The approach of September coincides with the arrival of coho salmon in the Columbia River. That means the fishery at Buoy 10 is now shifting from chinook, which has closed below Tongue Point, to the plentiful runs of coho.
Almost a million adult coho are expected to enter the Columbia River this fall, the best return in many years. The 2009-2018 average coho run was 377,900 fish.
If the ocean salmon season was any indication, this should be an excellent fall for catching coho salmon. It was some of the best ocean fishing in a long time.
Kevin Newell of Total Fisherman Guide Service is looking forward to fishing the big run, and he reports the fish are good sized this year, too.
“We’re getting some nice coho already,” said Newell, “I can’t even imagine how big they are going to be when they come in later. It’s been six or seven years since I saw an 18 or 19-pound coho .”
While some guides will follow the chinook run up the Columbia, Newell is set on staying at Astoria to fish the coho runs.
“I plan on fishing coho until October 15 or 20,” said Newell. “There’s still coho coming in later but it becomes inconsistent. Before that it’s good fishing.”
There are two components of the coho run, the early, or A run, and the late, or B run. The early run is timed around September, and the late run comes in October and November.
Newell explains that at Buoy 10 the A run will be strong until at least Sept. 15. There might a slight dip in the fishing between the two runs, but with the strong forecast the two may just blend together.
Newell expects the peak of the B run to take place around Oct. 2-8 at Buoy 10.
“The B run is expected to be tremendous,” said Newell.
He also thinks the big forecast may actually be a little on the low side.
“They tend to under-forecast when things are good,” he added.
His go-to area will be the deep channels on the Washington side above the Astoria-Megler Bridge.
“I typically fish above the bridge in the ditches,” he said. “We have a north, south and middle ditch. You have to work the edges of those channels, and that is where the fish will be.”
Newell is big on fishing bait with hootchie skirts.
“I use a pink squid, the smallest hootchie, and I put it in front of an anchovy. That little pink squid makes a big difference.”
Unlike most guides and fishermen, Newell runs his baits without a flasher. He reports he can run the baits real close to the boat that way without risking tangles. He just runs the baits with a leader directly behind a lead line.
Strong returns projected for Washington tributaries
Many guides and anglers will be following the big coho run right up the lower Columbia and into the tributaries.
Bryce Glaser, the WDFW Region 5 Fish Program Manager, reports that projections for the Washington tributaries are pretty impressive.
“We are expecting pretty big numbers in the Lewis and Cowlitz Rivers,” said Glaser. “For the Lewis River we’re expecting about 72,000 adults, about evenly split between the early and late runs.”
Projections for the other Washington tributaries coho returns are also excellent. The Gray’s River is expecting 900 coho, the Elochoman River should see about 1,200 adults, and the Kalama River should get about 6,500. The Washougal River will get about 3,400 late run coho.
The Cowlitz River should see a return of 61,000 coho adults, including 2,900 coho headed to the Toutle River.
Most of the runs are late returning. The exceptions are the Toutle River, which is an early run, and the Lewis River, which gets both early and late runs.
These projections are based on expected ocean and Columbia River preseason forecasts for the overall coho stocks, and are approximate estimates of the returns by tributary.
Cameron Black of Gone Catchin’ Guide Service will shift to the tributaries once the fall rains set in.
“I’ll fish the Lewis and the Cowlitz in October and November, after the rains hit,” said Black.” If the rains don’t hit the Columbia should remain open and it should be pretty productive fishing.”
His tributary fishing style for coho can be described as aggressive.
“It’s a lot of twitching jigs and a lot of real active run-and-gun fishing,” he said. “When you’ve got those kinds of numbers coming through, and you have rains and the fish are moving, you can use a lot of artificials, spinners, twitching jigs, Brad’s wigglers, all of that.”
“It all depends on what the current is doing,” he continued. “If the water is up and high they are all going to be in the backwaters and back eddies. If the water is low they will be looking for cover and looking to hide. Where that water level is, is just so critical. It changes everything.”
“I want the rivers to come up and rage. That eliminates 95 percent of the river so you can concentrate on the 5 percent that all the fish are in.”
Anglers are reminded to check the WDFW website for possible changes to fisheries regulations.
Guides List
Total Fisherman Guide Service, Kevin Newell: 503.501.2424, https://www.totalfisherman.com/
Gone Catchin’ Guide Service, Cameron Black: 360.921-5079, http://columbiaguidedfishing.com/
