It ain't spring 'til the Springers run...

My brother Chris has only one set-in-stone priority in his life: when the Spring Chinook hit the bay, don't expect to see him until about July.

Springers are the Grand Prize for those of us who love salmon. When they come in from sea for spawning, they are fat from winter feeding, whereas the fall chinook have dallied around and lost that good cold-water fat. You just can't beat the Springers for flavor, deep color, and a nice tussle on the line.

Since Chris loves to fish but doesn't care to eat much of it, he is generous with sharing his catch. We are very spoiled. Sometimes he drops off a few slices, sometimes a whole fish, and when the stars are lined up, we get his outstanding smoked salmon!


Salmon fishing is an art and a science. Chris has fished the Tillamook bay and rivers all his life, and we swear he "thinks fish". He catches them when no one else in surrounding boats have any luck at all.

This week, after a slow start, the Springers have finally started showing up. Here's Chris' first catch of the season...

Oh oh. He forgot, in all the excitement, to take off his leaders and stash that hook set-up in his special box. Now anyone who knows what they are looking at will know he was fishing with herring - the double hooks are a dead give-away. NFL playbooks and signals have nothing on the secrecy of fishermen...don't expect a straight answer from ANY of them if you happen to ask, "Where'd you catch that one?" And beyond strategy are secret techniques for handling bait, for tying hooks, weight of line, and on and on.

Here's one of Chris' special little rituals: he rinses his hooks in soapy water. He has a special container in the boat, which as far as we know no one else packs along. And not just any soap. It's lemon Joy. Chris swears the fish like lemon. We're not arguing. Actually, he does it to get the salt water off the hooks, so they don't rust or dull the tips. As he commented, the hooks are so sharp now that all a fish has to do is get close, and it's a goner.

Speaking of secret formulas. This bucket contains bottles of special scents and other stuff that we were fearful to ask about - if he told us (which he wouldn't - not even his mother), he'd have to cut our tongues out. It's amusing to watch guys casually strolling by boats, eyeballing the gear and whatever else they might spy out.

But when the results are nice fat hen Springers, you can see why the competition gets a little heated. And goofy, at times.

This is Chris' "I got one!" grin!

As he motored up the bay to the Kilchis River launch where hauled out, he had to pass a number of other boats. Everyone knows everyone else out there, and they love getting the best of each other. So when they ask, as he goes by, "How you'd do?" , Chris says very offhand, "Got two." Boo hiss from the unlucky empty boats!

Chris reports that one fellow on the dock was saying it was pretty bad fishing, no one had caught any yet. Then he saw the two shiny Springers in Chris' fish box. "Guess the season has officially started now, Griffin caught the first fish!"