Can you believe it’s September already? Where did summer go?! Actually, I am not missing the scorching heat we experienced. There is a hint of fall in the evenings and early mornings, and one of the best times of the year in North Central Washington is near. Fishing opportunities abound in the fall, and I can’t wait to try as many of them as I can.

There are times when fishing isn’t all about catching fish. My wife Eileen and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary on Saturday, August 28th. I offered all kinds of options that required travel but getting on an airplane just wasn’t something she wanted to do, with the virus ramping up. She asked if we could go to Bridgeport and fish with bobbers and jigs on our anniversary. This is something that we have done many times when we had steelhead in our region. It is her favorite kind of fishing to do.

So off we went bright and early on Saturday morning. There were several other boats fishing in the Bridgeport area, below the bridge. We tried one of our favorite spots without success and then ran down to what we call “the Blowhole.” On maybe my third or fourth cast my bobber went down and I had a solid fish on. Turned out to be a whopper pike minnow. This week’s photo is of the whopper. It won’t be eating any more steelhead or salmon smolt.

I was very impressed with Eileen’s casting skills. It had been years since she cast a bobber and jig setup, and she did it with ease. She mended her line and kept her bobber drifting perfectly, like she learned to do years ago. We didn’t get anything else, but it was a beautiful day, and we got to spend some time on the water together. We celebrated doing something we both have enjoyed over our twenty plus years as a couple.

Moses Lake has been one of my favorite places to fish for going on 30 years. I usually start my spring walleye fishing here, and you may have seen the video I did on walleye and bass fishing on my YouTube channel that was posted earlier this year. I hadn’t had a chance to get back to Moses Lake until last Friday.

I really wanted to try the bass fishing. It is always good year-round, and since we are in that transition from salmon fishing on the upper Columbia to the Hanford Reach soon, bass fishing is a great thing to do right now. So I called my buddy James Lebow, and he was willing to take a break from his many projects to go with me last Friday. We shoved off from the Peninsula Park and headed to Goat Island. We got into smallmouth right away along the west shore. When we turned the corner and began fishing the east shore we found a ton of juvenile largemouth.

We then moved over to the lower spillway and once again found scads of juvenile largemouth. The same was true for the upper spillway. These fish were small but ferocious, and we couldn’t help ourselves. We could have gone looking for bigger fish, but we were having so much fun we kept at it until it was time to go to lunch. It was great being back on the water on Moses Lake, and I want to get back there soon.

I recently reported that I had pulled my boat off Lake Wenatchee. I had a great season up there, fishing 14 times and limiting on most all of them. Friends of mine did limit every time they went out. I got word this week that fishing on Lake Wenatchee will close one hour after sunset on August 31st. Most of the fish have moved up into the White River to the spawning grounds, so fishing had slowed considerably. Also closing early this year is the very popular Buoy 10 fishery for salmon at the mouth of the Columbia River. Anglers have already met their quota in this area.

Something that is opening now is the newly remodeled Discovery Center at Rocky Reach Dam. It is open right now and people can visit the center from Tuesday through Saturday year-round. The doors are open from 9:30 until 5 p.m. The center has been closed for two years, while the new exhibits were constructed. Many of the exhibits are highly interactive, and something that the kids will particularly enjoy. If you haven’t toured a center like this I highly recommend it. There is much to learn, and the displays are fascinating.

I had a great time with my brother Lane Graybill and his daughter Sophie on the Wenatchee River Monday. They wanted to catch a king salmon, and my brother had fixed them up with some spinning rods and bobbers. They had fished a hole below the bridge in Monitor several times without any luck, so I thought I would go along to see if I could help.

They had good setups, but as you may know there is more to bobber and jig fishing than just casting out and letting it float down the river. I showed them that the bobber had to float vertical and how important it was to mend the line to keep a straight line to the bobber. You can’t have a big bow in your line and expect to hook a fish when the bobber goes down. They were both casting and keeping their lines straight after a few casts.
There was a third rod, and I cast to where I saw something splash against the bank. On about my third cast I hooked what turned out to be a pike minnow. Although this outing wasn’t productive, I want to get back out with them. It was great spending time with Lane and Sophie. We had a great morning fishing for sockeye on Lake Wenatchee a few weeks ago. We have to go fishing together more often.

I may have mentioned earlier that the sturgeon fishing on Lake Roosevelt opens from China Bend to the Canadian border on September 1st this season. I am headed up there to fish with Keven Witte again and will be shooting a video of the experience. Keep an eye on my reports to see when I post it on my YouTube channel.