Lance Fisher
Buoy 10 Fishing Forecast
This is the time of year when Buoy 10 Salmon and ocean abundance numbers for Astoria begin to get tossed around in the Buoy 10 forecast. While numbers aren’t official, I’m hearing some really good things for this year’s possibilities. Like, REALLY good things. Chinook Salmon I’ll start with Chinook. We’re looking at a Preliminary […]
Columbia River Spring Chinook Salmon Season Set
2023 Columbia River Spring Chinook Salmon Season Set The 2023 Columbia River Spring Chinook Salmon season has officially been set. From March 1st – April 7th, the Columbia River will be open for Spring Chinook fishing from the Buoy 10 line in Astoria upstream to Beacon Rock. With the Cowlitz and Lewis River returns slightly […]
Tillamook County Ocean Salmon: You Catch It, You Keep It!
As we wrap up yet another fun and exciting Buoy 10 season, we have started to disperse here at Lance Fisher Fishing. Some guides went up stream, other will go even further, others have stayed in Astoria to coho salmon fish, while others are already starting to catch fish in Nehalem and Tillamook Bay. This […]
Astoria Sturgeon Fishing- Tarpon of the Northwest
*July 2022 Update* Now through the first week of August may see some of the most action-packed days of sturgeon fishing of the year. We have 3 more weeks of Trophy Sturgeon fishing on the Columbia River in Astoria before we switch over completely to fall salmon fishing at Buoy 10. Over the weekend we […]
2020 Columbia River Buoy 10 Season Announced *Update*
2020 Buoy 10 Salmon Season The 2020 Buoy 10 Salmon season has been set! The full text of the joint decision by ODFW and WDFW is online, but here’s the season in a nutshell… Fishing on the Columbia River in Astoria opens up on August 14th this year. We can fish for both Chinook Salmon […]
Big Creek and Gnat Creek – Steelhead fishing that was
Big Creek and Gnat Creek, which are small tributaries on the Columbia River, used to be great locations for high water steelhead. And while not a place where a fishing guide is going to take customers, they were part of the fishing community and a place that people could go during high water or for […]
North Coast Drift Boat Season Kickoff
After a year in the sled, I love shifting gears and getting into the drift boat. It’s quiet, beautiful, and often times for me, some of the best fishing of the year. Like many of you, I’ve been watching this first real rain system of the year with great interest. We really never know how […]
2019 Columbia River Spring Chinook Forecast
These are preliminary numbers for the 2019 Columbia River Spring Chinook forecast, plus numbers for Summer Chinook and Sockeye. It looks like what most expected as we get through the years our smolt endured the blob out in the pacific. Look for one more year like this and then we should see an uptick. In […]
Winter Steelhead Fishing: Holiday Options
With Thanksgiving behind us and December upon us, I believe it is safe to talk about the upcoming steelhead season. I have already seen a few confirmed pictures of steelhead that have been caught, and that makes me optimistic for what’s to come considering we’re hardly in the thick of it at this point. Here […]
November Salmon Closures- A Closer Look
Anyone who has done a lot of fishing here in the PNW knows that 2018 was not the best fishing. Of course there were some good days of fishing, but catch rates overall were not up to par. I know there’s more to fishing than the catching, but let’s not kid ourselves. I’m not into […]