Fishing Reports

Fishing for Chinook ended with a bang in 2013! Catching the Winter Chinook in good numbers until late December made for an easy transition period from salmon to steelhead this year. Hatchery run Winter Steelhead were also available in good numbers through the first week of Jan this year, which has been better than the past couple of years on that specie. Now are focus is shifting towards the exciting fishery of native winter steelhead, kokanee, (land locked sockeye) and the almighty Spring Chinook. The Native steelhead will be around in good numbers by the second week of Feb, and will be fantastic until the middle of Mar. The native steelheads are not open for retention, but I can tell you that these fish are one of the most exciting fish there is to catch and are quite majestic. If table fare is what you desire than I would suggest getting out on a Lake Merwin Kokanee adventure. These fish are one of the tastiest out there, and the limit on them is 10 fish per person. We will be fishing for Winter Steelhead and Kokanee till the middle of March so call soon if any of those fisheries interest you. After that it will be onto the prized Spring Chinook, which have been forecasted at 308,000 fish to enter the Columbia River this year. Good river conditions this year should make catching the Spring Chinook much easier than the past few high water years we have had. The season is set to close on April 7th this year for the Spring Chinook. I still have a few prime dates left, so if your wanting to go don’t wait they won’t last too long. Looking forward to fishing with you!

Fishing through the month of October was one for the record books! Now that the month is nearly over, fishing is starting to slow down a bit. We are still catching 5 to 10 fish a day, and on a normal year that would be a great day but this year it is considered “slowing down”. I project fishing to really slow down around the 1st week in November, and then quickly ramp back up for the Winter Chinook. These fish will start showing in good numbers around the second week of Nov. If the Winter Chinook show up in not even half the numbers that the fall fish did, it will be one heck of a stellar Winter Chinook fishery this year! Don’t let the cooler weather detour you from getting out and catching some of the awesome winter run of Chinook in the very near future. I always carry a 45,000 BTU heater during the winter months, which is a big enough propane heater to melt a polar ice cap, so don’t worry about being miserable out on the water. Feel free to call or email anytime to book a day of great Winter Salmon fishing. Hope to see you soon.

Fishing for Fall Chinook continues to be incredible this year! Starting on Oct 1st we’ve been able to start keeping non hatchery Chinook on most of the Columbia River tributaries. Now that the Sep fish have passed through, the Oct fish are in the waters in huge numbers. Columbia River Fishing guides are in heaven this year catching easy limits for all their clients day after day. There are so many more fish yet to come, and I’m very much looking forward to getting out with you and having some fantastic days of fishing!

As of September 30th 2013 over one million Fall Chinook have passed through Bonneville Dam! Now that the Columbia River has slowed down, we have focused our attention on its tributaries. Fishing for Fall Chinook was absolutely insane on the Columbia River this year, and it is starting to show that the Columbia is not only river that is getting massive runs of Chinook this year. Customer after customer, have had the joy of fighting fish till their arms are dead so far this month! Chrome bright Chinook are in the tributaries of the Columbia in such large numbers that it’s been easy to have 20 to 30 fish days for nearly a month! This year, the date to which we can keep native fish has been bumped up to Oct 1st from Sep 12th from previous years. Being able to catch hatcheries has been quite the challenge so far this month. Weeding through a ton of native fish to get to keep hatchery Chinook has been the norm so far for the month of Sep, but we have been successful in doing so. This is definitely the year to get in on the best Salmon fishing many have ever seen. Things are looking up for future runs of our Fall Chinook on the Columbia River and its tributaries. If you are interested in fishing for these fish, it is strongly advised to book well in advance for next year’s fish. Anytime between Aug 15th through Dec 10th are prime dates for this fishery.

Fishing on the Columbia River thus far has been phenomenal to say the least! The projected run of Fall Chinook for 2013 was estimated at 650,000 Chinook over Bonneville Dam. So far, as of the 11th of September 2013 there are 707,500 over the dam! Now the run size has been upgraded to nearly a million fish to return to the Columbia River! Fishing the tributaries of the Columbia has also been absolutely stellar fishing as well. The Cowlitz River, Lewis River, Klickitat and others have more Chinook in them the most fisherman have ever seen. As of the 12th the Columbia is scheduled to close for Chinook fishing, but there are already talks of a reopener coming very soon! There is so much more great fishing yet to come all through the month of September, October, and November. This year has been a Columbia River Fishing guide’s dreams come true! Don’t miss out on the best fishing there has been in the past decade at least. I still have some very good dates available so call or email soon to reserve your seats.

Fishing for Steelhead on the Columbia River has been fantastic through the whole month of July and continues to be great into the second week of August! The main focus is definitely shifted onto the Fall Chinook now though. An early start catching these Fall Kings has made people very excited, and now this fishery is in full swing at Buoy 10. Fishing at Buoy 10 has been the best fishing Columbia River fishing guides and other fisherman alike have seen in years! There are unbelievable amounts of fish in the river right now! Now that Buoy 10 has been consistently red hot for the last two weeks, Chinook are starting to enter the lower Columbia River in good numbers and fishing is picking up at the mouth of the Cowlitz River and above. We are still targeting steelhead and then moving spots to Chinook fish. Opportunity for catching both Summer Steelhead and a Chinook is very high right now, and should remain until the end of Aug. I still have some fantastic dates left for the end of the August and September. With the amount of fish coming through and good tides it will be insane fishing for the next two months! If there were a year to get out and catch a lot of big fish this is it!

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 above Bonneville Dam is in full swing! Dam counts over Bonneville have been a steady 4,000 to 9,000 fish a day and fishing is starting to get good. When counts stay high like they have been, there is awesome opportunity to catch some of these Idaho bound Spring Chinook. These fish have the famous dark red meat and are packed with tons of healthy fish oils. With only 20,000 fish over the dam we are only a fraction into the predicted 150,000 to 200,000 to go over. There will be plenty of time for some really hot fishing coming up within the next three weeks up in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. I do have seats open for the duration of the month, so feel free to call or email to go catch some of these great fish. Next up will be the Summer Chinook and sockeye fishery coming up in June. The Columbia River season has been set this year from June 16th to July 1st. I still have days open for that as well and those dates are prime time to catch both species of these fish.

Fishing on the Columbia River for Spring Chinook has finally kicked in high gear! The Columbia River was scheduled to close on April 5th, but the WDFW has extended the season to Fri, April 12th! We are now getting multiple hookups per day so this week through next Fri should be some dynamite fishing! Also, I am starting to book Summer Chinook and Sockeye dates. The Summer Chinook run looks promising to have some great fishing come June. These fish are just as tasty as their close relatives, the Spring Chinook. Sockeye Salmon also arrive in full force in June as well. Although not large in size, they are many, and they are delicious eating fish also! Due to the assumption of closure of the season on Spring Chinook on the 5th, I have all of next week free. Call or email me for info or to book a trip for the upcoming summer fishing season.