Rick and I just returned from a 2-day guided Chinook (King) Salmon fishing trip out of Astoria, OR, on the Columbia River. Our guide was Jason Schultz of Hell's Canyon Sport Fishing.
Astoria is a really neat town. For one thing, the house from The Goonies is there. Someone even told me that before I went, but I forgot all about it until I got home. There is also a maritime museum that explains all of the perils of the Columbia River Bar and shows how many shipwrecks there have been over the years. It didn't help much that this was the first place we visited upon our arrival in Astoria.
We stayed in a fantastic B&B. It was very clean, reasonably priced, owners were friendly, breakfast was delicious, and they had a respectable collection of Fiesta ware.
Astoria has an impressive column towering on the top of the town. We climbed the spiral staircase to the top for a stellar view of not only the Columbia but of all the land surrounding Astoria.
Our favorite restaurant was a Bosnian place where we ate the best cabbage rolls ever.
And now on to the fishing. On day 1, Rick and I both caught a roughly 20lb Chinook. Rick also caught one Coho. On day 2, we caught two more Chinook. That's the limit - one per person per day. This was my first time catching a fish of any size beyond a mountain lake trout. It was quite exciting, and I was tired after reeling them in!
After our time in Astoria, we drove north across the river to Washington, up the coast - stopping briefly at Ruby Beach, around the Olympic Peninsula, and on to Sequim, Washington. Sequim is famous for its sunny days due to being in the rain shadow of the Olympic mountains. We rented a cute little cabin right on Sequim Bay, where we had our own BBQ grill and fire pit. We cooked some of our salmon, simply, with salt & pepper. It was delicious.
