July 2013

Fishing for Summer Steelhead is still going strong on the Columbia River! So far there are only 75,000 of the 339,000 Summer Steelhead projected over Bonneville Dam. These numbers will still provide about another three weeks of great fishing yet to come! By the second week of August we will start seeing the Fall run of Chinook start to migrate up the Columbia. The prediction of the return of the Fall Chinook is astronomical! If there was ever a time to catch high numbers of big Chinook this year is it! We will be fishing in the Columbia River until mid-September and then transition into its tributaries after that until mid-October. There are still plenty of dates open in Sep and October so book a trip and don’t miss out on a once in a decade experience catching a lot of the famously big Fall Chinook.

Fishing on the Columbia River for Summer Chinook was fantastic this year! Averaging four to six keeper salmon a day was the norm for nearly two weeks! Although there were quite a few native fish caught that had to be released per day, it still made for some great high action packed days of catching the “June hogs” as they are locally called. These fish ranged anywhere from 8 to 30 pounds and a few of the natives we released were pushing 35 pounds! All the while fishing for Summer Kings, we also targeted the Sockeye Salmon, and Summer Steelhead that were passing through as well. Every day we managed to get a couple sockeye and a couple steelheads only targeting them with one rod. The spotlight was definitely on the summer kings though as they were travelling under the boat in a constant fashion. Surprisingly the Summer Steelhead fishing is starting to get really good for how early it is. Generally things don’t really get good till the second week of July, but we are already having double digit days to the boat. Unfortunately half these fish are natives and have to be released, but the native to hatchery ratio should improve as the month continues. I still have the last week in July open and a good chunk of August, and fishing for steelhead should remain strong. We will also start to get a few Fall Chinook in the mix as well as we head into August. This year’s Fall Chinook run is supposed to be a record breaker, so don’t miss out on some absolutely awesome fishing for the famous “Fall Kings”. Call or email to book a trip today.

Fishing on the Columbia River for Spring Chinook has finally started to slow down. But the good news is Columbia River Summer Chinook is right around the Corner! June is my favorite time of year because of the chances of catching a Sturgeon, Spring Chinook, Summer Steelhead, sockeye, or a Summer Chinook all in the same day is very likely. In the mean time we have been fishing for and catching keeper sturgeon on a daily basis. Keeper sturgeon fishing has actually been RED HOT for about 2 weeks now! With the sturgeon season coming to a close on June 16th, I expect the sturgeon fishing to stay strong all the way to the ender. Up next are Summer Chinook and I am expecting this year to be one for the record books. Stay tuned.