Columbia River fishing report 1/31/2024

Its about that time! We’re getting close to the upcoming Spring Chinook season on the Columbia River! If you didnt know, Spring Chinook are the most sought after species of salmon the NW has to offer! Spring Chinook are super high in omega 3 fatty acids that are great for our health!

This years projected run of “Springers” is another good one according to the Washington department of fish and game. With 186,400 fish expected to return to the Columbia River this year, we are expecting the season to go through April 7th on the Columbia.  However, once the Columbia closes, fishing for Spring Chinook is far from over.

We plan on starting fishing heavily around the 25th of March and wrap up the Columbia season on the 7th of April. After that, we have the Willamette River and Lewis River to fish until fish start migrating over Bonneville Dam in good numbers. Projections for the Willamette and Lewis Rivers are also looking excellent for 2024.

Around the end of April, we will see fish passage over Bonneville increasing, which will set the stage for one of my favorite Spring Chinook fisheries. Wind River and Drano Lake! These two fisheries are set in on of the most beautiful parts of the state! The Columbia River Gorge!

If you’ve never seen the Gorge before, the landscape is that out of a painting. Having the Columbia River Gorge in our backyard is such a blessing! Catching the best eating salmon on the planet, in one of the prettiest spots in the USA blows my mind nearly every day!

Once we get done fishing the Gorge, there will still be fish to be had in the Willamette and possibly the Columbia until we switch gears to Summer Chinook in June.

Now is the time to start thinking about shaking those cobweb’s off that build over the winter and think about getting out and catching some fish this upcoming spring! Get ahold of me sooner than later for the best dates for our upcoming Spring Chinook season! Looking forward to seeing you on the water!

 

Columbia River fishing report 9/20/2023

Fishing on the Columbia River this season has been absolutely phenomenal! Bonneville Dam counts have highly exceded the run forcast for Chinook Salmon thus far! Forcasted at 250,000 chinook and our counts over Bonneville Dam have already reached 500,000 for this season!

The good news is, is we aren’t even close to done yet! Today, Wdfw and Odfw announced they are keeping the river open all the way to the ocean through the rest of the year! This is awesome news! We get to fish the best waters for catching Chinook and Coho for the rest of the season!

Bonneville Dam counts indicate that this is the second highest count in the past 10 years, and the fishing has mirrored those numbers. We have been absolutely hammering fish day after day.

Next, we will continue catching chinook but coho salmon will be entering the equation as well. This is the time of year where we stand a very good chance on limiting the boat out on both Chinook and Coho Salmon through October.

If you didn’t get to make it out this year, it’s not too late. We have a whole lot more great fishing to go! Contact me asap for the best dates. See you on the river!

Columbia River fishing report 7/26/2023

It’s finally time! The Bouy 10 and lower Columbia River season for Fall Chinook has began! The most anticipated fishery of the year is just a few short days away! We’ll be fishing in Astoria Oregon for the entire month of August catching big chinook daily!

Bouy 10 is a very large area located at the mouth of the Columbia River with nearly 40 square miles of fishable water. The scenery is always great, but what makes fishing excellent is every fish in the Columbia River passes through these fishing grounds.

Luckily, when Buoy 10 is over, we follow the migration of fish upstream to the mouth of the Cowlitz and Lewis Rivers. Fishing is typically every bit as good as it is in Astoria throughout the month of September in these area’s.

If catching some big chinook and coho are on your to do list this year, now is seriously the time to book. Let’s get out there and get em! See you on the water!

Columbia River fishing report 6/30/2023

Fishing on the Columbia River for Spring Chinook had its ups and downs this year, but in the end it was major success! Springer fishing started off slow because of cold water temps and an abundance of smelt that lingered in the river 3 weeks longer than normal. In Lower Columbia, conditions finally warmed and fishing ramped up quickly in late April.

This year, we spent most of our season at the Wind River and Drano Lake surrounded by the beauty of the Columbia River Gorge with plenty of fish under our boat.

After coming home from the wind, we targeted Springers in the Willamette River and some of the tributaries of the Columbia for a few more weeks. Overall, that was a success as well.

On June 16th, our Summer Chinook season began and it was on heck of a good time until it closed July 1st. We had Plenty of fish in the middle to upper 20’s hit the boat this season! Sad to stop fishing for these awesome fish, but excited for the next season to begin.

Summer Steelhead is up next! Early July is when our steelhead run really starts to ramp up and its best around the second week to the end of July. I have a few days left open for this fishery so contact me asap to get a date.

After that, August kicks off our most popular fishery of the year. Buoy 10! Buoy 10 is located near Astoria Oregon and has a very high success rate for catching limits of fish. It’s time to start booking for Buoy 10 as dates are filling up fast!

At the end of August, we will return home to continue targeting Fall Chinook out of Woodland Wa. This fishery is also a very popular, and successful fishery year after year! I have quite a few days open for September still, but that won’t last. Now is the time to secure your dates for the fall fishing season! It was great fishing with all my regular and new customers this spring, and am excited to see everyone in the fall too!

Columbia River fishing report 1/31/2023

After some time off from fishing every day for Fall Chinook and Coho in the fall of 2022, it’s time to get fish back on the brain.  We have very exciting news for this year, as we are expecting some huge runs on nearly all Columbia River species.  First order of business is our Spring Chinook run!

Spring Chinook are the most prized of all of the NW salmon.  The fat content that these fish retain are only rivaled by a couple other species that run the Columbia River.  What makes these fish so delicious is the fact that they have hundreds of river miles to travel before getting to their spawning grounds.  But they don’t just spawn and die off right away after getting there.  They actually will hang out for another 6 months depleting their fat supply to grow their reproductive organs. This is what makes “springers” so fatty.  And we all know, fat is flavor.

Catching a fresh Columbia River Spring Chinook is a treasure that anglers from all around cherish.  Anglers come from great distances just to have a chance to catch one to bring home and eat.  Springers are definitely one of my favorites, and even I get super excited to catch my first one of the year.

The Spring Chinook season is forecasted to the highest returning number of fish since 2014. Columbia salmon managers are expecting an overall return of 307,800 Spring Chinook back to the Columbia this year! That’s up from the 2022 forecast of 197,000, which the actual return was 274,945!  Ocean conditions have been stellar the past 3 years and also the outgoing flow of the Columbia has been great as well.  This is the recipe we need for great salmon and steelhead runs on the west coast.

Another shining light is the amount of Spring Chinook that are expected to return to the Columbia’s tributaries.  71,000 Spring Chinook are set to return to the Willamette River this year which is up for 50k last year!

Expectations are also up for the Cowlitz, Kalama, Lewis, Wind, Drano, and Yakima Rivers compared to the 2022 forecasts.  Overall, the Spring Chinook run this year looks to be not one to miss!  If you’ve never caught and eaten a Spring Chinook, you don’t know what you’re missing!

This year, we are most excited to fish The Willamette, Wind River, Lewis River and Drano Lake.  Once fish counts increase over Bonneville Dam, we can actually see when the best time to hit Wind River and Drano Lake are.  Historically it’s always the last week of April through the first two weeks of May.

Just before that timeframe, we will be jumping in between the Lewis River and Willamette.  The Lewis River is finally getting back to its glory days of being able to catch great numbers of Spring Chinook in a small river setting.  The Lewis River is my home river and having spent thousands of days on it, I fortunately know where the fish are hiding on any given condition.

After we beat up Spring Chinook for three months straight, we are also very excited for our Summer Chinook, Summer Steelhead, and Sockeye Salmon runs.  All of which are forecasted to be above average for 2023.  I’ll post a blog in the future on those runs and how they are shaping up but get your seats early for the best possible dates.  Looking forward to seeing all of you on the water!

 

 

Columbia River fishing report 7/21/2022

Fishing on the Columbia River has been nothing short of amazing this season! Fishing forecasts all across the board were under predicted which has led us to unexpected longer seasons and higher catches. This years sockeye salmon run surpassed several records, and the spring and summer chinook fishing was insane as well! The future is definitely looking bright for NW fisheries!

We are also looking really great for the fall run of chinook and coho salmon that will begin August 1st. The Pacific Ocean is loaded with chinook and coho right now which will be starting to move into the Columbia River any day now. The fall run of chinook and coho yields our highest catching numbers of the year, and this year we expect it to be bonkers!

We will also be targeting bottom fish this season off the jetty’s of the Columbia River! Bottom fish consists of: Sea Bass, Cabazon, and Ling Cod. All of which are phenomenal eating fish! These fisheries are pretty much grocery store runs with high probability of limits.

There are limited days this season so be fast and book soon to get the best dates. We are very much looking forward to an epic season this fall! See you on the water!

Columbia River fishing report 6/23/2022

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!

Columbia River fishing report 4/11/2022

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!

Columbia River fishing report 2/4/2022

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!

Columbia River fishing report 8/4/2021

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!