Columbia River Spring Chinook 2008

CW

Well, I trailered down to PortCo boat launch (between I-5 & 205) this morning and got to spend 45 minutes in line (from 6:00 to 6:45 am) because we got there late -- made me appreciate my own slip back at Kalama. With some creative parking we hit the water pretty quickly and then got a call on the cell phone from a buddy who was fishing the same area and had caught a nice plump 12-14 lb. Spring Chinook yesterday (3-21-0 Cool

. He saw 20 fish caught yesterday. He said his pump went out (Yamaha 200 hp jet pump, Alumaweld sled) and wanted to join us in the Satisfaction. We revved on down to the I-5 bridge and trolled brined herring off of a 4-5 ft. leader (whole) behind a green or yellow Fishflash spinning flasher and a 4 ft. dropper/lead line with a three way swivel or slider in 25 - 35 ft. deep water, downstream. Weaving in and out of the circus of boats we saw a couple caught. Big jets made the approach to PDX directly overhead (yeah, bonding with Nature). Once the tide started running we anchored up in 30 ft. water and ran a mix of 2 K-14 --- K-16 chrome & chartreuse Kwikfish with sardine wraps as well as 2 whole herring rigs (4 rods). There were 5 springers caught in our hogline of 7 boats, but we didn't get a bite. It is early yet. With three times as many coming up the Columbia this year (269,000) as last year (86,000), they can't all get past me. It opens for 12 days downriver by Kalama starting on Monday. Oh, how nice it is to slip out after work to fish from 4:00 pm until nearly 8:00 within a mile of the port; and next week is Spring Break, so I'll get some whole days in too C.W.

flapbreaker · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:52 pm Post subject:

THanks for the report. I might try it this Friday. We'll see. I don't know if I want to mess with the weekend crowd or not.

Byrdman · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:08 am Post subject:

Hey Teacher Man CW: Glad to see the excitment of the waters is still running up there. I hope none of your students would nail you for your...parking ideas? Sounds like with the waiting lines at the ramp, it may be time for a trip down south to visit your Father. Hope all is well.

Enjoyed our time in Seattle this year.

Byrdman

CW · Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 12:13 pm Post subject:

Well, since the above post I fished a three or four more times for springers in the lower river. At the island across from Kalama I hooked and lost one and had one take down and saw about three or four caught. Got checked for licenses for the first time ever while out on the water by the local fish cops from their jetsled. Nice to be all legal.

I just got back from a two day trip down to Cathlamet, WA. We put the boat up onto a sandbar, the bottom came up pretty fast and the boat came to a halt from 32 mph in about two boat lengths. Sandy, muddy bottom. No damage, glad I didn't have an outdrive sticking down. We floated off with the tide in two hours.

Fishing: out of over a hundred boats, we only saw one net out and two fish hooked. The good news is that it was our net and both were our fish. One stayed on and it was a keeper, about 12 lbs caught on a Kwikfish, chartreuse and chrome with some blue tiger stripe ribs on it with a big sardine wrap and some kind of scent. The WDFW fish checker said our fish had a tag in its head and cut off most of that. My buddy filled out a postcard and he'll get the data on where and when his fish was originally tagged. Kind of neat. The checker said that of the 150 boats he checked, the average was about 3/4 per boat or about one fish for ever 4 rods. They were catching more up at the uppper end of Puget Island. The water was still a chilly 43 degrees with snow not far up on the surrounding hills. We marked many fish on the fishfinder, but they were scooting on past.

Now that the lower river is closed, we'll have to fish above Hayden Island powerlines in Portland. I-5 bridge area is hot right now with their catch rates, especially when trolling herring in 25-35 ft. of water. Kinda odd with the big airline jets flying low overhead on their approach to PDX. I might go on Sunday. Warmer weather will help. C.W.

flapbreaker · Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 3:02 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the report. I still need to get out for some springer action. The cold weather has kept me from being as motivated. I wonder what the crowds at the boat ramps are like on the upper part??

CW · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:23 pm Post subject:

Rhonda Shelby - a local weather television personality at KATU, Portland wrote me and said she'd feature this photo on tomorrow's broadcast at 6:20 am... what do you want to be they'll get a good chuckle out of the sandbar incident too? C.W.

B~C · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:32 pm Post subject:

6:20 am? durn, I'm slugging it out at the knowledge factory at that hour.....nice fish & pic.
Do you suppose she'll mention the sand bar?

mark&diana · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:15 pm Post subject:

The First Mate caught her first Chinook (15 pounder) on the Washington side just upriver from Hayden Island last Saturday (April 5th). Good eats! She was using a chartreuse spinner and we were trolling in about 20 - 22 feet of water. Went out again this past weekend with no luck. It is a bit of challenge maneuvering in and out of all the other boats.

CW · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:09 am Post subject:

Mark, congratulations to Diana on her first chinook. It may seem like she caught it... but I'm betting that she was the one that actually got "hooked" . I went to your photo album... beautiful boat, beagle and modifications. I hope you took a few digital pics of her fish... post them in your album and put it in this thread. There is a reason those spring chinook cost $35 / lb.... they are the best eating. The fall chinook cost about $7 - 9$ per lb.

I'll be going up above Hayden Island to fish again probably this coming weekend. The next weekend we're going clamming at Long Beach and renting a house out with two other families. The next weekend (April 25-27) I'll be going upstream for springers again during the likely peak of the run. If the Bonneville Dam fish count http://www.fpc.org/currentdaily/HistFishTwo_7day-ytd_Adults.htm is high enough, we'll fish near Drano Lake or Wind River since the limit is two fish per day above the dam. If the counts are lower, we'll fish near where you caught yours. Have you seen any seals or sea lions grab anyone's hooked fish yet? I haven't. If one grabs a fish of yours, the preferred method is to charge the beast with your boat repeatedly, making it dive. It will sometimes make them tire and they release your catch. I've seen it done and tried it, but not yet with personal success.

C.W.

mark&diana · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:13 pm Post subject:

Thanks C.W. for the comments - we are still rather new to all this but are really enjoying the boat. We've made a few more modifications, including a dinette table/seat extention which I plan to post to the album when I get the chance.

You are right that the First Mate is "hooked" - she's really the 'fisherperson' - I primarily just 'drive' the boat. Wink

I haven't been 'authorized' to release the photo of her first catch - but I'm working on it. Smile

We will be out of town the next couple of weeks - hope to be back on the river end of April.

CW · Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:47 pm Post subject:

It's only getting better. Temps. on Sat. are predicted to be 74 degrees F. The bite and run size will improve. Get the best tasting salmon of your life while you can. C.W.

OREGON AND WASHINGTON DEPARTMENTS OF FISH AND WILDLIFE

JOINT STAFF REPORT
WINTER FACT SHEET NO. 12
April 9, 2008

Purpose: Spring Chinook Recreational fisheries update and review

Management guidelines and run forecasts for the 2008 spring season were presented in the Winter Fact Sheet #3 (February 15, 2008)

• The upriver spring Chinook count through April 8 at Bonneville Dam totaled 774 spring Chinook. Based on the recent 10-year average, about 6% of the run has passed by this date.
• Spring Chinook counts over Willamette Falls total 24 fish as of April 7.
• Run sizes cannot be updated until late April for upriver stock and early May for Willamette stock.
• The mainstem Columbia River is currently scheduled to be open for retention of hatchery spring Chinook in the area from the Hayden Island west powerlines upstream to Bonneville Dam during March 16 through April 30. Retention of hatchery Chinook is also allowed from Bonneville Dam upstream to Priest Rapids Dam (with some area restrictions) during March 16 through May 10.
• The area from Buoy 10 upstream to the Hayden Island powerlines was open from March 24-April 4. The estimated catch for this fishery was 3,154 kept and 480 released spring Chinook and 298 kept and 65 released steelhead from 35,000 angler trips. Stock composition based on VSI indicates 86% of the Chinook are of upriver origin, which is slightly higher than expected.
• In the area from Hayden Island upstream to Bonneville Dam during March 16-31 catch totaled 2,573 fish kept (371 released). Catch during April 1-6 continued to be high, with a estimated catch of 3,184 Chinook kept (460 released). Total estimated catch (March 16-April 6) for the area from Hayden Island to Bonneville Dam is 5,757 kept Chinook (831 released) and 9 kept steelhead (7 released).
• The combined catch estimate for the lower river recreational fishery through April 6 is 8,900 Chinook kept and 1,300 Chinook released from 64,900 angler trips. Pre-season catch expectations for season totaled 18,000-20,000 fish kept.
• Through April 6, recreational fisheries below Bonneville Dam have used 0.35% impacts, or 35% of the maximum allowable ESA-impacts for these fisheries.
• Based on catch rates and cumulative impacts to date, the sport fishery below Bonneville is tracking ahead of management expectations. An estimated 11,600-13,800 Chinook remain available for retention in sport fisheries below Bonneville during April 7-30.
FUTURE HEARINGS
• A Compact hearing is scheduled for 11:00 AM Monday, April 14, 2008 via teleconference to consider non-Indian Commercial fisheries.

CW · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:07 am Post subject:

It is just starting to take off! Below is the graph of the Bonneville Dam fish count for Spring Chinook Adults. I'm looking forward to fishing the weekend of the 25-27th of April. This year is supposed to have three times as many as last year's run. Oh great, it is snowing outside.... C.W.

Robbi · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:22 am Post subject:

Thanks for the graph from the Fish Passage Center, what a wealth of information.

http://www.fpc.org/

Robbi

flapbreaker · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:51 am Post subject:

CW, You might want to do as much fishing as you can because in all likely hood they are going to close the season early due to the "unexpectedly" high catch rates. It's possible that it will close before the weekend of the 26th and 27th. We'll see though.

CW · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:38 pm Post subject:

my advisory group has a call - in meeting tomorrow to discuss the "progress" of the ongoing recreational fishery below Bonneville Dam.... I'll post more as I know more. Meanwhile, clamming has the no-toxin green light and so it looks like a 3:30 am wakeup on Saturday for us! C.W.

Dates and low tides are:

Saturday, April 19, 6:40 a.m., -0.1 ft: Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks
Sunday, April 20, 7:18 a.m., -0.4 ft: Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks
Monday, April 21, 7:55 a.m., -0.6 ft: Twin Harbors only
Tuesday, April 22, 8:30 a.m., -0.6 ft: Twin Harbors only
Wednesday, April 23, 9:06 a.m., -0.5 ft: Twin Harbors only
Locations of Washington’s razor-clam digging beaches included in this opener are:

Long Beach , which extends from the Columbia River to Leadbetter Point.
Twin Harbors , which extends from the mouth of Willapa Bay north to the south jetty at the mouth of Grays Harbor.
Copalis Beach , which extends from the Grays Harbor north jetty to the Copalis River and includes the Ocean Shores, Oyhut, Ocean City and Copalis areas.
Mocrocks Beach , which extends from the Copalis River to the southern boundary of the Quinault Reservation near the Moclips River, including Iron Springs, Roosevelt Beach, Pacific beach and Moclips.