Salmon fishing through the smoke in the PNW.
No smoke flavor needed on this salmon!
To add to all we are dealing with: Covid19, Portland Riots, etc... Now, forrest fires are raging in Oregon and Washington like never before. These massive fires have caused an unprecedented amount of smoke to accumulate in the area. The air quality level in the Portland area is currently classified as the worst in the world. I'm not exaggerating, the air quality around here is actually the worst in the world. This also happens to be the last weekend that the Columbia River is open for Salmon fishing. I decided to brave the smoke, riots and covid19 for one more chance at a Columbia River Chinook. Here are some pics and video from the day.
Here is a video of my drive into Oregon in the smoke
Lights were absolutely necessary to see other boats through the smoke.
We say BLAH to all the smoke, fires, riots and covid! We are going fishing anyway!
Dan with our second smokey salmon of the day.
After we got our limits of salmon we went smallmouth fishing. Some of the Smallmouth were a burnt orange color. Not sure if it was from the fire or because they have been gorging on orange crawdads.
The sun in Columbia River Gorge
We had fresh smokey salmon for dinner and it was amazing!
It was another incredible experience that I wanted to record, so I wrote this post. This is truly a unique time and it will be amazing to look back and remember that through it all...Covid19, Portland Riots and Crazy Wildfires, we still went fishing and kept a positive attitude! Stay Safe, Positive and Healthy my friends... we will soon get back to normal and laugh about this!
Thanks for reading
Bill
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