I was in Vancouver last week on business. Took a quick run out to Bonneville and checked out the fish ladder. I couldn't believe all the fish coming through. Saw a bunch of boats working the river below Bonneville.

Nice fish Parker

I have found the fall chinook to be great fighters. In fact in the last week we had several that put up long, hard, battles lasting maybe 10 minutes or longer with heavy tackle. The meat is orange, certainly not red like springers but hey these fish are far more plentiful, more predictable, and larger than springers. I put some on the smoker yesterday and is absolutely delicious! Fall chinook are right at the top for me.

RM

NO, Clancy's and Alvins are the most popular and oldest brands of Wobblers.

Peace
Superfly

Now I remember why I fly fish for steelhead. It's more dependable than salmon fishing. I fish for salmon about like Parker fly fishes. It ain't a pretty thing. I spent the entire 6 hour outgoing tide hanging from the hook on the Columbia yesterday. Saw 5 chinook hooked from about 12 boats. Mine not being one of those five.

Why is it that while driving around looking for that "just right" spot to anchor, I was marking lots of fish, but after setting the anchor and paying out over 150' of anchor line, sitting on the hook, about to plunk our wobblers down into the deep, deep big C, my fishfinder screen started not marking any fish. Only 8 in a long while on the hook. After 5 fished were hooked in other boats, we decided to relocate, and again, lots of fish traveling, so I picked a new hot spot. Set anchor, pay out nearly 200' of anchor line, and notice no fish on the screen. We didn't even drop our lines in that time.

For sale: one Columbia River style boat anchor, 200' of barely used nylon anchor line, floats, a bunch of huge wobblers like in Slab's photo, plus I got chartruse and red spot too, and a bunch of hippy-looking hallucinogenic spinners.

I fly fished the day before on the Cowlitz for a couple hours and was into cutthroat and steelhead and didn't have to sit on my butt drinking beer and alternating my head from looking at the rod tips to looking at the fish finder screen and wondering should I put on more sun screen.

And to add insult to injury, I had a problem with a fuel connection from the tank to my jet motor and came to love my little Yami kicker that putt-putted us 3 miles back to the boat launch. Boat is in shop today, and finally the 1 1/2 year old Yami gets its 10 hour checkup.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.
Trout fear me.
Salmon sneer at me.

That's one helluva signature line, Steve.

Fear not, the main event is about to begin, and you have a front-row seat

We had no trouble getting on travel lines, fish finder was showing huge schools passing under the boat at various times during the tide. The problem we had was getting them to bite! It's too bad the water temps aren't about 10 degrees cooler during this fishery.

RM

If the flesh was pale it was most likely not a true Up River Bright (URB) but a lower columbia or Bonneville pool strain of fall chinook.

Upper river brights are loaded with oil, like springers, to sustain them on their final journey.

Here's a fillet:



Nothing second-rate there.

Of course, as with all fish & game, proper handling makes all the difference. Bleeding, gutting-gilling, 'n ice-stuffed chilling, is our technique.

With all salmon, refridgarating the carcass overnight and letting it go through rigor allows the meat to firm up, you then get cleaner cuts and better fillets.

I blame Keith.

Honestly, even the URB's aren't table fare at my place. If someone 3-4 boats away lands one you can smell them. They stink and it has a lot to do with the 70 degree water in the Big C!

My favorite eating fish in the Big C is the June Chinook that show up. I'll actually bring a cooler with Ice for those fish... Parker you can bring a cooler out next time for those Up River Turds but good luck getting the smell out of it in the next few months... The water temp is usually around 58-60 degrees for those summer kings and they are as oily as any fish I've ever seen...

Keith