I was outnumbered, what with my single red-and-white spinner competing against four herring as we trolled near the Astoria-Megler Bridge. I knew my friends, all confirmed bait addicts, wondered if I was losing it a little when I’d traded my herring in for a spinner as we began our downstream troll a half-hour earlier.

Yep, right now there are winter steelheads to be caught throughout the region, but all the chatter is about spring chinook, since managers pegged the Columbia run at 300,000. The big run has everyone from Astoria to Lewiston, Idaho, excited about catching and eating these scrumptious fish, which average 10-14 pounds and can tip the scale at 25 pounds or more.