Fishing the Willamette or Columbia Rivers often require you to get in a "hog-line". Now is the time - in between Spring and Fall Salmon runs, to PRACTICE anchoring your boat in a hog-line. Ever year we watch (and photograph) guys trying it for the first time. Boats have collided, sunk, and made enemies quickly. So practice first!
Sometimes I am fishing from a hog-line solo... when the kids are in school, etc. My friend gave me this tip last year and it worked like a champ. When you are the only one in the boat, and you get a fish on, you can't run to the front of the boat to throw the anchor rope out and drift with the fish. So, by simply attaching a metal ring to the anchor rope, above the anchor bouy, I was able to let go of the anchor from the back of my boat while I fought the fish. I simply tied off a shorter length of rope (shown in red) at the front of the boat, ran this rope through the metal ring on the anchor line, and then tied off the end of the red rope to the back end of the boat. When I untied the backend, the red rope slipped through the anchor ring, releasing the boat for me to chase the fish. Easy! Note: make sure the red rope is short enough it will NOT reach into your propellor or jet intake after you boat the fish!
Another hog-line tip... when a bigger boat blows its horn 5 times at you, GET OUT OF THE WAY! If you look close at the photo, there is a boat almost touching the big one - just below the "HANJIN" on the side of the cargo ship.
The sheriff wrote dozens of tickets this day - a very expensive, and dangerous ticket to get.
