Northwest Reel Life September 2024 Volume 4 Issue 1 - Flipbook - Page 8
fishing
Bright Salmon on a Sandbar By Gary Lewis
An up-close epicurean angler perspective on the making of a Travel Channel special with Chef Andrew Zimmern.
It mattered to me. It
mattered to Josh. It
mattered to Andrew
Zimmern, the host of
Bizarre Foods on the Travel
Channel.
On the Columbia, where
the chinook blast upriver
on swells of tide from the
mouth of the river up past
Washougal and then seek
out the 12-16-foot deep
travel corridors close to the
banks, the hot salmon bite
happens in the first hour.
It didn’t matter to the 17
other people on Zimmern’s
crew.
breakfasted, caffeine’d up,
and constitutionalized.
Zimmern was following the
Lewis & Clark trail with a
perspective on the types of
foods the explorers might
have encountered. He
chose September when the
fall chinook salmon (also
called king salmon) run is in
full swing.
Josh Cooper, stood, his
hand on the tiller, his
eyes on the water ahead.
We idled away from the
Rowena launch (Mayer
State Park, west of The
Dalles). Ahead of us, 64
other boats were on the
fish. Rods bent and nets
flashed as we took our
place in the throng of
watercraft.
We started in the second
hour, on a Tuesday in
September, after camera
operators, directors, drivers,
handlers, drone techs,
and a bodyguard were
Cooper, who makes his
home in Vancouver, WA,
our captain for the day, is
