Dave Emter of Orchards caught a pair of small fall chinook anchored downstream of Caterpillar Island in September. At 26 and 28 inches, the salmon were barely larger than jacks.
Here’s what makes Emter’s catch epic: He was fishing with a second lure off his dropper line and caught the two chinook at the same time.
And he has a 10-minute video of the fight and netting job, posted on YouTube. Just use a search engine and type in “two salmon on one pole.”
“I’ve talked to old salts on the river and everyone said they’ve not seen it happen or heard of it ever being done,” said Emter, 53, a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service. “We have video proof.”
Emter was fishing near green marker No. 19 along the Washington shore, a couple miles downstream of Langsdorf Landing boat ramp on Caterpillar Slough. He was anchored in 49 feet of water.
He was using a spreader bar with both a Brad’s Mini-Extreme BX No. 46 and a No. 5 Toman Cascade Daybreak spinner three feet up the lead line, a rigging that Emter says can be a pain to put out without getting tangled in the sea anchors.
“It took us about four minutes to realize we had two fish on at the same time,” Emter said.
Fishing partner Dan Kimble of Vancouver was wearing a pair of i-KAM XTREME sunglasses, which include a video camera.
During the video, Emter and Kimble speculate if the fish are jacks or adults.
It turns out the smaller chinook was 26 inches and 7.5 pounds, while the larger was 28 inches and 9 pounds.
Emter said the day was a bit windy, plus Kimble had to slip anchor, negotiate around the hogline downstream and also contend with the wakes from a passing freighter.
“Funny thing is, I’ve had more guys ask me about Dan’s video sunglasses than anything else,” Emter said.
Allen Thomas covers hunting, fishing, hiking and other outdoor recreation topics for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4555 or by email at al.thomas@columbian.com. Follow him on Twitter at @col_outdoors.
