Fishing on the Siletz River

Even with many boats, it was still peaceful on the river.

Last Sunday, Bob and I, along with our daughter, Amanda and her husband, James, went salmon fishing on the Siletz River which is near Lincoln City, Oregon.

When I was a kid, I hated fishing with my dad because we did it from dawn to dusk and there wasn't a potty in the boat! In my married life, I've come to enjoy the fun of fishing. (It must have been those years of bank fishing where it was possible to pee that contributed to changing my way of thinking!)

We've taken a couple vacations to Alaska to halibut/salmon fish. We have hiked along streams to trout fish. We have bottom fished along the Oregon coast and we have drifted the Rogue River a couple times to catch steelhead. We don't own a boat.  If we are fishing in a boat, we hired a guide. We have always had fun and almost every time we've brought fish home!

Amanda and the fish she caught. It weighed
about 20 pounds.

The other part of fishing is that it can be cold and wet so you need to dress for the weather. On this trip, rain sprinkled on and off on us. There was no wind. You can see how calm the water was in the photos.

For me, feeling the fish take the bait/lure and then hearing the reel zing as the fish takes line off the reel is such a high. The real adrenaline rush is landing the fish. Both of the fish I caught were fighters and what fun it was to bring them to the boat for our guide, Jack Glass to net them!

James and one of the fish he caught. This one
weighed about 22 pounds.

Amanda hadn't fished for salmon before and it was at least 20 years since James had fished so it was fun to see their excitement as they landed four fish between them. We lost one and had to release one--it was a coho and not a king salmon. Five fish in a day when not many others were landed was amazing!

Terry, guide, Jack Glass and fish!

Bob, my husband, didn't actually land a fish; he did bag some garbage that was floating along the river.  He generally catches the most in the group; but, fishing is the kind of activity that some days you will catch and other days you won't.


This was the 18 pound king salmon that I was able to keep. My first one was the wrong species so we released it. This is the same red coat--for luck--that I've taken on fishing trips since 1999.

We've been fishing with Jack Glass for years. . .like 25! I really don't know how we were able to catch so many fish on this trip. I didn't see all that many on his "fish finder" and other boats weren't landing many fish. He'd say, we should get a hit or bite here. . .and by, golly we did!

I find it relaxing to fish. You put your line in the water and wait. I enjoy seeing all the green along the banks. Sometimes we chat; but, sometimes, we just are quiet which I also enjoy.

Note the colors that are in this fish!

This is a close up of the head of the fish I caught, I marveled at the burnished green that was about the head of the fish. Coupled with the darker scales, I thought the color might work into a quilt some day!

Jack cutting a fillet.

At the end of the day, Jack fillets the catch. I tried to fillet a fish once. Let me tell you, it wasn't as easy as Jack made it look. Jack can have a fillet ready for the bag in about the time it takes one to grab a bag and open it!

Fillet in the bag.

Our cooler was actually a little on the small side. Once home, Bob cut the fillets into a serving size and vacuumed packed the fillets. In the end, we ended up with 40 packages of fish! We ate some for dinner this evening and it was delicious!

Here we are with our catch! It was a super day!!

I think we will go back next year!