Kayak Fishing for Salmon Weekly Report

September has turned to October and the salmon fishing season continues. The mornings are getting colder, the leaves on the trees are turning to fall colors and most of the chinook salmon have passed by on their annual run upstream towards Idaho. Thankfully, we have started to see more coho salmon in the area so the fishing remains pretty good. It’s great to see the silvery coho make their yearly appearance.

I caught a few keepers this week in addition to a few more wild fish. We seem to catch a lot of wild fish at the local fishing spot. I don’t know if many of the hatchery fish are caught before the get here or wild salmon just like this place. So far this season, it’s been about 50-50 wild fish-hatchery fish.

The fish story of the week has to be a big coho salmon that snapped a new fishing pole like a toothpick, but I managed to use the two feet of fishing pole that was left to get the fish netted and into the boat. I use lighter than normal fishing gear because in a kayak, if you hook a bigger fish than the tackle can really handle, you can let the fish tow the kayak around until it gets tired. Because of the crowded conditions, I have to anchor the kayak and that puts a lot more stress on the equipment. After snapping two $15 fishing poles in one week, even though I used one of them all last season and up until a few days ago, I have broken down and purchased a $40 fishing rod. Many fishermen have no problem spending $100 or more, much more, on a fishing rod, I don’t think that a $100 or $200 pole is going to make you a better fisherman.

I got a personal best steelhead and a big chinook salmon earlier in the season, so this big coho will give me the salmon season “grand slam” of trophy fish. I released a couple wild chinook salmon that were probably bigger than the one I was able to keep, that’s just icing on the cake.

Pretty motivated to continue the kayak salmon fishing adventures as the seasons change. On the windy days that we don’t go fishing, it’s time to get the truck and the homestead ready for winter. Getting the warmer clothes ready for the colder and wetter days that will be here soon enough.