The thing is that for fishers it is going to be a bit weird for a while. While managed for normal timed Coho and Late Coho the Chehalis Basin Coho are far more complex. We have the Coho that come in in September and the first part of October which are sorta our summer Coho. Then we have the October Coho followed by the November or Turkey Day Coho then the lates after December 1st. How this plays out year after year varies with what the fish decide to do such as last years early Coho movement and rain / time driven behavior.

This year’s rains early have been a bonus inland and terrible for tidewater. Things were great for a bit but the vast majority of the October Coho are up stream now and staging or spawning. For the last ten days or so the Coho numbers have been dropping off in tidewater and right now it is ugly. Chum are starting to show but QIN harvest numbers are below expectations but we certainly have seals and Sealions all over the place and they are getting some. We have always had Coho that come with the Chum but they seem to be scarce right now.

So lets hope the Coho that come with the Chum are still not up yet because if they did come in with the rain the river will have to really blow out to bring in the November Coho and the forecast has bumps but flows keep returning to below average for some time.

One thing about it the upper Chehalis water from the last rain event arrived a couple of days ago and lord the trash that came with it is awful. Logs limbs chunks like everything one could imagine! What did not arrive was fresh fish in any numbers! Good day to watch the Hawks play.