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Gorge Salmon Fishing Keeps on Going- Klickitat River, White Salmon, Deschutes River

A bunch of Klickitat River Salmon being held up next to a Willie Boat

A bunch of Klickitat River Salmon being held up next to a Willie Boat

I’ve been hanging out in the Gorge as of late. It’s beauty is unquestionable and fishing possibilities endless. Because of this, we’ve done a whole lot of moving around this year, all the while enjoying beautiful weather and some pretty good Salmon fishing. By all accounts we’re not seeing the Nintendo like fishing of last year, but it’s still good for the folks in the charcoal grey Willie Boat 😉

We’ve been hovering eggs which is a fabulous bite, but many have been trolling and doing quite well. Much of my fishing this year has been on the Klickitat, but we’ve also had some nice days at the Deschutes and White Salmon as well. I haven’t been there yet, but I’ve even heard Drano is fishing well.

a nice bunch of Chinook Salmon from the Klickitat River

Chinook Salmon fishing has been the focus, but over the course of the next week or two we’re going to begin to see the arrival of all the Coho that folks have been raving about in the lower river. I’m very excited about the addition of these fish as we caught a load of them last year and the return of Coho wasn’t even that good. This year we’ve got 5x’s the number of returning Coho and with a good number of Chinook in the system, we could be in for a great month of fishing in October.

As the Coho begin to show up we’ll start changing our tactics a bit and begin doing more casting of spinners, wiggle warts and jigs. We’re not going to stop hovering eggs, but the ability to cast to aggressive, hard charging Coho is irresistible. We’ll still be enjoying a 3 fish Chinook limit and will also begin to enjoy some gaudy Coho limits that last year got to 6 fish in some locations.

a very nice fall chinook being held by a young man

I’ll be starting in Tillamook this year on the first of November and have a few openings left out of the sled and new Willie Drift Boat. The season has gotten off to a decent start there and we should see some of the fishing that many of you have come to enjoy with me.

Feel free to contact me for either location. I’ll do my best to get you fishing.

Thanks and tight lines,

Lance Fisher