Just back from few days out of Chinook, Sunday through Wed. Caught some fish but had done better in past years. Expectations of limts of Kings and off the water before noon did not materialize. Had to work pretty hard. Huge crowds! Mix of Kings and bonus Coho for this early. Same results for 3-4 other boats of friends. Lots of folks blanked or onsees twosees for most. Limits for the few lucky ones. Found it interesting the fish checkers were around only on Sun. Mon. and were just hanging out, not checking? Still early? IMO should have been more Kings based on the forecast. The Ocean is lights out for Coho but few Kings! Heard of some articles stating the states big Chinook forecast is BS, and it's all to get us out to spend $$. Ocean to the North seems to be holding up hence the increase to 2 King limit out of Westport, so maybe the river entry could be slowed by all the bait outside? Maybe the soft tides were not enough to flush them in? I'm not losing hope, and will be going again anyways How have others done so far compared to the past? Good Luck!

I believe that the increase in limits for Chinook was because the catch was actually slower than projected. The initial limits were set to get the fishery to Labor Day. Since fish were not being caught as fast a modeled they upped the limit.

Interesting concept. Use the best data and models available to craft a fishery. A run of X should give a catch of Y. Then, when the catch comes in slower we actually INCREASE the limit? If the models are so good, doesn't catching fewer fish mean the run is smaller? Leastways, that's how it works in net fisheries. Apparently in sport fisheries, the fewer fish you catch the bigger the run.

How warm is the Columbia River water? Water temps could be keeping them in the ocean longer, or the fish forecasters are about as good as the weather forecasters.

Temps varied on the tidal push and location. We never saw 70. 63-68 was what I remember. Years past 70+ still caught good numbers.

If any of our other fisheries this year are any indication the fish may be late.

I'll give you a report Sunday evening.

Big forecast = bigger quota for the cowboys and Indians!

Incidental by-catch from the huge "fabricated" paper forecast is increased money from the bottom feeding sport fishermen.

Smoke and mirrors guys...smoke and mirrors!

Rarely, if ever, do you see an in season catch survey that is used to adjust commercial or tribal quotas.

Once the huge projection fails, and after the nets are done, then the emergency closures start... And who do the affect? Take a guess!

The Willapa test commercial fishery last week had very positive results. I understand that many of the fish caught in that fishery are dip-in Columbia fish. Would seem to indicate they're well on their way but not quite there yet.

Of course, 1.6M will probably still prove to be BS.

"This Guy" would be pretty psyched to catch "a few" Chinook about now. Drives me crazy waiting for the fish to start showing in my local rivers this time of year.

I am headed back down in a few hours for the weekend. We fished last Saturday through Wednesday with full Chinook limits every day (5-6 anglers) and released quite a few every day as well.

Will do a full report early next week.

CM

I know a Makah tribal member who fishes part time to supplement his income. He has been very disappointed this year as the fish have not moved in from off shores. His boat is a bit small for going out to Blue dot and table top, but it seems that is where the fish still are. The guys hitting it are supposedly doing extremely well, so it is likely they are still coming.

The highliners are getting chinook (aka Canyonman), but most of the rest of the boats I saw, including most guide boats, were struggling. As did I. But then the good ship Lollipop would be a more comfortable fishing platform if she were about 4' longer and a foot-and-a-half wider and a 1,000 pounds heavier on that big water. Talk about getting thrown about like a cork! Hard to keep gear steady in position under those conditions.

Sg

where in AZ is it located?

I have know idea if the forecast is right or wrong, but yesterday the bar was flat calm and those who got out a couple of miles found a wide open coho bite with a very strong chinook bite early in the morning. We got there a bit late for the chinook bite, but found tons of coho. A friend reported 25 fish hooked in the first hour with many of those chinook. Overall, we fished three days and landed 14 chinook and more than 25 coho for four of us. The large size estimates seemed spot on. Two of our fish were right at 30 lbs and most were more than 18.

I may be wrong but I believe a bulk of the run is for fish running a touch later. The up river fish show a little later. Wait for it, wait for it

Naw, I was with Rico. But we did get a tip from a guy who likes to take his shirt off and who's boat looks like an amorous porcupine.

I am no Buoy 10 expert but I can suggest you bring a Sabiki rig and match the hatch.

Like Dave said, cross the bar and you will find more fish than you know what to do with.

Good to hear they are out there. Some of us have neither the balls or the boat to cross one of the most dangerous bars in the world. Been bit more than once, never again. No fish is worth the risk without proper equipment. I'll be patient and wait. Thanks for the reports.

Was out all week fished out of Hammond. B-10 to Tongue Point. We had 3 people in the boat . We did not limit any day. Friday we had a great bite and thought we would limit easily, we released several 10 -12 lb fish early then never ended up with our limits. Said Hi to Doc above the bridge he was working on his tan. Hope his ride back was better than ours as the river kicked up. Hope it picks up for the rest of you. There was 780 launchings at the Hammond ramp on Friday. Take care, beware of the mighty Columbia. JP

We caught fish...but not as many as we hoped, and it took longer each day than we expected.

Good times, good fish.

Fish on...

Todd

We did well every day we were there.
Friday we launched at 4:30pm and had two kings by about 6pm and we headed in.
Saturday we worked hard for our kings, limiting on them, but falling short on silvers. 35 chances at fish.
This morning we were done at 11am with 4 kings and 4 silvers.

Plenty of fish, just spotty biters.