I was looking for a little time away from the office so I decided to take a long fishing weekend and invited my business partner Chris along to give salmon fishing in Oregon a try.  Since neither of us was very familiar with this type of fishing, I jumped on the internet and started looking for a guide.  Fortunately, I found Jim Martin’s website.  After exchanging a few emails and getting some assurances from Jim that he was still catching good spring salmon in July, we scheduled a date and crossed our fingers.

Jim met up with us in Eugene and we followed him up the McKenzie until we dropped our car at the pull-out spot.  We then headed upriver where Jim took care of getting the boat in the water and the gear set up.  After a couple of quick lessons, Jim moved our drift boat into position at the first hole and told us to go ahead and put our bait in the water.  A salmon hit my bait within seconds and tore off across the river.  After a bit of a fight (and an altercation with a branch drifting down the river) my fish came off the hook.  I didn’t have much time to worry about the salmon getting away, as Chris hooked a monster salmon about 45 seconds later.  After some great maneuvering by Jim, Chris caught and released a beautiful wild Chinook.  The morning progressed in a similar routine – Jim would put us right on the fish, I would hook-up and lose fish while Chris kept bringing them to the boat.  We ended the day with some great fish in the box and a bunch of pictures and memories.

I had never used a guide on a river before, and Jim was worth his weight in gold.  He put us on the money in every hole and kept us rigged up with his “special” concoction of bait.  When the fish were biting, Jim stayed on top of the action without getting into the action and when the fishing slowed down, or we were in between spots, we could just sit back and enjoy the scenery while Jim worked the boat down the river.

Thanks for the great time Jim.