Fall Chinook

[Claybear]

My wife and I love to fish around the mouth of the Lewis river. We do very well on the Spring Chinook and summer steelhead. We Just can't seem to figure out the fall Chinook. We anchor 20 to 40 ft of water, use the right color alvins. We've cought 1 37 pounder. I know how to anchor but those hog lines and then everybody anchoring at all points in between are a little much. I would love to see my wife get a big URB. Any suggestions?

[5-Cents]

I too was intimidated by the hoglines but I finally just decided to put into one and it was fine. People are generally real nice. If you get out early enough you can get in a line with only a couple of boats. This will allow you a lot of room to get into place. The space in between will fill in with more boats as the tide wears on. Once you are in line it is easy to drop off when fighting a fish or to pull anchor when you are ready to leave. :grin: :grin:

20 feet of water seems pretty shallow. I have most of my success 48'-52' feet deep with a 4'-5' dropper and a 6'-7' leader. Using these methods I have taken two "salmon rookies" out this week and they both got fish!

Good luck I hope your wife catches a fish! :cheers:

[steelheadslayer]

If the hoglines are too intimidating, try fishing somewhere else. Right now, thousands of salmon are in the river. We've been bypassing the huge crowds and have found a spot that has at the most four or five boats fishing it on any given day. Yesterday we were fishing 40' of water and hooked five, landed four and had four more takedowns. Other boats all caught fish. You might try to fish in the area of all the hoglines but maybe downriver a mile or two and you should be able to find a spot. Good Luck. All of our luck has been with five foot droppers and five foot leaders with a properly tuned alvin. You might try a little garlic smelly jelly, this last week has convinced me this is a magic scent on these fall fish. :cheers:

[Fshklr]

Clayton,
I also fished the same spot and even though there are dedicated hog lines there, it blows my mind how many people just pull into a spot and randomly fill the drift areas between the lines with no pattern at all :mad: . Go further down in to the picket fence area and regular hogline formations are respected there. 51 53ft has been our ticket. :cheers:

[5-Cents]

Since somebody else brought it up I have to concur, garlic has been our go to scent as well. The other day we had two fish in the boat with garlic and the two boats fishing next to us in our line had nothing. :grin: :grin: Tuning your lures the right way has a huge effect too.

Another good point mentioned. If you are going to anchor by your lonesome dont do it between hoglines. Not only can it result in lost fish but can be dangerous as well.

Good luck!

[fishboy5]

The owner of my local tackle shop (The Tackle Box) was out at the mouth of the Lewis the other day. She got two fish, and the people that went with her caught some, too. She said that they were using spinners. I have heard about using spinners at river mouths, so maybe this will help.

[Small Fry]

Do like I do get there early and let the hog line form around you. It takes some of the edge off. Now I can anchor up with good results.

[coyote one]

I hate to admit it but I use my depth finder as my gospel. If you don't see any fish then generally there isn't. I believe that location is the most important thing and we all have seen a boat catch fish after fish and use the exact same lure and color have all the action! I believe that boat has the right slot!!!!! My 2 cents.