WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
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Gabriel Guides
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Fishing guide Kimo Gabriel wipes down his boat after returning from a fishing trip Wednesday in Boardman.
Fisherman uses experience,
knowledge for ultimate day
on the river
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
STAFF WRITER
ong-time fishermen John
and Ray have set out on
the Columbia River many
times before.
When it’s just the two of them,
they often come up short or even
leave empty-handed. But with
the help of a local guide, Wednes-
day evening each fisherman took
home a gallon Ziploc bag full of
walleye fillets — cut and cleaned
by the expert himself.
Kimo Gabriel is in his 11th
year as a guide. His business,
Gabriel Guides, has taken mostly
novice anglers as far as 40 miles
out on the Columbia River in
search of walleye.
After he relocated to Herm-
iston from Selah, just north of
Yakima, Washington, Gabriel
began the guide service after
success on the tournament fish-
ing circuit. He has used Gabriel
Guides to supplement his income
as a science teacher at Sandstone
Middle School in Hermiston, a
32-year career from which he is
retiring from this year.
“The success in the guid-
ing made it easier to step away,”
Gabriel said. “This is a pretty
good supplementary income, and
it’s nice being your own boss.
It’s nice, you know, where I can’t
pick and chose who and what I
deal with at school, I can pick
and chose here.”
Until now, Gabriel’s choices
were limited. He would come out
L
most weekends and a few months
in the summer. When it would
get closer to the start of school,
Gabriel had to prepare a class-
room and come fall, he would
hardly touch the river.
“Usually around June it starts
to pick up and in July I fish every
day,” Gabriel said. “In August, I
fish half of August or more and
then school starts. It feels like I
really have to jam a bunch of fish-
ing into a short period of time.”
Now that Gabriel’s teaching
will move from the classroom
to strictly the river, he’s looking
forward to growing the business,
which has hosted clients from as
far as Montana.
What attracts even experi-
enced anglers is the abundance
of walleye and the opportunity
to even catch salmon, steelhead
and sturgeon, but even with the
increasing number of guides —
experience and knowledge show
on the river.
“The fish just aren’t from bank
to bank,” Gabriel said. “They are
in real specific spots and some-
times it’s just a matter of 10 or 15,
20 feet — moving one way or the
other makes all the difference.”
Gabriel is very familiar with
the Columbia River. Even before
making Eastern Oregon his
home, him and his father would
make the nearly 200-mile round
trip to the 1,243 mile long river.
Gabriel’s earliest memories
where fishing for catfish on the
weekend, but his dad remembers
another time when Gabriel was
just three years old.
“It seems like every time I talk
with my dad, he brings it up,” he
said. “My dad is 96 and he likes
to reminisce about fishing. He
keeps reminding me that when
I was about three years old, we
were fishing below the Wickiup
Reservoir over in Central Ore-
gon and he says that he put some
kind of bait on the line for me, I
threw it out — and he was fishing
his own line — and said I started
yelling to him, ‘Daddy, daddy,
daddy,’ as a six-pound brown
trout was dragging me into the
river.”
Now Gabriel commands the
water, bringing in haul after haul
with his clients. Each person is
limited to 10 fish apiece, which
is a limit that is often exceeded
causing anglers to release their
catch.
On Wednesday, the three-man
crew reached their limit fairly
early and decided to take to the
water to fulfill their allotted time.
“It’s an eight-hour day unless
people get to the point where
they are like, ‘Man, this is too
hot,’ which happens a lot, or they
catch what I consider their limit
and sometimes they are happy
with that and want to come in,”
Gabriel said.
The early wake up call, around
6 or 7 a.m., is followed by a usu-
ally unpredictable day on the
water. Gabriel always starts at the
Boardman Marina and will con-
tinue down the river “until some-
things happens,” as he says.
“Sometimes it doesn’t hap-
pen until I get down to Crow
Butte,” he added. “Today they
were biting really well real close,
we didn’t have to go anywhere
really.”
Location, current, water tem-
perature and food are key in
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
The haul from a days worth of fishing walleye on the Columbia River
on Wednesday out of Boardman.
Gabriel keeping clients happy,
and at $200 a pop, they are
mostly paying for the experience.
“It’s getting real competi-
tive and if you don’t know what
you’re doing, it’s going to show.
It’s quite a learning curve,” he
said. “If you know what to look
for in a current, you can find the
fish, I think. Once you do it for
so long it starts to become sec-
ond nature but then again, I know
what I’m looking for.”
If interested in Gabriel Guides
service, he can be reached on his
cell (541) 571-4343.
Hoopsters hit the streets in Hermiston
B
asketball players of all ages
and ability levels will hit
the asphalt this weekend during
the 13th annual Takin’ It To the
Streets.
Hermiston’s three-on-three
basketball tournament also fea-
tures a slam dunk competition
and a 3-point shoot-out. The
event runs all day Saturday and
Sunday in downtown Hermis-
ton. Food and drink vendors also
will be on hand during the event.
Previously, there was a three-
on-three tournament called the
Shake N’ Bake in the mid-’90s.
It was held for a handful of years
during SpudFest, a now defunct
festival. A board of commu-
nity members was founded in
2005 for planning of the inau-
gural 2006 Takin’ It To the
Streets tournament. The goal is
to support youth basketball in
Hermiston.
More than a decade later,
Takin’ It To the Streets is still
pounding the pavement — the
2017 event attracted 166 teams
from all across the region.
Registration is already closed
for this year’s tournament.
Sometimes last minute cancella-
tions provide a chance for teams
to join the event. Check out
the event’s Facebook page for
details.
For more information about
Takin’ It To the Streets, contact
541-720-2561,
info@hermis-
ton3on3.org or visit www.herm-
iston3on3.org.
FILE PHOTO
The Skeeterz and the 509
Leakers battle it out during
the 2017 Takin It To the Streets
3-on-3 basketball tournament.
In its 13th year, this year’s
event tips off Saturday and
Sunday on Main Street in
Hermiston.