Salmon and Steelhead Coming Into the Columbia

C

CW

New member
We had a good day today at the mouth of the Cowlitz River in S.W. Washington where it mixes with the Columbia River. We got four steelhead and one jack chinook salmon on two rods. Three of the steelhead were about 11 lbs. and one was about 9. Unfortunately, two of the larger ones were natives and had to be released and the 9 lb. fish shook off the hook right at the net. We got some trolling and some while anchored in the current in about 12 ft. of water right where the two rivers mingle. We used the standard sliding dropper set-up about twenty inches long with a 3 - 5 oz. cannonball weight below and a Brass Bladed Flash Glo spinner with red/orange beaded body off of a heavy leader ( 20 - 40 lb.) trailing some 25" behind caught on the outgoing tide between 9 - 12 this morning. Fun times as I consider this great practice for the big Chinook which are already arriving but will be here in good numbers when the season opens Sept. 1.

C.W.

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Originally today, I was to take my son Joe, daughter Ellie and Joe's friend Ben fishing today at the mouth of the Cowlitz River. Ben called at 6:45 am and cancelled and Joe and then Ellie backed out, preferring to sleep in and have a lazy day at home, despite my promising it could be a very good day for fish. So, as many times before, Gauge the loyal dog and I went. I anchored near where I fished two days ago when we caught five. It was about 10 - 14 ft. deep depending on where the boat swung in the current, so I knew I was on the shelf....

Once the water ran, WHAM! I caught a really strong, hard fighting Chinook salmon about 14 lbs. I let him go since that season doesn't open until Sept. 1. A little later I caught a huge, chrome bright steelhead, a hatchery fish (keeper) that weighed 16 lbs. (Most Cowlitz hatchery steelies weigh about 8 lbs.). It was the largest hatchery steelhead I've ever caught & only superseded by two native wild ones years ago at 19 & 20 lbs. A half hour later I caught an identical steelhead to the first. I called around trying to roust some of my fishing buddies to join me, but they had business to attend to. I caught and released a Chinook jack salmon (about 6 lbs.). When I called Jim Nigo, a Japanese immigrant and hard core fishing friend I met on a hogline, he dropped everything and drove over an hour to join me, where I could pick him up at Rainier, OR, across the river. Before he could get there I caught one more steelhead, a third beautiful hatchery fish that was a skosh smaller than the two fish limit already in my box (14-15 lbs?). With some regret, I twisted the hook out of its mouth and watched the monster swim away. I had yet another take down but it spit the hook. Five fish "boated" before noon on one rod.

Once Jim was in the boat he hooked up early and kept a beautiful steelhead of 15 lbs. - weighed like the others on my fancy scale. Jim hooked and released a jack chinook salmon of about 6 lbs. Jim hooked and fought a much bigger chinook of about 15 - 20 lbs., but it spit the hook after a long fight. We had another couple of take downs but didn't boat a second keeper for Jim.

What a day, 62 lbs. of steelhead in four keeper fish , 8 fish boated altogether.... all caught on the exact same rod, reel and Flash Glo lure with my homemade Anise scent on it. The other rod only got one "drive-by" hit. It was the same lure I caught the three 11 lb. fish on two days ago as well. I gave Jim an identical Flash Glo to take to Bob's Merchandise since he became so interested in buying some of them.

Fun Times, probably going to fish Buoy 10 this weekend.



and it is all good practice for the much bigger ones that are on their way..... on Labor Day.
CW
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Joe and I went fishing with Dave on his boat with his relative Jesse Stiltner last Friday, August 22, 2008. Dave's boat is similar to mine but now sports a brand new Chevy 496 with 390 hp. Dave showed us how he can make is boat do a quick 180 degree turn in place all while on a plane at speed. Impressive. While trying to retrieve some crayfish traps the boat idled a bit too long in shallow water and sucked up some sand. His new sand filter worked great and cleaning it out was just a matter of opening a valve and dumping out the sand and mud -- much easier than the disassembly required when emptying my 1991 version.

We fished a bit higher up the river than where I'd had such good success - (about 40 yds) but still on the same 10-15 ft. edge. Fishing four rods, we had a great day. The yellow one piece fiberglass Fenwick rod caught the most fish (and that same Flash Glo lure has now caught about 12 steelhead and salmon). Joe reeled in two nice hatchery steelhead (8 & 12 lbs?), a jack chinook and I got a nice steelhead around 10 -11 as well as a jack salmon. Jesse caught a nice 14-15 lb. chinook (another real fighter) released it and I think he caught a jack salmon too. All fish were caught on the same kind of brass bladed, orange bead bodied Flash Glo spinner.

As soon as I got home I hurriedly packed for a two day camp out to fish at Buoy 10 at the mouth of the Columbia River with Mike Hamilton in his 18 ft. Bayliner Trophy. Saturday morning was spanking hot for chinook with what seemed like everyone but us catching big chinook and a few coho/silvers. I've never seen so many chinook caught in a three hour span. We were doing what everyone else was, trolling herring behind flashers and divers, but it wasn't our day to get one in the boat. Only after I put on a desperation lure (that no one else that was catching fish was using - a red T-4 flatfish), then I got two nice take downs and lost the bigger fish right away but boated and released a trout sized jack chinook. This brings me to a point.... I've never seen so many jack salmon before. As they are sexually immature fish that return too early in their life-cycle to breed, they are the best indicator for how large the next year's chinook salmon run will be. And judging from their record numbers, next year should be phenomenal for fall chinook!

Mike's son Zach joined us for Sunday's fishing. The wind came up overnight and the morning was overcast. We saw about 1/8th as many fish caught Sunday as Saturday. The good news is that it was a much better day in our boat! Zach and Mike boated two nice 18-22 lb. chinook and a whopper silver of about 10 - 11 lbs. as well as a nice jack chinook. I had a couple hits or nibbles but that was it.

Two salmon broke off the new 45 lb. test fluorocarbon (Seaguar brand?) leader on Zach's rig below the knot with his main bead-chain swivel. I watched him closely as he set the hook and played the fish with a quality Lamiglass limber rod, new reel and qualtiy braided mainline..... he did everything right and was not horsing the fish at all. I've seen this happen before with the same type of leader and am absolutely opposed to it. The "selling point" of the fluorocarbon line is its near invisibility in clear water. This feature is not needed in the Columbia river and I'm convinced Zach would not have lost those fish if he'd been using my favorite - 40 lb. test Ande monofilament line as a leader instead. Mike had good luck with the same type of leader and there was some discussion about the knot used or the tying technique of that knot.....Mike also set his stout Daiwa reel's drag very lightly. Still, you have to ask yourself, if the chinook of a lifetime ( or even of a weekend) finally takes your lure or bait, should you be rolling the dice with iffy line? What about those situations when you DO need to bear down on a large fish and pull hard to get it in or to keep it away from a seal, an anchor line or water obstacle? Isn't that why most guys have switched to the stronger braided mainlines? With the reduced stretch of braided line there still needs to be some stretch, play or flexibility in your system or hooks will get straightend out or ripped out of the fish's mouth. And one theory was that the fluorocarbon line also stretches much less than regular monofilament leader. That could be the culprit. Possibly the knot tying technique overheated and weakened the line.... but it didn't really break right at the knot. The fishing rod is one obvious source for flex in the system. Some guys are moving to Salmon Bungees as a shock absorber. I tried a salmon bungee during springer season and decided I don't like deadening the pulse of the lure on the rod tip. That rod tip tells me what the lure is doing, if it is working right, if I'm dragging on the bottom, what a hooked fish is doing, and if a weed or piece of junk has hit wrapped on the lure. Reducing the quality of that information is not worth it to me. Maybe I'm spoiled by spending most of my time fishing in cloudier water where fish are not line shy and maybe fluorocarbon leader has a place in that clearer water of many streams.... but with so many more reliable products out there.... you won't find any in my tackle box or on the rods I set up for large Columbia River Chinook salmon.

The ride back in was bumpy and wet on the west side of the Astoria bridge. 35 mph gusts can do that. We got soaked, shipped a few waves over the bow, but Mike held the helm steady and worked the throttle on that new Mercury 115 hp. just right. It was nice to reach the Port of Chinook all the same and the hot meal afterwards was heavenly.

The Bonneville Dam Fish count shot up from 850 chinook per day a week ago to 14,900 yesterday. There are about 5,500 steelhead per day going over now.

Well, high tide is at 12:49 pm at the mouth of the Cowlitz..... may as well go and see if the magic is still working.

ps. I did go fishing today 8-26-08 at 4:30 am. I got one coho salmon about 6 lbs. -- the first of the season. That is 13 steelhead and salmon on the same Flash-Glo spinner and yellow Fennwick rod.

CW
 
Sounds like you have had an awesome couple weeks of fishing! I'm envious! :)

As to the Seaguar leader. I've been using it exclusively for the last 6 years and have never had a problem with it breaking on my stuff. It is truly some of the nicest line I have ever used. It has good abrasion resistance, is fairly supple for flourocarbon. Holds knots well. And I've never had it prematurely break. EVER. I've probably gone through 10 spools of the 40lb leader and 5 of the 50lb leader.

Maybe your friend got an old batch, or left his leader in the sun? Both of those will affect the strength of the line.
 
We smoked 'em at the mouth of the Cowlitz River where it joins with the Columbia by Longview on Sun. Aug. 31. While fishing with my two sisters Hester and Susan and my Dad Gene, my nephew Duncan (12-13) and son Joe (16) we boated about 13-15 fish. Some were jack salmon (released) but also hooked an 18-19 lb. native Steelhead (released by Gene), a 14 lb. hatchery steelhead (Duncan), a 13 lb. hatchery Coho Salmon!(Joe); a 10 lb. native coho (released), a 17 lb. hatchery steelhead (Hester), and 3-4 Chinook about 15 lbs. (released). What a day, and all the more special to share it with family. To the disbelief of fishermen next to us, we told them we'd fish elsewhere the next day when chinook retention was allowed.

We fished upstream of Kalama where we'd done so well in the past. Only one chinook was caught in our hogline (water depth 47-61 ft.) and five were caught in the next line downstream. We got skunked.

On Tuesday, while I was working at the first day of school a friend fished where we had on Monday. He said that the boat fishing exactly where I had been got a nice one. The guys showed it to him..... 52 lbs.

The next weekend (Sept. 6, 7) we fished just downstream from Kalama and we got one 14 lb. chinook. There were about 20 fish (mainly chinook a few coho perhaps) caught in the two hoglines. On Sunday, in our hogline of 8 boats, 11 salmon were caught. We got two, an 18 lb. chinook and a native coho of about 10 lbs. we released. The boat deeper than me got one about 25 lbs. and the boat inside got a 14 lber. The boat on the other side of them got a nice fat "hog" of 34 lbs.

I've got three more days of fishing before me.... hopefully we'll hook up with a big one.

CW
 
Thursday 9/11 we fished next to a large ship with some suspicious whining motors running nonstop inside the hull. No one caught fish. On the afternoon tide we fished way upstream, about a mile and a half, and were alone in the glorious orange sunset and sure enough, we got one 11 lb. chinook.

On Saturday, Sept. 13, we fished in a hogline of five boats. Four boats got salmon. We caught one, an 11 lb. chinook. On Sunday my wife went with me and we got skunked.

Overall for the season I must've caught nearly 40 fish. 10 of those were jacks (undersize salmon). Most of the rest were steelhead, chinook (king) and coho (silver) salmon. I'm sure 20 were between 15 - 19 lbs..... but I did not catch a fish yet over 20 lbs.! And I'm used to getting 2-3 over 30 lbs..

Chinook closes Tuesday. I'll fish the mouth of the Cowlitz for steelhead and coho this weekend. Maybe go up inside the markers of the Cowlitz so I can retain a chinook.


I met a C-Brat on Sunday. He was greatly disillusioned with the ability of his 22 Cruiser to handle the Columbia River Bar. Point noted.
CW
 
Warren,

Upon seeing his 22 cruiser at the dock by the boat ramp while swimming my lab I approached to talk boats and see if he was a C-Brat. He said he was but remains more of a lurker than frequent contributor, and I'd rather not say his handle. I asked him how he liked his boat. He said something like "Well, actually...... if I were to do it all again... I don't know if I'd do this (gesturing toward boat) again." I stated the obvious about how "all boats are compromises and none of them do everything well" etc. and he went on to explain that he "and especially his passengers have been beat up too much and too often while crossing the Columbia River Bar." He said he'd crossed it several times over the past 3 years and that it just wasn't a good thing, that it didn't handle the chop well. I said "well they do have a pretty flat bottom" and he agreed thinking that was a significant part of it. When I said "Well, they sure have a devoted following. Did the boat handle it okay or was it just the people in it?" He answered that "the boat was safe, but not at all comfortable [crossing the bar]. Otherwise, it was a great boat when it came to sleeping on it or using it in other places."

I haven't ridden in many C-Dorys but can say that the Columbia River Bar can be uncomfortable in many boats. It is also a place where having the horsepower to get on through it quickly is highly desirable which also allows you to hit the large swell, chop and standing waves the way you WANT to hit them, not the way you have to. CW

ps. The WDFW and ODFW are holding a hearing tomorrow (Thurs. 9/18) at 2 pm to decide whether to re-open the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam for the retention of Chinook Salmon. I hope so!
 
We had a good weekend at the mouth of the Cowlitz river again. Yesterday, 9/20/08 I went down in the dark the 8-9 miles to get my favorite spot. I spun around, worked the depth hunting for my "shelf" where it goes from 9 ft. to 18. I found where I wanted to be, guessed where I'd be upstream, dropped the anchor and held it in position for nearly 3 hours waiting for the tide to turn. Interestingly, no one else anchored and so I was way too presumptuous about the level of competition I'd be facing for that hole. They all trolled. Yes, I'd been out of touch because I'd been fishing the deep water near Kalama during our Sept. 1 - 16 chinook season..... or was I really out of touch? That hole had produce heavily for me all of August on chinook, steelhead and coho.... all on that Flash Glo spinnner. The tide turned and I didn't catch anything. I watched many boats catch fish and noted that most were caught in a narrow lane while trolling from the point of Cottonwood Island towards the green "can" in the Columbia. With my favorite spot reserved and not producing, I released from my anchor (leaving it there) and with American flag flying, Rolling Stones playing on the stereo and dog on deck, I trolled right through the "suck zone". Wham! I got on on the first or second pass. It was an 11 lb. native coho I had to release. I kept trolling for an hour and then picked up Ellen, Suzanne and Ellie in Rainier, OR. Despite my telling her what we should do (troll spinners), Ellen insisted we go back to the anchor. Well, that worked too because in short order we hooked a HOG chinook (26-28 lbs.?), that we had to release. So we came home happy but without meat.

Today was a different story.

Knowing how the stuff at the Cowlitz rolls NOW, I told my friends Mike and Zach that we didn't need to head out at dawn and in fact we could all sleep in, waiting on the tide and not head out until 8:30 am. Travis and his boy Isaac joined us too so we were able to run four rods. When we got there we didn't anchor, we put out four identical Flash Glo lures (brass blade, red/orange beaded body), anise scent and worked that small trough where I'd seen so many hooked yesterday. We got into fish right away. The first two were coho, about 8-9 lbs., but natives. Number three was a doozy...... Zach's rod doubled over and after some very sloppy flailing at the surface and some strong runs, we were elated to see it was missing its adipose fin. A 16 lb. , hatchery coho! (In my life I've only boated one coho larger, and that was Ellen's 18 up in B.C.) -- this was an absolute pig of a silver for Washington state. We ended up catching 8 fish today. Four were released ( two more were smallish chinook near 8 - 10 lbs.) and four were kept: 2 coho about 8-9 lbs., Zach's 16 lb. and then he got a beautiful 12 lb. hatchery steelhead. The music was up, we were happy and people were staring..... again, we had the fortune to be the "hot boat". What a day.

Of the thirty boats working the water, I'd say 2/3 got at least one fish. Zach had a fair comment "You know, there really isn't that many boats out here and the fishing is great. So many guys bitch about the shortened chinook season..... but where are they now?" The weather was good and the overall success was great.


Fun times,
CW

p.s. on a sad note.... my favorite lure, a certain Flash Glo on my custom 1970s one piece yellow fiberglass Fenwick rod, had it's hook broken today as we twisted it out of the fish. That was the 18th fish that lure caught this summer. I'll put on a split ring and new hook and see if I can get #19 this week or weekend. With ten fish caught this weekend, that brings my August/Sept. total for the boat to somewhere around 40, my best fall ever in numbers if not in huge chinook. The coho and steelies have been monsters...

On another note, Mike tested his Fluorocarbon line I don't like because I've seen three fish or more break it off. Though rated at 40 lbs. he broke it at the knot a few times while measuring.... he could not get it to hold more than 25 lbs. Me, I use Ande 40 lb. leader.. He's going to test that next.
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I must have gotten some of the same batch of flurocarbon leader you had-no more for me after several breaks this season.
Chica
 
CW,

You might be interested in this thread on www.Gamefishin.com where one of the users did a pretty exhaustive study on lines.

Here is a quote from his test...
One line in particular was especially consistent, Seaguar Fluorocarbon leader. It was the thinnest of all the 10 pound lines tested, and averaged 9.88 pounds breaking strength. However, it also tended to break at about 2 ounces on either side of its average. If I was chasing world records, I’d have to consider paying the extra cash for the Seaguar.
Click to expand...

Now he was testing 10lb test so there is a big possibility that the higher line ratings are different. But his test does show that MOST lines you buy break at higher than labeled settings.

Though rated at 40 lbs. he broke it at the knot a few times while measuring....
Click to expand...
Sounds like your friend needs to learn a few new knots. Having it break at the knot means that he either didn't lubricate it well enough when tied OR he doesn't tie the right kind of knot. Try the same test again with a Polomar or a San Diego Jam knot. I have had really good luck with the San Diego Jam knot. It is very easy to tie and works really well with braid and flourocarbon. I have found that the flourocarbon lines are extremely sensitive to having the knot lubricated sufficiently.


BTW: Nice fish! And thanks for continuing to post your reports!
 
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