The fishing rod on the starboard aft side (or back corner — I was proud of myself for learning some navigation terms) of our little vessel sprang taut, like a bowstring. Our guide, Shane Moon, jumped to his feet with a quickness I didn’t expect from a guy who looks like he could play lineman for a college football team. “O.K., we’ve got one,” he said. The sun hadn’t yet shown its face in the purplish-blue sky, but it was light out, maybe 5:30 in the morning, and dozens of boats dotted a wide section of the Columbia River where it forks. I was excited. I had gotten a fish, and it was still pretty early, so I was feeling good about the prospects for the day. The question: Would I be able to keep it?

“Let’s hope it’s a king,” Mr. Moon said as he scooped it up into the net. It was not a king, or Chinook salmon. It was a fat, silvery sockeye salmon, and Mr. Moon shook his head. He cut it loose and the fish wriggled away, disappearing into the bluish-gray water. It wasn’t the first time this would happen. Washington State carefully monitors its rivers and lakes, giving constant updates on what fishermen are and are not allowed to keep, and sockeye had just been placed on the no-fish list. The catch-and-retain window, I was learning, is extremely narrow. We were looking for king salmon, but it could not be wild — it had to be from a hatchery (a clipped fin is the giveaway).

Patience and acceptance were just a couple of lessons I learned during a not-always-fruitful but highly instructive fishing expedition, part of a cheap getaway in Washington and Idaho that centered around the states’ spectacular natural beauty — with some quality food in the mix. I’d booked a “Long Weekender” package through the Hilton Honors app, which offered a 50 percent discount on Sunday night during a three-night stay. My first two nights at the Hampton Inn & Suites Spokane Valley cost $139, and so the third night was a mere $69. The hotel was comfortable enough, but, most importantly, it was a good home base for heading back and forth in my $22-per-day Alamo rental car between Spokane, Wash., and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 25 minutes away on Interstate 90.