Fishing Magician Report: Chief Joseph trip yields plentiful trout

I was able to sneak away and fish for triploid rainbow below Chief Joseph Dam on August 1st, the first day of the special season. My wife Eileen and I launched the Jetcraft at the park in Bridgeport and headed straight for one of our favorite steelhead fishing spots up river on the Columbia.

We tried out a couple of new rods and she even got to use a new Abu Garcia Soron reel. The rods were the 10-foot, nine-inch Berkley Air, Buzz Ramsey signature rods. The fish cooperated and we were very pleased with the new gear. Eileen loved the way the new rod cast and she caught some nice triploids on it.

We also tried trolling some jointed Rapalas and found the triploids loved these, too. We fished along one bank where we catch steelhead on a flat below a pumphouse and when these fish hit they really folded our rods over.

Over a period of about five hours we caught and released 20 fish, keeping our limits of four fat triploids to take home. The special season on this stretch of the Columbia will be open until the end of the month, and I can't wait to get up there and do it again!