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03/18/2008 Entry: ""

March 17, 2008: I took another super Father/Son combination fishing today. Josh Cooper (360-906-7297) of Lamiglas rods and his Dad, Ed (360-693-1808). I've know Josh for a number of years because Lamiglas is our choice for rods. We just started Center-pin fly fishing for cold water smallmouth this year, and Josh wanted to see if he could hook into one of the John Day's famed big ones. Well, he landed a beautiful 19" smallmouth bass on a Lamiglas Center-Pin (11'3") rod, and his Dad landed two 18" smallmouth bass on a jig and Outlaw 5" worm and a crankbait. The weather was overcast all day, but the last hour. It was 35 in Fossil at 5 AM, 38 at the river at 7:30 AM, water was 40 degrees, 3240 CFS and dropping, with 6-7 clarity.

March 16: Today I meet a new couple to the area Todd and Maria Mulvaney, 503-819-2394. They are a super nice couple and good fishermen, and just bought a place on the John Day in the Spray area. We fished hard all day and Maria came up with a very fat Trophy 19" smallmouth, while Todd landed a 20 1/2" Master Angler smallmouth, and nice steelhead. Pretty nice start for their first drift trip on the upper river! It was 28 in Fossil, 33 at the river, the water was 38, 7-8 clarity, flowing 3670 and dropping, and clear and sunny. The water warmed up to 40 at lunch and we had 52 air temp after lunch and lots of sunshine.

March 15: Today we did our annual trip with Devin Oil Company that NW Pump takes them on. Steve Fletcher of NW Pump, Rich Devin, Steve Doherty joined me for a very cold and sometimes wet day on the river. It was 30 in Fossil, 30 at Service Creek, and the water was 40, 4330 CFS and falling, 8-9 clarity, and overcast. We only boated three smallmouth, but Steve Fletcher's was a very fat 19 3/4" Trophy (1/4" from being a Master Angler, next year).