It’s that time of year again. Time to get out there and go after the big fish. Salmon fishing season has begun. The weather for the past few days has been great, maybe a bit on the hot side, but hot, sunny days are not something we complain a lot about here in the Pacific Northwest. The water in the Columbia River is very warm, I think a shot of rain will get the fish more active.
There are salmon here, but not that many. In a few days of fishing, I only got a few weak hits using a spinner. I did a little bobber fishing and fishing off the bottom with a dropper loop using cured prawns, but not for very long. Didn’t have any luck. Anchoring a kayak in a pack of boats is something I really don’t like to do. I saw a couple fish caught by bank fishermen and there were salmon jumping around, but not many fish being caught. The numbers of Chinook salmon coming over the dam is really increasing, so the fishing should start to pick up.
As usual, the weather will be the biggest factor as far as getting out the river. It always seems the wind picks up when the fishing is best. It looks like the wind will be touch and go for the next week, maybe wind up fishing only a few hours in the morning. When the salmon are in the Columbia River tributaries, you can spend windy days fishing those from shore, but the bulk of the salmon are not here yet. The steelhead seem a little thin so far. Last season the Coho fishing was real slow. You never know what’s going to happen.