Jon, Shelly and I met Pat Long and Dale Dietzman at Swallows Boat
Launch just south of Clarkston at 6:00 a.m. today, after a rather short
night. Dale had slept on top of the mountain, after driving down
last night from Walla Walla. Pat had already launched his Riddle
RMX 22 jet boat and was ready to roll. We headed upriver, passing
Asotin, where we fished last night, then several rapids and a high
bluff on the Idaho side, where we spotted several bighorn ewes and
their lambs. Pat motored into Buffalo Eddy, which has a depth of
over 100 feet, to show us some Indian pictographs and a plaque denoting
this as an ancient holy place. We took a few photos, left a
tobacco offering and headed back upriver.
Once past the mouth of the Grande Ronde River, the surrounding country
got noticably wilder, with high bluffs and only scattered homes on
either bank. We passed Wild Goose Rapids, where steamboat crews
once lined their crafts through the churning rapids, then on to Bear
Bar and beyond. We stopped within sight of the Oregon line and
pulled into a rocky cove on the Washington side.
Pat baited up three stout Berkley rods with squid, pickled herring and
anchovy, which he sewed onto the 9/0 Gamakatsu barbless
hooks. Each line was weighted with an 8-oz. sinker on a
17-pound breakaway rig, in case it got hung up on a rock.
Pat cast the lines into the current and set each rod in a holder.
We had several tap-tap-taps before a fish took the squid, and Pat set
the hook on our first sturgeon!
Shelly was up first, and she handled her fish like a pro, bringing it
quickly to boat. It measured maybe 36 inches. After a few
quick photos, we let it swim back to the hole.
The action slowed considerably after that. There were several
pick-ups, but no takers. Then, about 2:30, after several moves
and a return to our first spot, it was Jon's turn to fight a
fish. This one was clearly bigger than the first, so we spent a
little more time with the fish before releasing it. It wore a
green floy tag, indicating it had been tagged and released by a Nez
Perce fisheries crew. Pat explained they were one of several
agencies conducting population studies. We made note of the tag
data, shot a few photos and slid the fish back into the hole.
A couple hours later, Dale caught one about the same size at Buffalo
Eddy. We ran out of time before I could catch one, so we pulled
lines and headed back downriver.
We had come with the hope of fighting a giant white sturgeon, but ended
up fighting three juvenile fish. Pat said the fishing was about
as bad as it gets, and that his group yesterday took 7 sturgeon, three
of them over 6 feet long! The return trip was faster, with the
help of the current. We said good-bye to Pat and Dale at the
dock, headed for Little Red's Boathouse at 6th and Bridge streets in
Clarkston for a well-deserved dinner.
A few more brief additions to this report before moving on. Pat's business is called Snake River Guide Service.
A highlight of a day with Pat is the lunch of turkey salad and ham
sandwiches, prepared and packed by Pat's wife, Judy, on whole-wheat
bread she makes herself. Pat also supplied soft drinks and all
the bottled water you could possibly want. It was well into the
90s on the river today, so we drank plenty of water and jumped in the
river several times to cool down.
Tomorrow, we're trout fishing somewhere...
later...
10:03:38 PM 
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