Astoria is a great place to visit. The Astoria-Megler bridge, the longest continuous truss bridge in North America is quite a sight. Lots to see and do here including Fort Stevens State Park, Fort Astoria, Heritage Center Museum, Flavel House Museum, Uppertown Fire Fighters Museum, Astoria Column, and the Columbia River Maritime Museum, home to one of the nation’s finest displays of model ships and nautical artifacts.

The fishing derby, sponsored by Cascade Business Group was lots of fun and as far as I know everyone got their salmon. We had a reception in the Cannery Pier Hotel and afterwards I went to find the boat ramp and KOA which were in Hammond, Oregon. I would have stayed at Ft Stevens but they were full. Presley spent the night in the doggie hotel (he calls it the doggie jail).

The KOA, while very nice with lots to do, was very crowded with campers, pickup trucks, people and dogs. I suppose it was because of salmon season but I think they stay pretty busy as a rule. I didn’t even bother to hook-up. If Ft. Stevens is full, this is a good second choice.

Friday we were on the water early where it was rainy, wet and cold. I got the first fish on the boat, a medium size Silver Salmon. We were trolling real shallow, something I had never done before. The deepest was about 12 feet and a couple of rods were only 6 feet deep. There were lots of boats and lots of salmon.

The salmon limit is two and they have to be hatchery fish. The hatchery clips the rear dorsal fin so you can tell the difference between their fish and wild salmon. The problem with that is you can’t tell until you have caught the fish and brought it up to the boat. This results in a good number of wild salmon dieing. Not a well thought out rule in my book.

We were off the water by 3:30pm and I went to pick up Presley. At 6pm I picked up my fish, filleted and packed. Back to the KOA, in bed by 7pm and didn’t wake up until 8am the next morning.

Fishing is tiring but worth every minute!