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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Buoy 10 salmon fishing tips

By , Columbian Outdoors Reporter
Published:
2 Photos
Dick Borneman of Vancouver holds a coho caught upstream of the Megler-Astoria Bridge in the Buoy 10 salmon season in 2009.
Dick Borneman of Vancouver holds a coho caught upstream of the Megler-Astoria Bridge in the Buoy 10 salmon season in 2009. Photo Gallery

Oregon guide Marv McQuinn says Buoy 10 anglers wait too late into August to start fishing in the Columbia River estuary.

“The last few years, the chinook have been very early,’’ McQuinn said at a Portland fishing seminar. “Usually, guys aren’t even fishing. I’m dead serious.’’

Many Buoy 10 anglers wait until the final two weeks of the month.

But the first shot of fish often enters on the Oregon side and get caught near the sawdust pile around Aug. 10, he said.

Anglers have major expectations this month for Buoy 10, the name given to the lower 16 miles of the Columbia River from the ocean upstream to Tongue Point in Oregon and Rocky Point in Washington, opens Aug. 1.

A big run of 664,900 fall chinook salmon is forecast to enter the Columbia along with a subpar return of 286,600 coho salmon.

Buoy 10 will be open for both coho and chinook with a two-fish limit, but only one chinook. Beginning Sept. 1, all chinook must be released.

“We’re going to have a fantastic chinook year down there,’’ McQuinn said. “We’re going to have a lot of chinook.’’

On big chinook years, the Buoy 10 fishery mostly features anglers starting above the Megler-Astoria Bridge and trolling downstream on outgoing tides.

McQuinn said he starts along the 25- to 30-foot depth line.

“In the morning, the fish will come up in the shallows more, but when the boats start running over them, they’ll drop into deeper water, they’re getting spooked,’’ he said.

If the water is warm, try fishing deeper, McQuinn said.

“Some times, when the water gets warm, they (chinook) go deep,’’ he said. “Don’t be afraid to get out in 50 to 75 feet of water.’’

McQuinn said, as a general guideline, fish with herring at water temperatures in the 60s, but switch to spinners at 70 degrees.

“Always on the outgo (ebb tide), the temperature goes up. Watch your gauge. When it goes to 70, put hardware on. That’s when I usually switch over.’’

McQuinn brines his herring in a gallon bag with a cup of non-iodized salt and bottled water, then adds color sunch as a half bottle of Pautzke’s Nectar.

Using frozen herring, he brines and puts them in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

“After 24 hours, pull it out and plug-cut your herring — all of them — take the guts out and heads off and put it back in the refrigerator for another 24 hours and they’ll be tough and you’re ready to fish,’’ he said.

McQuinn said the 24-hour wait before plug cutting is to allow the scales to set before touching the herring.

He puts the hook on the short side of a plug-cut.

“I like a real tight bullet spin,’’ he said. “The closer the hooks are to the lateral line the tighter the spin.’’

The guide uses plug-cut herring most of the time.

“The only time I go to a whole herring is when that tide is really ripping hard, then I’ll put a whole herring on with one of those clips, rotary clips…If you’ve got a 9-foot tide it will rip your bait.’’

Like most Buoy 10 trollers, McQuinn uses a Delta Diver and Fish Flash. Green and red are his top two diver colors. Occasionally, he’ll forego the Fish Flash.

Divers are like fishing plugs and spinners, some entice bites and others do not, he said.

“Clean the brass on your divers daily with Scotch Brite,’’ he said. “It helps when the fish hits…it slides easier, so it will trip.’’

He uses 40-pound-test leaders. When fishing with a spinner, a heavier leader is acceptable, but 50-pound-test leader doesn’t allow a herring to spin as well, he added.

At water temperatures warmer than 70 degrees, McQuinn likes spinners.

“This year we’re going to have a lot of chinook. so I would go with sizes No, 5, No. 6 and No. 7.’’

He fishes a spinner for about an hour or two, then switches if it does not produce fish.

There are a zillion spinner colors and patterns.

“When the sun is out, go to brass,’’ McQuinn said. “But day in and day out, red-and-white is your most productive.’’

McQuinn uses 5-foot leaders on his spinners.

A final piece of advice: Jellyfish are evil.

“When I’m down there every day, I’ll see jellyfish coming,’’ McQuinn said. “If the red tentacle gets on it, that diver is done. You change that string and wash that diver. Have some extra strings, and put on new strings…

“They do not like that tentacle red. If you’ve got jellyfish on it, and it doesn’t touch the red, you’re OK. But if that red gets on there, that diver’s not going to catch any fish. That’s real critical.’’

MORE TIPS

Add color — Try adding ultraviolet tape to divers and flashers to give them a different look…Also try putting UV tape on the back of a spinner blade. A white hoochie on a copper blade spinner was a coho killer last season.

At the buoy — “When you’re at Buoy 10, right at the buoy, those fish are high, on that incoming tide when they are pushing in, those fish will be higher. I’ve got chinooks at 5 pulls when they are first coming in….That fresh batch of fish coming in, they are up high, not down deep.”

Watch the wind — McQuinn will launch at Hammond early in the Buoy 10 season, then moves to the Astoria east basin later, so he’ll be going with the wind (west to east) at the end of the day.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time you’ll get a wind chop in the afternoon. Be real cautious, guys in small boats can get in a lot of trouble.”

Fishing area — “The undertow gets worse from the church hole on the Washington side down, which is why you see guides pick up there and run back up. “It’s a little bit slower up above.”

Experiment — When using a Brad’s Super Bait or Super Cut Plug, try using tuna or tuna bellies. He swaps out the siwash hook for a treble and limits his leader to 30-pound-test to get the offering to spin correctly.

Cleanliness — Wash your divers and flashers daily. McQuinn also wipes his hands with Good Day anise-scented wipes.

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Columbian Outdoors Reporter