Another trip into Drift Creek

It was a beautiful day yesterday when Kelly, J.C. and I hiked in to Drift Creek. We got to the trail head around 7am and discovered that there were a couple of trucks and a campsite in the parking area. We needed flashlights to see the trail until it started getting light.

We got to the stream in about an hour but there were already 5 guys fishing when we got there. The water was perfect but there weren't many fish in the spawning beds, and we got pretty discouraged since our favorite fishing spots were already taken.

One of the other fishermen hooked into a bright salmon and we watched while he landed it. It was foul hooked so he reluctantly released it.

Then I started getting some action, hooked one, and fought it a while until it jumped and threw the spinner. The next two I had on decided that they wanted to go back downstream to the ocean, and there wasn't much I could do about it except tighten up my drag until something gave. Fortunately the hooks pulled out before they could take all of my line with them. They were all big, bright Chinook salmon in the 35 to 40 pound class. It looks like the run is just starting so we should be able to make some more trips as long as our bodies hold out.

J.C. and Kelly both had a hard time coming back up the trail because of the colds they both have. I went ahead of them, collected some Chantrelle mushrooms, and waited for them at the beer stops. (We stashed a beer apiece at two different spots along the trail going in.) They sure tasted good!

I forgot to take my camera, but Kelly took some video of an old guy fighting a fish and another one watching.

Fall

Well, Fall is here and we had our first storm. It blew a few limbs down, tangled up some wind chimes and destroyed one of our little wind mills, but otherwise it wasn't too bad.
JC and I went to the farm supply in Philomath to get electric fence posts so we could fence off the south and west sides of the back yard. It's just temporary, but hopefully it'll keep the puppy in and the bears out. It's not about the apples that they eat, it's about all the damage they do while they're eating them. We found out from the dept. of fish and wildlife that for some reason bears are terrified of electric fences, so we tried it and it worked. Last year we waited too long to put it up and they hit us again, knocking down the back fence, busting limbs out of trees and crapping all over the place.
Taz got zapped three times before he figured it out. Now he stays way clear of the new fence and hasn't gone near the places where he was getting out of the yard.
It rained most of last week so we couldn't make our annual opening day fishing trip in to Drift Creek, but it looks like Monday will be a good day for it.

Webs

Last Tuesday, after a misty rain, we were amazed at how many spider webs were in the back yard. Usually they're almost invisible, but the beads of water turned them into beautiful designs.
The Orb Weaver spiders had really been busy and we spent the morning admiring their work.

Maple tree

The leaves on one of our Big Leaf Maple trees has some interesting colors this fall. The trees really put on a show this time of the year.
We had a good rain yesterday and the sun's peeking out this morning. Hopefully the rain will move the Salmon upstream so we can catch some early ones.