Fishing for springers on the Columbia River is best described as “grinding” since the bites are often so few and far between. Our season in 2024 was definitely defined by the word grind, however it also made us better spring chinook anglers and this blog post will outline why that is.
The first thing you should know about the 2024 Columbia River Spring Chinook fishing season is that it’s almost here! We’ve had a few chinook go over the Bonneville Dam, and a few reports of chinook caught in the lower river and now is the time to take stock of our gear and make plans to go fishing for the tastiest of all PNW Salmon.
Before the spring and summer salmon seasons get announced on the Columbia we get to review the final tally of the 2023 returns and the 2024 forecast.
Every year I have a friend who has fished with me from Arizona for the past 14 years. We’ve done many fisheries all over Western Washington and this year we decided to take on the mother of them all: Buoy 10.
Keep reading to learn why we chose Buoy 10, why you should consider it, and a few lessons we learned as Buoy 10 newbs.
Tracking all of the news and developments as the 2022 Washington Coast Salmon Season takes shape through the North of Falcon process and eventually becomes our season for fishing the Washington Coast (Marine Areas 1 -4) for Salmon.
The Washington Coast Salmon Forecast for 2022 has been released and we have some idea what to expect in terms of the season-setting process.
The Springers are coming! The Springers are coming! The Springers are coming! Also, details have been released on the official season (outside of any emergency closures). I’ve additionally added a “Springer watch” section keeping track of temps and dam counts
The 2021 Columbia River Springer Fishing Season is just achieving lift-off! The smelt are gone, and the fish are coming in and starting to trickle over the dams. Let’s go!
The Springer fishing opportunity on the Columbia river could be better than expected once the stay home order lifts and fishing is opened up again. I’m going to break down for you exactly why that will be the case.
This years run of spring kings on the Columbia River had me seriously questioning whether it was worth the time and effort to drive 2.5 hours, fish a new part of the river and chase a run predicted to be worse than most recent previous years. Here’s the deal though: One, just one Columbia River Springer is enough to make it worth the effort. The meat quality is better than any other salmon or steelhead (fish?) you can angle for in the Pacific Northwest.