Gone Fishin'

Salem has a beautiful Riverfront Park that runs along the Willamette River just blocks from the downtown core. I often walk Sitka from our place in West Salem over the Union Street Railroad Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge into Riverfront Park and together we explore all it has to offer.

On the north end of the park is a huge bronze statue of former Governor Tom McCall, an ardent environmentalist and a guy who liked to fish.

Walking south you will see a long dock, home to the Willamette Queen, a twin-paddle wheeler, available for lunch and dinner cruises on the Willamette River.


The Willamette Queen shares the dock with ducks, swimmers, and fishermen and women. Today Mike and I headed down to the dock to try out his two “new” fishing poles.


We got there early – 7:30AM and there was just one other guy fishing. But things picked up later in the morning and Mike ended up spending most of the day with his two new fishing buddies, Rick and James.

Mike tried one rod and then traded it for the other. I helped tie hook knots and handed Mike the worms, but other than that I just kicked back and enjoyed the warm sun.

The Willamette Queen had been booked for a wedding and we listened to the traditional “Here Comes the Bride” music before the large boat shoved off for a tour down the river.

We also watched the Polk County Sheriff boat “pull over” three kayakers that were without life jackets. The kayakers got off with a warning (instead of $250 fines each!), but they had to get out of the water at the dock.

Rick and James knew the drill and they both went for their wallets and their fishing licenses…Mike followed suit and the sheriffs were happy that they were all licensed.

The highlight of our day was when I was helping Mike with his line that was sorta tangled on the reel. We let out a lot of line and then I helped guide it back in. At one point Mike told me to quit pulling on the line and I said I wasn’t…and that’s when I thought “Do we have a fish??”

Sure enough, Mike kept reeling in and there it was. A puny little fishy. HA! We threw it back into the river, but we can both claim our first catch in the Willamette (but if you ask Mike he’ll be sure to say that it was HIS catch!)

We had a great time. I can tell that Mike is going to spend a lot of time at the dock this summer.

Finally, something to keep him happy…