Kayak Fishing for Salmon

This morning we were out kayak fishing for salmon on the Columbia River hoping for a little better luck than we’ve had for the past few fishing days. Salmon fishing is great, but it isn’t around for long and the fishing is definitely slowing down early this season. The fish counts kicked up a bit in the past couple days, but the salmon fishing season is still on life support. Even though the chances of catching fish get slimmer every day, there’s still a chance. And when the salmon fishing season is over, it’s winter.

I was hopeful that the streak of no fish would come to an end as the first casts were made just before sunrise. A few boats pulled up pretty close and for about a half hour, there was no fishing action of any kind, except for the casting part. It was not the start I was hoping for until I cast away from the mini pack of boats and started to reel back in when I got a solid strike. The fish mostly dove for the bottom, but when it got near the kayak, it started jumping around. It was still hard to see in the early morning light, but I was able to tell was a nice clipped Chinook salmon. It took a couple tries to get it into the net, but finally got it. The dry streak was over, pretty stoked.

I got the fish on the stringer and as I was stowing the landing net, I noticed a couple more boats and a couple of the original flotilla were moving closer. I cast between a couple boats and could not believe I had another hookup! Two fish on with two casts, unbelievable! After another great battle and more landing net acrobatics, another really nice Chinook salmon was in the boat. I could not believe my luck. Pulled the anchor and headed for shore at 7:00 AM.

Chinook salmon caught kayak fishing on the Columbia River

That’s the second two fish limit of the season. Usually, I would hope for a few more fish by this time, but in a sub par season, you take what you can get. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t. All you can do is get out there whenever you can to increase your odds.

Looks like a decent stretch of wind coming up, tomorrow might be 50-50, but when the fishing is not that good, being anchored on a windy Columbia River in a pack of boats is less attractive. Have to do an early morning wind check and see how it looks. Still a morning only possibility. The only thing left to do is grill some fresh Chinook salmon.

Grilled Chinook salmon from the Columbia River

Got our fingers crossed for the rest of the salmon fishing season, at least I feel better about it today!

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