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.
I endured 6 hours of North of Falcon zoom meetings to bring you these fresh-off-the-grill salmon forecasts for the year 2024!
Okay, it wasn’t that bad. This forecast “unveiling” was the beginning of the North of Falcon process, wherein the salmon seasons get set and eventually printed prior to the July 1st new regulations year.
If you’re already confused, you are in good company as the entire process of salmon forecast models and the resulting seasons leave a lot of recreational anglers who are only semi-familiar with the process scratching their heads.
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.
If you’ve been a follower of our YouTube channel (you should be!), you know that we ran out to Neah Bay not long after the June salmon opener for a single-day incredible turn-and-burn trip. And on that trip, we hooked into 8 quality chinook but lost 6 of those, and only landed 2.
I’ve recently made some changes and have gone 11 for 11 on quality chinook since those changes. This blog post is to highlight what exactly I changed.
June 13, 2023
Salmon fishing suspended in Marine Area 11
Action: Closes to all salmon fishing.
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 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.