Salmon Fishing, Round 2!

After experiencing my first attempt at salmon fishing - I was hooked. (Ha! See what I did there?) While we were fishing the first time, I learned about the differences between fishing in the fall and the spring. In the spring, the boat is anchored and just sits still in the water until you have a fish on the reel. Even more relaxing! :)

We had some flexibility in May of 2018, so decided we should head back to give salmon fishing another go. As always, when we arrived in Portland, we made the drive to Monroe to see Bryan's grandma again. She always feeds us a delicious lunch and dessert so why would we pass that up?!

View from the tasting room

After lunch, we knew we had the rest of the day free so we casually made our way down to Winchester Bay by doing, what else? More wine tasting! One of our favorite things about wine tasting in Oregon is that there are so many great places to go to, we can just drive and run right into a place. Near where his grandma lives, in Monroe, there are quite a few you can access. We saw our first sign referencing some wineries ahead, so we turned off to find them. As we got closer, we missed a turn, so ended up going to the 'wrong' winery......the best kind of mistake!


Just past the missed turn was Brigadoon Wine Company. It had this long winding driveway that led up this hill to the winery, with the best views and beautiful little cabin and tasting room. We were able to try four different wines for $5, including a Pinot Noir, which is what Oregon is known for. While drinking this one, I kept admiring the glasses and the way they curved. When I mentioned it, the server said that it is a specific glass for Oregon Pinot Noir. Not just Pinot Noir......OREGON Pinot Noir. I had no idea that was a thing! I instantly started googling to see if I could find them online to order. :)

When we were getting ready to leave, we asked our server where we should head next and she said without a doubt, Walnut Ridge. This seems to be a popular choice, again with a looooooong winding road up to the facilities! Walnut Ridge, in my opinion didn't have quite the views of Brigadoon, but had a beautiful patio to sit on and enjoy the weather. Again, $5 for four wines to taste! And then we were on our way to Winchester Bay!

When arriving in town, we got settled into our motel and headed straight to our favorite restaurant - Bedrocks on the Bay! You can't come salmon fishing and NOT eat here. :) The next morning, we had to get up early again to fish. In addition, though, we had to drive a bit of a ways to meet Bryan's dad. You may recall, in the fall we were fishing right at the edge of the ocean. During springtime, you're on the river but inland quite a bit further - it was about a 35 minute drive. Once there, we met Bryan's dad, loaded onto the boat, and headed to our spot. Because the boat doesn't need to constantly be in motion, it stay throughout the night, so his dad sleeps on the boat. Yup, sleeps on it. I made him show me a picture of his bed. :) 

We got settled into the boat, and enjoyed the beautiful weather while we waited. Bryan's dad was a bit nervous if we would catch any fish this year. He told us that the salmon meant for this season from the hatchery, had been killed by a temperature issue - about 500,000 fish! He had even contemplated telling us not to come. Lucky for us, a couple of hours into day one, we had a fish on! Bryan reeled this one in and 17 pounds later, we pulled out the konk can! We could rest easy, because we could take some home with us. And thank goodness too....that was so early on day one that the rest of that day, and all of day two, was a little slow - nothing for us! I did catch a steelhead while on the boat, but it was a native, so we had to throw it back. We had enough time that on our last morning in Oregon, we decided to go out for a couple of hours before heading back to Portland. And again, good thing we did because we got a second. This one was only a 10-pounder, but salmon is salmon - we'll take it!

After that catch, we decided we needed to hit the road. Bryan's dad decided to stay out a bit longer, he felt like the water was lucky that day. We joked that we would probably be gone for about 45 minutes before he would catch one on his own. We were wrong, it took 50 minutes! So we all got some fish that weekend. :)

As we headed out of town, we realized we still had a bit of time before we needed to hit the airport. As it turns out, Bryan's sister, Sassy, was in Oregon spending the summer with her dad. There was a winery we wanted to visit, Willamette Valley Vineyards, right off of the Interstate, so we told her to meet us there for some drinks. This one is a bit more expensive, $15 a tasting, but the views are breathtaking, and still cheaper than northern California from what I hear. If you are ever driving south of Portland, you can't miss this place, it's huge. After our drinks, it was time to head home. Always a sad day to end vacation, but we were once again heading home with some salmon for the freezer - job well done!