Plunking was more suitable for youngsters my age. There was room to cast and someone around to help unknot the backlash I was sure to create before much time passed. Someone would build a bonfire to ward off the cold. If it wasn't raining plunking was about as comfortable as winter fishing could get. Drift fishing was dangerous activity. Algae growing on river rock made them incredibly slippery. Swiftly flowing water about knee deep or a little higher could easily sweep a fisherman off their feet into deeper water. Sudden submersion in ice cold water could take their breath away. And it was difficult to swim dressed in fishing gear.
You could buy fish roe commercially prepared but only rank amateurs did so. Real fishermen prepared their own bait. The texture of roe was critically important... the glob you wrapped around the fishhook had to have some staying power to survive the action of cast and retrieve and the effects of the river's current... fishermen carried a bobbin of thread used to tie the egg mass to the hook... and the eggs had to "milk" out at just the right color and consistency. Successful fisherman obtained their supply of roe from the fish they caught - a mature hen would produce two skeins about a foot long - else you made a trip to the docks where you could buy skeins of fish roe from the commercial fisherman... Preservatives were added so that the skeins would hold together... when fishing you would cut off a chunk of roe and tie it to your hook as mentioned. Somehow roe became a delicacy - caviar - sought after by people from foreign shores - and the price went up. Fishermen gave up trying to compete with the high priced caviar market and turned to other, less expensive baits.
It was a natural progression from fish eggs to fluffs of yarn - perhaps the yarn was used initially to tie eggs to the hook and then some lazy fisherman slow to refresh his bait decided to try just the yarn... it worked... different colors were tried... fluorescent yellows and reds soon festooned the branches along the stream indicating that not all fisherman possessed great skill in casting. Bits of colored balsa wood lures began to appear... called bobbers... and eventually gave way to plastic creations that were molded to appear like a glob of eggs. These too, could be found in numbers in the branches at stream side. Personally I welcomed the change to artificial baits... no more stinky hands and clothes.
On the river anyone with even a mild case of curiosity could be inspired to learn incredible things... There were the events related to nature... the cycle of life... the inter and intra dependency of species... along the river there was evidence of the salmon's epic migration to their spawning ground... their rotten carcasses littered the gravel bars and flood rack area... there were the birds... the little water ouzel bobbing and dipping, diving underwater to feed... the spoor of deer and elk, and their predators, the cougar, bear, and coyote, so shy they were seldom seen... stream side trees bearing the tooth marks of beaver... mussel shell middens made by raccoons... There were the influences of humans... We walked along the river on an old railroad grade... evidence of the encroachment of man, logging and its effects on the riparian area... the effects of farming and livestock... Even the act of fishing itself gave many opportunities to form hypotheses and test guesses by trial and error methods.
Later in life I was to learn the value of fishing on stress reduction... A day on the river would relieve almost any kind of stress... the rush and roar of wild water... the rhythms of the cast and retrieve... the anticipation and thrill of the strike and the battle... accompanied by a whoop and the shout of "fish on," ...the battle more often lost than won... fishing occupied the mind and suppressed the cares and worries of life.
...When the fishing rock broke surface it was time to get in the car and head for the Clatskanie river. Arriving at the river we would park alongside the road, usually a wide spot barely big enough for a car, crawl through a livestock fence and follow a path through the brush to the creek. There wasn't a lot of competition for fishing water but fishermen of those days were polite. If someone was fishing your favorite hole it was proper protocol to find somewhere else to fish until the interloper picked up his gear and moved on. If you were brazen enough to interfere with another fisherman the least you could expect was a verbal tongue lashing maybe followed by a dunking in the river.
City folks moved to the country... residents who were commuters instead of farmers... they were looking for a beautiful location for their homes. They built homes close to the river to take advantage of the scenic attraction of the river... sometimes building a deck actually overhanging the water. Pastures slowly turned into housing subdivisions. Instead of wandering through pastures along the river fishermen were tromping in someone's back yard. Perhaps that was a little too close and personal because before long there were confrontations about who "owned" the river. As housing density increased "no trespassing" signs began to proliferate.
Fishermen claim ancient law gave public access to "navigable" streams. The definition was and still is - some fifty years later - vehemently debated by both sides of the trespass issue. One side wants to float the "Titanic" and the other side a canoe. Judges and the state legislature show extreme reluctance to provide a more exact definition.
Along with the loss of public access to the streams the fish themselves are disappearing. There are many ideas as to the reason for the disappearance. It is easy to blame the dams for the reduction of numbers above the dams but fish in the Clatskanie face no such obstacles... the loss of fish at that level has to be caused by some other reason or variety of reasons - water pollution, drift nets at sea... natural cycles... ???...
Perhaps we will discover that to recover our fish runs... improve upon water quality... it will be necessary to stop abusing the riparian zone... perhaps it will be necessary to move homes off the flood plain... Perhaps it is time to prohibit building on the banks of streams and give the stream banks back to the people.
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