B-10 off to slow start

The B-10 fishery stared off slow today with few fish to the anglers. We fished the Oregon side off B-22 and the Hammond are up to the sawdust pile. I never saw a net come out of a holder. Talked to lots of folks and it was a similar story. The only action I heard of was above the bridge just past high slack. One friend I know did manage to boat two chinook and one hatchery coho (he was surprised as it seems a bit early for coho in the river). The river is full of anchovies and the whales are in the river after them. We will see what tomorrow holds in store.

Thanks for the reports. I plan to be down in a couple weeks.

I'll be down that way from the 19th thru 28th. Good luck,

SZ


PS, Thanks for the report.................

NICE SZ...best tides there IMO this year. July was my play month, as I've gotta be around the office this August. Too many projects to keep track of!

I won't be able to get there until the soft tides late in the month. During the first set I'll be fishing in B.C. Even in retirement, the time from July through October comes down to making choices. Can't do everything at once.

Thanks for the heads up!

I'll be down that way from the 18th-21st. I'll be the one scratching my head, saying this isn't American Lk!!!

Bernie, Ryley, give me shout, you guys should have my #

See you out there!
Joe

Will do Joe, We will be down slightly before ya on 8-13 to 8-16. Every year I start seeing great reports mid month as the vanguard of the run hits the river ..this year I hope to be there around that time

I'll be down August 24-28 for the soft morning highs. Should be good. It sounds like Westport is overrun with kings right now.

I will be there 13-14 20-21 25-28. Can't wait for the crazyness

FYI, Cody Herman puts up a daily B10 report after fishing on his youtube channel. Good way to keep your finger on the pulse down there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsobO8cRZfE2Ss0VLb_VJzw

Trying to talk NealM and SciGuy to head down with me sometime between the 13th-17th. Any place left to camp that's near a ramp on either side? Most places I call just laugh at me...

Yeah gotta book about 6-9 months in advanced. Good luck,

SZ

If you've got a crew going with you and can split the costs, airbnb might still have some availability in the area. We stayed out by Naselle last year, staying in Ilwaco this year. Pretty nice having a house to come home to. I just booked my house a couple weeks ago, and I booked the house in Naselle last year even later. Might be worth a look.

If yesterday was slow, today was even slower. Of five boats from my marina only one landed a fish. He fished all over the river from the Washington side to Hammond. He finally got his one fish off Hammond. Even the ocean is not producing. Usually this time of year the river starts slow but picks up speed. When the river is slow we bust out to the ocean and either fish off Long Beach or hit the CR Buoy for coho. Between the ocean weather conditions and just the lack of fish it has not been much of an option this year. All of us down here are patiently waiting for the fish to come in and the wind to die down. OK

August 4th was yet another slow day. I did not fish but talked to the boats who came in at my marina. I also talked to a few friends I have that fished and they are still experiencing a rather slow star to the B-10 fishery.

The bite is starting to pick up a bit. More folks are catching fish and above the bridge seems to be good. Still waiting to see multiple boats with fish one at one time.

It's so slow here at B-10 that folks don't bother to take their nets with them anymore, they just leave them at the dock or the ramp.

Looking at the numbers and listening to the reports in the big pond...the big river will be lucky to see 400k kings. Hope I am wrong.

This is the last week for the B-10 fishery and we are still looking for that hot bit were the boats all around you have their net in hand and ready to land a fish. So far that day has yet to come. With less than 400,000 chinook over the dam for the entire year, it does not appear that the estimated close to a million fish will show this year for the fall run. The only good news is from here until the closure, you can keep any chinook marked or not.

So you are saying that the estimated numbers were wrong?!

I always found it odd that WDFW reacts to a likelihood that a sport quota won't be reached by lifting restrictions. Might the reason we haven't caught all our fish be that some of the fish expected aren't coming? Nah. We just need to let the wild ones know its okay to start biting now.

Estimates are never wrong just off. LOL

Well I guest this is not the last week for the B-10 fishery. Seem so few fish were caught compared to what they modeled (guessed or expected) that the season will remain open until September 14th. The pressure down here has dropped off quite a bit, not as many boats out here mid week. The coho are now showing in better numbers, and we are picking a few of those up.

I didn't look myself, but heard that Chinook passage through Bonneville is 3rd highest on record for calendar date. If true, there are a lot of fish. At times we couldn't mark any, but marked plenty at other times, but couldn't get them to bite. Made me wonder if water conditions or something was causing lockjaw. Every time I thought it was "just me," I talked with guides and experienced anglers who were also having a tough time getting bites.

And just to rub salt in the wound, we lost our biggest king to a sea lion. It was a tough trip.

Headed back down for three days starting tomorrow. I've heard mostly good reports from those down there. This trip I'm bringing my GF's two boys down who warmwater fish but haven't done B10 before, or much salmon for that matter. Good luck out there.

See ya out there

Where ya staying Derrick?

Last year labor day weekend we crushed the URB's...........most were #22-30....problem was we couldn't harvest any of them.....just dinky #4-5 ho's. This year looks to be good.........was down there from the 19th thru the 28th............started out slooooow but picked up to be good fishin last half of the trip...........Thanks god for a few daze in the ocean.....The ho's were nice with most being around #12. Largest king went #35. Good luck,

SZ

B10 seemed to be back on par last weekend. Periods of intense bites in various/specific parts of the river depending on which tide. Looks like most of the tules have passed and some nice URB's are getting harvested along with some good sized coho.

Every year the fish and "hot bite" areas seem to move. Find and fish those areas rather than the "we did great here last season" mentality.

I can only image it will be pretty good again this weekend.

I think a lot of us got spoiled on big numbers of earlier arriving fish in the past few years. I get the feel that the fishery is moving back to a more normal state.

nasselle launch at deep river

I've always wondered about the "lockjaw" thing.

For the believers in natural selection, what survives to spawn? Fish that aren't caught. While a net is reasonably random, a hook isn't. The fish has to "choose" to bite. In most systems where we rely on hatchery fish, what we spawn is a teeny fraction of the whole run. Is it possible that decades of high harvest rates, where essentially only those that don't bite and/or are too small for the net have created fish that are harder to catch?

There exists a very exclusive & secret 24/7 "afterhours" tackle shop and Sky-Guy just happens to know where it is. Plus Bantam and about 10 other ________. No cash. Payment is always in fresh fish & game, so he and the warm-water boys better do well @ B10 this weekend or into the hole he goes...

Glad fishin' is semi-pickin' up down there. Local rivers closed; no B10 or tuna this year for me...I'm in huntin' mode now...

I'll switch to huntin mode after my tuna trip tomorrow...................Lol. good luck,

SZ

After my 5 day spree in the estuary/ocean, I'm officially in the 10% club!

My 2016 Buoy 10 season is officially 10% of what it was in 2014.

While it was (almost) a joke, I had an update for the South Sound coho based on sport catch by our boss. Each coho he caught in the Straits was worth 250,000 coho in the run. Kinda ballparky, but it was close.

For the spreadsheet inclined you might track you catch versus some of the runs .

Fished Friday-saturday-sunday and did pretty good. 4 nice coho and several released fish Friday, Pointed into the incoming on@Bouy 10 Saturday afternoon and it was pretty slow for most boats. I hooked and *almost** landed a really nice chinook in the deep water behind the bouy, then ran upriver to above the bridge Washington side @ high tide for a really nice URB and a big coho. Sunday We scratched while Derrick and crew killed em all around us on his driveway bait...we ended up with a mid teener chinook and a nice coho to round out the trip.
Weather was about the best I've ever seen it down there. Got the boys into some great fish, fun times camping, hiking, and running around on the beach @ long beach.

Yup last week's herring were incredible, this weekend. Best 3 days in a row of weather I've seen there., no crowds excellent fishing for us. Good to see ya out there rylee wish they would have bit for you guys as well too. Limited early enough today to beat traffic and clean a summers worth of gunk off the boat and vacuum seal a cooler full of fish. Now it's time to chase fur balls