All Aboard: Local Fishing Guide Lee Barkie Makes it Easy
By Amy Nile
anile@chronline.com
Some people call him the king of the Cowlitz, however, I think he’s more like a Prince Charming on the river, if there is such a thing.
At the risk of being stripped of my Montana girl status, I’ll admit, when I called local fishing guide Lee Barkie several weeks ago for a story, I didn’t know the first thing about fishing, much less salmon.
Barkie agreed to take The Chronicle’s former photographer, Chris Geier, and I out fishing for spring king salmon, also known as spring chinook, on the Cowlitz River.
As he put his 26-foot Alumaweld boat in the river at a dock near Castle Rock, his sidekick Gauge, a purebred black lab, jumped on board.
Once we were all in and comfortable, Barkie first told us of an old superstition fishermen have about a certain fruit.
“Some guys say you can’t have bananas in the boat or you won’t catch fish,” he said, safely stowing a bunch on board. “I always have bananas and it’s never hurt me. I rub it on my bait. It don’t make no difference.”
Barkie drove us about two and a half miles down the river, courteously slowing down as we passed fellow fishermen on the bank.
He checked the height or flow of the water and stopped at a fishing hole only someone with his experience would know.
“We’ve got a really good chance of catchin’ something in here,” he said.
Barkie pulled a bag of herring out of his cooler and began to bait everybody’s hooks.
“Now, this is a guy I want to take fishing with me,” I thought as he handed me a baited fishing rod. “He’s going to do the gross part and leave the fun part for me.”
However, I decided if I wanted to stay true my Montana roots, I better learn to do this for myself. So I asked Barkie to teach me how to hook a herring.
“You know, you’re the first woman in my 26 years to ask me that,” he told me, as he showed me how to run the hook through the side and then through the backbone.
Barkie then helped us figure just how much reel to put out on the expensive fishing rods he provides.
He explained how to duplicate the way the herring would look in the water to make the bait more attractive to the salmon.
“If you don’t get the right spin, you won’t catch a fish,” he said.
We sat awhile and Barkie entertained us with stories of daring river rescues and people he has seen acting stupid on the water.
Then we got a bite!
Barkie came over and taught me to “finesse” the fish out of the water.
Unfortunately, our photographer lacked any finesse at all, and ran a spring chinook into the boat and lost it.
And even more unfortunate, that would be our last bite before the rain started and we decided to call it a day.
“I always tell people, ‘I’m a guide, not a god,’” Barkie told us. “Safeway is the only sure thing.”
Whether we caught anything or not, I still had fun fishing the Cowlitz with Lee Barkie. But I am starting to wonder if there might be something to that whole banana thing after all.
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Amy Nile: (360) 807-8235