Casey Kelly

Salmon fishing on the Columbia River has been nothing less than phenomenal for Spring and Summer Chinook! Even with record breaking spring rainfall, and rivers at flood stage, we managed to find them and capitalize every day.

For the month of July, we’ll be concentrating on Kokanee Salmon and Summer Steelhead. Kokanee are a landlocked sockeye salmon that are very good eating, and a very high probability to catch limits. We will be targeting steelhead which are a blast to fish for, and catch! Call me for availability soon!

After steelhead we’ll transtion into the main event of the year.. Fall Chinook and Coho Salmon! This year our forcast for Fall Chinook is another big return and Coho is supposed to be insane! We had such a fantastic year last year for both species, and with robust Spring/Summer Chinook returns this year we’re looking forward to another awesome year of catching.

Spots are limited and I only have a few days left for fall salmon, but I do want to remind everyone that afternoon trips are an option, and in most cases very successful. Afternoon trips start at 2:30 and run till dusk. I also have a few days open early August and the first couple weeks of Oct. Get ahold of me before all the dates are gone.. See you on the water!

Fishing for Spring Chinook on the Columbia River has came to an end for now, but what a great season it was! River conditions allowed fishermen from all over the state to come and catch one of the most prized fish the NW had to offer.

Fishing was awesome out on the Columbia, but now we’ve moved into the tributaries, and things are already shaping up to be a great season in those rivers. We will be fishing for Spring Chinook till mid May along with a Kokanee on Merwin and Yale lakes located outside of Woodland Washington.

Kokanee fishing has been very good throughout early spring this year which is not always the case. These mini Sockeye Salmon are already pretty good size, and there seems to be a lot of them. Lately we’ve been getting 40-60 Kokanee per trip which is very encouraging for the rest of the season.. Kokanee fishing is one of my favorites and many of my clients as well. I highly suggest getting out and catching some.

After Kokanee, we will have Summer Chinook moving into the Columbia for the month of June. This is one of my most popular fisheries, and quite possibly my favorite. Summer chinook are big, mean, and excellent eating. There’s limited space on this fishery, so contact me soon to claim a spot.

Its looking like another great year of Salmon runs and it’s only just begun. Looking forward to seeing old faces and meeting new ones this year!

After an incredible Fall Chinook and Coho salmon season we had in 2021, it’s time to switch gears now to Winter Steelhead and Spring Chinook.
This years run forecast for Spring Chinook is looking awesome compared to the last couple. With ocean conditions being excellent the past 3 years and Fall Chinook and steelhead numbers being great, we are predicting a very robust run of Spring Chinook this year! We will start seeing Spring Chinook start to trickle in by middle March, and continue on through the middle of May. All across the board our salmon runs are looking insane, so it’s time to start thinking about booking a trip for this year before it’s too late. If you have any questions about a fishery or when it’s best to be here I’d love to have a chat. See you on the water!

The infamous Buoy 10 season in Astoria Oregon has started and to say the least it started with a bang! The first day, Aug 1st we hooked over 20 fish and so did most of my colleagues. Fishing remained strong the next 2 days as well, which has us all very excited about the run size.

Our forecasts for Fall Chinook and especially Coho Salmon are looking very promising. Its actually starting to look like it’s going to be an epic season! We’ve already caught some very big chinook which is also a good sign of a very healthy ocean.

After we finish up fishing in Astoria, we will move inland to continue the beatdown on Chinook and Coho in Woodland Washington. This fishery is probably my favorite due to the fact that the fish are much more consolidated into a smaller area. There is also a high probability the chinook limit will increase to two fish per person after the 15th or so. To be announced…

I only have a few days left, but I do plan on fishing some afternoon half day trips. Fishing in the afternoon can be just as productive and often much less crowded on the river. Get ahold of me asap to get your date. It’s going to be a season we will be talking about for some time. See you on the water!

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!

Fishing for Spring Chinook continues on the tributaries  of the Columbia River.  The past few days, fishing has started to finally get good again on the Willamette River especially.

The Willamette River Spring Chinook season is one of our longest of the year, spanning from the beginning of April through mid June.  Some of our best fishing is actual mid May till mid June..  We will be also be targeting Kokanee salmon during these months as well which is definitely one of my favorite fisheries!

Both Spring Chinook and Kokanee, are of the top eating fish the NW has to offer.. Fishing season is upon us and the weather has  been great so far! There’s lots of things to do this summer and all of our fish runs are looking great for 2021!  Let’s get out and get some!