Fishing America

My first stop in Oregon was about 30 miles north of Medford at a small reservoir dammed up on the Rogue River. After meeting my fishing guide Nate McKinney at a bait shop, we hit the water early in his 18-foot Willy drift boat. I found Lost Creek Lake a relaxing place to enjoy beautiful scenery on a cool morning. Catching rainbow trout was the perfect way to soak up this peaceful southern Oregon atmosphere as I pulled over 20 of them into Nate’s banana boat.

Nate is all about fishing and hunting with guiding being his full-time occupation. As this lake proved a successful backup plan to a dead bite in other places we had discussed, this Oregon country boy knew his fishing well and took me to them. With the common thread of rural roots, like passions, and outdoor lifestyles, we never ran out of things to talk about on this morning trip discussing Oregon, Texas, elk hunting, whitetail deer and much more.

A little after noon and putting eight of the trout on ice, I headed northwest to Garibaldi and the famous Tillamook Bay of the Pacific. My scheduled guide cancelled due to boat problems and I wound up on an early boat with guide Bob Rees the next morning. This was a shared charter with two couples from Oregon and Indiana. I am thankful they were good company because conversation wrapped up most everything meaningful about this morning trip that mercifully ended at about lunch time.

This morning on the bay was as dead of a trip as I have seen with none of the five of us getting a single bite from the salmon we had our hopes on. If we would have caught one for each boat in this bay, our big boat wouldn’t have hauled them all in. Bob is a good guide. It was just a bad time to fish the bay. When I boated my only catch the boat experienced for the day, Bob informed me it was a Dungeness crab. It being what got me on the board I referred to it as my consolation crab. After one of my Indiana friends snapped a picture for me I gave it to one of my new Oregon friends.

From there I went to the Portland airport and picked up my friend Chino Ross who flew in from Kentucky to fish Oregon, Washington and Idaho with me. After staying in Pasco, Wa., we met Steven Brinkley the next morning on the Oregon side of the Columbia River at the Umatillo Marina. After catching several Walleye, we went downriver ending my Oregon fishing as we fished the rest of the day on the Washington side. A nice finish to Oregon became a great start to Washington while Fishing America again with Chino, this time over 2,200 miles away from Taylorsville Lake where we did the first time.

Nate Kinney is on Facebook under his name and at NKFishing-Guides. He is also on the internet at www.nkfishingguides.com He guides on several rivers including the Rogue and the Elk, a few lakes and the Pacific Ocean targeting multiple species. Among those are rockfish, lingcod, and halibut, all saltwater fish that are still on my list to catch.

STATE #42 - OREGON OCTOBER 2018 - LOST CREEK LAKE, THE PACIFIC OCEAN, THE COLUMBIA RIVER SPECIES CAUGHT - Rainbow Trout, Dungeness Crab, Walleye