St. Johns Bridge, North Portland, University of Portland, NW Portland Industrial and so forth from a river angle. We cruise through that whole area whilst the sun was rising. It was amazing. Amazing!

Steel Bridge early morning and St. Johns Bridge

We ended up down by the Rose Quarter - between the Steel and Broadway bridges. From our spot @ 9am, it felt like the city was asleep and we had a unique view on it, knowing it was very much alive and kicking.

Over the course of the next few hrs, we caught 4 Sturgeon. My bro caught a 38" and I caught a 35" - you need 42" to keep.

His Mine
The Sturgeon is such a strange pre-historic fish, I can't help but be insanely excited about catching one. My bro just chuckles when I pull in a 16" fish and want to take multiple photos of it - with my cameraphone. I'm such a geek.
Well, the day ended well. I am a big fan of fishin' now. Weeeeeee.