Fishing for Spring Chinook has been very good on the Willamette River and Drano Lake these past few weeks! We will still target these magnificent fish for just a couple more weeks before we finally switch gears to Summer Chinook and Kokanee.
There was very exciting news regarding the Summer Chinook season announced today from the Washington and Oregon department of fish and wildlife. The original season was June 16th through July 1st, but now it has been extended to June 1st -July 1st! This is huge news! We will get to fish for summer chinook during the bulk of the migration through the lower Columbia River this year!
Summer Chinook are locally called “June hogs” for their large in size stature and very hard fighting. Summer Chinook are also an incredibly good eating fish and definitely one of my favorites to fish for!
We target Summer Chinook using lures that anger these fish when swimming by, which makes the take downs very hard and an exciting fight to say the least. Chinook attack these lures in such a way that the rods pound down and line screams off the reel in a matter of no time!
On June 16th, we will also be able to keep Sockeye Salmon and Summer Steelhead which sweetens the trip even more! In one day, the three best eating fish on the Columbia River will be available to harvest!
We will also be starting fish for the delicious and feisty Kokanee salmon on our local lakes of SW Washington. From now through early July, Kokanee fishing will be awesome with limits obtained daily! Kokanee are a really great fish to take the kids out due to the constant action they throughout the day! The daily limit on Kokanee is 10 per person which also makes for great amount of meat to take home.
There’s lots more to look forward to this year including a very large Fall Chinook run and a record breaking Coho salmon run in the fall! We will also be doing bottom fishing trips for rock fish and lingcod through Sept as well. Contact me asap to get the best dates or talk fishing anytime. Looking forward to seeing you on the water!
