Story Photos
 Photo by Bill Wagner A fisherman wins a battle with a chinook salmon on the Columbia River over the holiday weekend. |
Chinook are biting like crazy on the Columbia River
Friday, September 8, 2006 7:32 AM PDT
By Tom Paulu
Printable version
E-mail this articleWarm, sunny weather and lots of big chinook salmon. What more could a fisherman ask for?
Well, of course fewer other anglers to compete with.
But even with the crowds of fishermen flocking to the Columbia River this week, anglers are doing well.
At times in recent days, the catch has been more than one chinook per boat, said Joe Hymer, a biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. 'When you better than a fish per boat, that's typically as good as it gets."
The good times should last through the weekend, when the tides will be good for fishing.
But during a conference call Thursday, Oregon and Washington fishery managers warned that they likely will close down chinook fishing in the main stem Columbia sometime next week.
The preseason forecast was for a total fall chinook run of 473,900 adult fish, compared to 561,400 a year ago. The run appears to be close to the preseason forecast.
Where there are fish, fishermen will follow. On Wednesday, a DFW pilot counted about 1,000 boats in the lower Columbia River, about the same number as last Saturday. The Wednesday boat census included 165 craft at the mouth of the Cowlitz and 140 near Kalama.
Anglers arrived early Thursday to stake a spot on the beach just south of Kalama. Chuck and Rita Hanson of St. Helens, Ore., arrived at Kalama at 5:30 a.m. "The other people got here way before we arrived," Chuck Hanson said.
Lee Sargent of La Center and his buddies sat in folding chairs and kept an eye on their rods --- and ears tuned to the bells hanging on them. The wait was fruitful for Sargent, who caught a chinook.
How big? "Thirty-eight!" Sargent offered, to the guffaws of his buddies.
Even if Sargent was bending the truth, other anglers have caught big chinook. The largest chinook checked the past week weighed "in the upper 40s, with a lot of fish in the 30s," Hymer said. "Some fish caught as far upriver as Kalama still had sea lice on them. They obviously hadn't spent much time in freshwater."
One of Sargent's friends, Eric Schmelzer of Woodland, said he'd caught two fish around 20 pounds in the previous two days.
Another angler said he'd seen about 25 fish caught in 90 minutes on Wednesday.
DFW checkers calculated a rate of one fish per 13.5 bank anglers in recent days, Hymer said.
In August, sport anglers caught nearly 5,000 adult chinook salmon below Bonneville Dam --- the second highest catch on record. (The record is 5,100 fish in 2002.)
Although some mainstem anglers have also been catching good-sized hatchery coho and hatchery steelhead, Hymer said most are targeting chinook in deep water with wobblers and large gear.
With coho running large this year, anglers should double check before securing their catch, he said.
"We're seeing a substantial number of unmarked coho in anglers' creels this fall," said Hymer, though those fish are now listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. All wild coho must be released from the mainstem Columbia and its tributaries from Buoy 10 upstream to the Hood River Bridge.
The hot fishing in the Columbia from Woodland to Cathlamet makes up for a bust at Buoy 10, the area at the mouth of the river.
In August, usually the peak time for Buoy 10 fishing, just 13 percent of the anglers there were successful. In 2005 at Buoy 10, the overall catch rate was 29 percent.
Robin Ehlke, another DFW fish biologist, said one reason for the poor showing at Buoy 10 may be the run returning to Bonneville Pool hatcheries is lower this year. Those fish tend to mill around in the Buoy 10 area.
As with spring chinook, fishing for the fall stock is limited by impacts on endangered runs that pass upstream of Bonneville. Currently, fishery managers plan to end chinook fishing when the total catch reaches 15,000. At the current catch rate, that would be exceeded by Sept. 15.
During a conference call of Oregon and Washington fishery managers Thursday, Ehlke predicted that the catch limit will be reached early next week. "Sometime Tuesday, Wednesday, we're going to hit it."
That would be earlier than expected, said Cindy LeFleur, the WDFW's Columbia River fishery program manager. "I sure wish we didn't have to be in this spot," she said.
Managers will take up the matter during another conference call Monday afternoon.
Columbia River Compact set to meet Thursday
The Columbia River Compact, which sets commercial fishing seasons, will have a rare meeting in Kalama next week. The compact will meet at 9:30 a.m. Sept. 14 in the council chambers at Kalama City Hall, 320 N. First St. The agenda includes treaty Indian and late fall non-Indian commercial fishing periods.
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