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Some Information About Our Salmon Fishing Trips
Chinook Salmon Fishing: The biggest of the five species is the Chinook, or King
salmon. Normal migrating Chinook spend from three to seven years
in the sea before returning to their native river to spawn.
Chinook have been reported to grow as big as 100lbs, but the
majority of returning fish are under 30lbs. Returning migratory
Chinook are normally caught close to structure, that is,
underwater ledges, shelves and pockets that hold baitfish.
Coho Salmon Fishing:
The Coho or Silver salmon look similar to Chinook, except they
are normally smaller. An important distinction is that Coho have
white gums at the base of their teeth, while a Chinook's gums
are black. Coho usually live about three years and grow
exceptionally fast in the third year. They range in size from
four to about 20lbs. Returning Coho are not as
structure-oriented as Chinook and are normally found in more
open water than Chinook.
Editor's Note From NWGR: Last year my
wife and I stayed at the Columbia Riverfront RV Park and had a
site right on the river. There were several fishing boats in
full view right out in front of us and they were fishing for
Salmon. We sat daily either in our RV or catching some sun on
the beach. We happened to notice that some of the boats were
fishing guide boats about 5 or 6 of them) and some were just
sports fishermen. Some were there every day and some just tried
it for a day and did not come back. What really caught our
attention was a boat with "Brandon's Guide Service" on
the side. This boat was just flat out amazing! They caught one
fish after another after another and they continued to do this
day after day after day. We were there for 10 days and I think
Brandon's boat was there every day. All the other fishing boats
and the fishing guide boats might occasionally catch a fish but
I really don't remember seeing ANY boat catch more than one fish
a day and there were 4 to 6 people in each of these boats. When
a boat would finally get a fish on it was really a big deal.
It
was easy to see if they had a fish on as when the fish struck
and the hook was set, the boat would release from their anchor
rope and float back slowly to get the maximum play out of the
Salmon. The thing one couldn't possibly miss was that Brandon's
boat caught more fish than anyone and it was just hugely
obvious. His boat would not go more than a half hour or an hour
without getting a fish. I mean it had to be embarrassing for the
other boats. Especially for the guide boats who were fishing
right next to him. They might get one fish a day (some got none)
and Brandon's boat kept letting loose of the anchor rope every
half hour or every hour. And this is no exaggeration and this
was impressive, maybe amazing. After watching this for several
days and NEVER seeing any boat have anywhere near the success
that Brandon was having I decided to call him. Asked what he was
doing so different. Well, he was kind enough to tell me quite a
bit about what he was doing that might have been different than
the others. But the one thing he said that contrary to popular
opinion, there is no single "fishing lure" or "fishing secret"
that will get you lots of fish. He said the he specialized in
just a few areas of SW Washington and Northwest Oregon and that
he didn't try to be everything to everybody. He said "I don't
fish for Walleye and I don't don't fish in areas that I'm not
extremely familiar with. I fish areas every year that I know
like the back of my hand. Areas that I've fished in for over 20
years. I fish the same basic areas every year and I've been
lucky enough to learn that there are a lot of variables. What
worked yesterday may not work today.
The factors differ from one
day to the next and water levels, water temperature, water
clarity, strength of stream flow, tide times, could cover, rain,
sunny skies and several other factors dictate what I will use
and how deep of water I will anchor in and what color of lure or
what type of bait I'll use and what type of scent I'll use. Just
for one example, if the water is clear I'll use one color of
lure and one type of scent but when the water is not so clear I
may use a different scent or a stronger dose of scent (sometimes
combination of 2 scents) and a different color and or size of
lure. Sometimes when water stream flows change I will tweak the
lures. And other times I will keep the lure exactly the same but
put on lighter or heavier hooks. And finally he told me "yes, I
can catch fish but I it's really difficult to tell others what
to do in order to constantly catch limits of Salmon because I
have to employ so many variables. Conditions dictate what I do
and if I tell you exactly what I used today, 9 times out of 10
it won't work the next day. If you've ever been on a guided
fishing trip you have likely heard the phrase "Gee, it's just
dead today but you should have been here yesterday! Well,
there's a lot of truth to that statement so I try to never use
exactly what I used yesterday unless the conditions are EXACTLY
the same. And they are almost never EXACTLY the same."
Dan MacNeil
Editor NWGR (Northwest Guides & Resorts) |
