Columbia River Salmon Fishing- Best Run in 75 Years
The “Good Old Days” for Columbia River Salmon Fishing is Now.
As many of you know, predictions don’t always turn out the way folks that make them plan. Fortunately for fisherman however, this year’s underestimation of the run means a boon for NW fisherman.
Yesterday, the states of Oregon and Washington again upgraded the Columbia River Fall Chinook run. Upriver Bright or URB’s as we call them on the boat, are making up a large portion of the abundance of Salmon with somewhere between 664k and 835k URB’s now expected. The previous high for URB’s was 420,000 fish and that mark was set in 1987.
With the huge numbers of Salmon in the Columbia River, Bonneville Dam has seen massive numbers of fish go through it’s ladders. According to the Washington Department of Fisheries, “On Sept. 7, more than 48,700 chinook from a variety of upriver stocks crowded up the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam, setting a new daily record. That record was broken two days later when 63,870 upriver chinook moved past the dam, followed by 56,044 the next day.”
So what does all this mean for us? Well for me, it’s a great time to be a fishing guide and for my customers, it’s a great time to enjoy some of the world class fishing we have in our own backyard.
So after a brief stint in the lower river off the mouth of the Cowlitz, I’m headed back up to the mouth of the Klickitat River which is right in the cross hairs of these upriver migratings fish. I currently have a few days open during what last year was the peak of our fishing. The fishery is located just 10 minutes east of Hood River and provides some of the most beautiful scenary in the world. In that we’re fishing the mouth of the Columbia River, either Washington or Oregon licenses work.
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