Tuesday's Mckenzie River salmon trip will definitely leave a memory. After months of jousting for position with the usual early morning parade of driftboats, we were happy to see only one boat ahead of us at the launch. As we dropped down into the first piece of good holding water, I noted that the other boat had dropped its anchor smack dab in the middle of the hole, effectively cutting off almost all other fishermen in a run that could otherwise have easily handled 3 boats rowing through in rotation. This was disappointing since the entire drift only has 4 good salmon holes at the current river level. I noticed that there was a tiny piece of water at the very top of the run about the length of 3 driftboats. I told Bill and Sherry that it would be short and sweet but, if they limited their bait-divers to about 1 boat length, we would have 30 feet of water left to work. They dropped their units out the correct distance and as Sherry engaged her reel, her rod buckled over straight to the water. She turned around and looked at me with a big question mark. As line began to just rip off her reel, I yelled "go for it, him em!" Within seconds of placing her bait in the water, Sherry was smack dab into her first Mckenzie Spring Chinook. I instructed her to stay on top of the fish as I was concerned about the anchor rope on the boat just below us. She did a great job and after 5 or 6 bullish runs we netted fish. As Sherry shook her tired hands and wrists she confessed that these Springers were a whole different ball game than her beloved Madison river trout that she fly fishes back in Montana. By 7:30am we had hooked 5 more fish in that same run including a double hook-up though numerous fish never made it to the net. After our second hook-up, I invited the boat below us to join us in rotation. They made one feeble, fishless pass and then returned to their spot, dropping anchor, again, right in the middle of the run, seemingly content to watch the show rather than hook a fish. Finally they'd had enough and moved on down to the next salmon hole. After a brief photo session, a snack and a pass with no hook-ups, we too moved on. As we rounded the bend, again we saw the other boat anchored right in the middle of the hole. Again they had left us a generous 40 feet of at the upper end of the hole. Though I was still pretty winded and covered in sweat from rowing the swift water in hole #1, we decided to take their dare and try to repeat the scenario. Their eyes were now fixed on us like a cat on a mouse. As if on cue, again Sherry's rod slammed down as a chrome 20lb hen that looked like it was straight out of tidewater, came flying up like a porpoise. Sherry eventually eased her fish to the shore, now the accomplished Springer fishermen that she had become, and our audience pulled anchor never to be seen again. It was indeed a treat to see only one boat the entire trip. By trip's end we had hooked a total of 16 fish, though more than half eluded the net. Still, by Willamette Valley standards, it was a short, yet action packed day. In fact, there was plenty of time to get on the horn to couple friends to whom owed a favor, and run an evening "quickie" before sunset. To our delight, the fish were still on the bite and we ended up hooking eight more fish, keeping two, one for each of my buddies. By my estimation, there is still a couple weeks of decent Springer action left on the McKenzie, though you may have to pick and choose for the fresher fish. Just wish I had booked the second half of July.