I recently was introduced to combat fishing. The coho are running up the clackamas right now and my friend told me" Lets go fishing" Boy was I shocked. We got to the river at 3:30am and there was already 80+ people there. All of which was standing on the bank to mark thier spot with poles in hand. They was all shoulder to shoulder. By 4:30 at least 30+ more people had shown up. All of which was waiting for the sun to come up. Just as the sun came up, everyone had thier line in the water. Every cast had to be in sync with the person or persons next to you. Drift fishing at its finest. As soon as you heard someone say " Fish On" you had very little time to reel in and get out of the way or your line was going to get cut. Many people had little time to cast due to the amount of fish that was caught. These coho was at least 20 to 30 lbs and most was keepers. I seen at least 500 fish caught by 8:00am. So the window of opportunity was only a couple of hours. It was crazy. People was accually getting ready to fight for thier spot and or getting tangled in other peoples lines. I have never seen nor participated in anything like this. This is what these guys called combat fishing. Our bait was a fire red corky with a touch of yarn and shrimp scent to entice the hoards of fish. I caught 3 in one hour. the fishing report for the clackamas river run was predicted to be at least 30,000 or more in Oregon. I think Im going to stick to fishing for sturgeon. Its more peacefull. lol. However im so addicted to fishing that ill probably do this again. The photo attached is what I like to fish for this 53incher was caught on the willamette this year. And I caught him on 15lbs test and took 45mins to land him. Useing sand shrimp. only.

ya i see that to combat fishing on the waters of lake Michigan i think its all over though no matter were you fish.. when the fish are running and the word gets out be prepared to get up extra early to beat the crowed.. im with you i don't do crowds so i find a spot that's more peaceful..... god bless and fish on............................