The guide called it “shad roulette.”
Grant McOmie called it, umm, “work” and a great piece for television.
I got to, umm, “work” as well but also thought it was a cool spectator sport.
And the kids?
“That was fun!” came the unison response.
Shad roulette, named by my fishing-guide son Bill Jr., is basically a gentle manhandling (oxymoron?) of a hyperactive fish with a very soft mouth into the fish box without a net or hitting the deck.
If the fish is still on the hook when it gets to the boat, the trick is to carefully “CAREFULLY KIDS!” grab the line (there’s that oxymoron again, “carefully grab”) and attempt to lift the wiggling shad from the water, over the gunnel and into the fish box without losing it.
Our success rate didn’t quite reach the odd/even, red/black odds of European roulette (close to 50-50), but were fortunately much better (and healthier) than those of Russian roulette.
When the heat finally drove us off the water below Bonneville Dam, the body count (shad, not sweating humans) was 44 from north of 100 attempts.
Grandsons Bill Monroe V and Greyson Monroe and granddaughter Amelia Jebousek (she held the hot rod and, bless her heart, was a forgiving soul as her odds suffered from Greyson’s more-ambitious-than-cautious urge to grab).
All the while, Pacific University grads McOmie and his videographer, joined-at-the-hip Jeff Kastner filmed the piscatorial parade for their Emmy award-winning KGW-8 show, “Grant’s Getaways.”
Their version will air Friday at noon and 4 p.m. then on through the weekend news programs.
(More on McOmie in Sunday’s Oregonian/OregonLive.)
Shad are abundant, fun and relatively easy to catch.
The frequent action makes them especially popular with youngsters.
The annual run of these overgrown herring is a week or two from its peak and will tweak angler interest well into July.
Find them locally below Bonneville – actually throughout the Columbia Gorge and upriver to Ice Harbor Dam on the lower Snake – in Camas Slough and in the Willamette River at Oregon City (available there for bank anglers at Clackamette Park).
Several coastal river systems support runs as well (Coos, Coquille, Siuslaw, Umpqua) with the most popular fishing on the Umpqua River at Yellow Creek.
It doesn’t take much in the way of tackle – two-to-four ounce weights on a dropper, a bit of leader and anything small and shiny with a hook.
Son Bill prefers chartreuse, but others use small red wobbling spoon(let)s.
I’ve had a lot of success on brass Flicker Spinners, but my favorite go-to (and cheapest) is a simple bright brass swivel with a no. 6 Siwash hook.
Bill will make more trips to stock up on shad for the fall and winter sport crabbing season. The oily fish are preferred over most other baits.
Amelia’s dad, Jarod Jebousek, will also use his stash for crabbing but may also try for halibut out of Newport with shad chunks on circle hooks.
And McOmie?
He kept a couple too, but not for bait other than his own palate.
“I’m going to try to smoke shad,” he said. “Or pickle it.”
Clam closure: Oregon’s unprecedented closure of all sport and commercial shellfish harvest last week due to paralytic shellfish poisoning may extend indefinitely.
Or it may be relaxed a little later this week or next.
Also at risk is sport crabbing.
Dungeness crabs don’t typically accumulate toxins like filter-feeding clams, mussels and oysters, but the sudden bloom of toxins has been so strong, it’s possible crabs are tainted as well if they’ve been feeding on clams or mussels (and yes, they do that).
Extensive tests are now being analyzed, with results expected Thursday or Friday.
Matt Hunter, shellfish biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said razor clam digging was closed out of precaution, not because PSP was detected last week.
Razors were tested this week, however, and while Hunter believes digging for razors may reopen, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see it go the other way.”
More bad news: But only for your grand or great-grand children most likely.
Check this link to an interactive map showing the results of sea-level rise due to climate change by the end of the century.
Scroll closer until you can see what happens to most of the lower Columbia’s islands and half of Sauvie Island.
And good news! Summer and spring Chinook numbers are climbing again at Bonneville and Willamette Falls.
And there were good catches reported this week in the Willamette River at the head of Multnomah Channel.
It will be a short summer Chinook season on the Columbia, but the Willamette will stay open…for now anyway.
That’s contrary to all the rumors of a meeting Thursday to close fishing in the Willamette.
Yes, I made some calls and ultimately had a response from the biologist at the hub of that management decision process.
“If there is a meeting, I wasn’t invited,” he said.
His boss echoed that, but cautioned they’re still watching and hoping a small spike at the falls will help.
Keep your fingers crossed that they’ll find enough to meet hatchery egg-taking requirements and wild-Chinook goals.