June Hogs ,when ,where and how.

[id. painter]

I saw a post the other day about a season for the June Chinooks.Im interested in learning more .
Will someone give me more info . I have fished the wind river for springers and anchored below Bonneville for springers . Is the June fishing similar, the same , or different. Thanks for any and all help. id. p.

[shakerfish]

We always seem to catch a few when we are bank fishing the columbia for steelhead! Try spin glows and sharp hooks! Heres a tip! Use pinks or greens!....shakerfish!....

[id. painter]

Im a school teacher and my summer (fishing) break is about to begin.
I have trolled herring , anchored with kwikfish and trolled with Mag. Warts for salmon on the columbia . Ive fished the White salmon River for Steelhead ( July, Aug.)Ive fished the Klik. for springs in June.. But i know absolutly nothing about the June hogs... Can you keep hatchery fish? How long does this run last? Can you catch um down river , closer to the salt??? Tell me more . id. p.

[El-Kabong]

There are no longer any "June Hogs" the dams killed that particular run off long ago.

This link from Washington has some info about the summer chinook season though.

http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/do/may03/may2803a.htm

[GoFish]

Geez, this term "june hogs" is getting thrown around alot. MGM says it. I'll repeat it. This strain of chinook formerly referred to as "June Hogs" was driven into extinction by Grand Coulee Dam. The term was derived from the fact that you could fish the Columbia in beautiful weather and catch chinook in the 80 pound range. If any one can do that now, I'll eat bait.

These beautiful fish swam up the Columbia to spawn in Canada. Ya got any fish doing that these days?

"The truth? You can't stand the truth!"

[ 06-05-2003, 03:03 PM: Message edited by: GoFish ]

[fishstik]

I gotta laugh also, my experience with june hogs is listening to gramps tell of 40lbs being average and the one that got away that was 80lbs...

[barnettm]

The "June Hogs" may be more of a legend than anything. If the present day fish are of the same type (ie, summer run chinook), then why not give them the same name?

[lucky duck]

I don't think your getting what you need id. :shrug: I can't help you but was hoping for the same info. your looking for. I'm sure some out there has some experience from last year.

Any one who knows, please help :smile:


Chris

[FEAR NO FISH!]

Call em what you want but a buddy of mine named Bruce Eubanks, caught a 62 pounder and a 50 pounder in 3 days of fishing below Bonneville Dam last June when it was open. If those aren't June Hogs, I don't know what is! :cheers:

[fishing is life]

Id painter, i dont see why you Bonnie would not be a good place. The action might not be as hot as springers but i am sure you will do fine if you put in the time. Seems like just about anything will work, but spinners will give you a chance at both steelies and chinook. Kwikies backtrolled or on anchor in slow water would not be a bad choice either. Good luck.

[pearl]

Hey Guys,

id.painter didn't ask for a definition of June hogs and all the technical information that comes with it. He asked for some advice on how to catch salmon in June. The guy wants to go fishing !

I'm no expert but I do know that we achored last year in some of our traditional spring salmon spots below Bonniville and picked a couple of fish up after the Columbia opened back up. We used spinners and kwick fish. We also back trolled below the dam with diver and kwik fish.

One of them was caught by my 11 year old son who announced to the nieghborhood when got got home that he had landed a real hog that day, 31lbs. So for what it's worth the June hog run lives on in one young mans mind!

Tight lines / Brite fish / oink oink :cheers:

[FEAR NO FISH!]

Hi James,
Bonneville is the place to do it. He caught them on Spinners around the Beacon Rock area. I saw the 62 pound fish, but not the 50 pounder. Where you fishing this weekend WU TANG?

[CohoClint]

i do most of my summer fishing at the castcade locks and i catch a fair number of chinooks and quite a few steelhead. (last summer i was there and the indians came down and started dipping and they got a 62 pound chinook) on good days you can relly get in to the fish, it is a good place to fish because if any body knows, you half to fish off the locks ( a big cement wall) and all the fish half to go threw there, and ive seen 20 even up to 30 pound steelhead be caught there and a few 40+ pound salmon the only hard thing is to fnd he depth of the fish because u dont fish off the bottom you fish at a verticle postion any where from 7 to 20 pulls you will hopefully end up with some fish.

[Chris Nordling]

Here ya go fellas. Post # 1000. :dance:

WHEN After the June opener thru URB Season, August 1. Adipose clipped salmon or steelies may be kept. After 8/1, then you are allowed to keep the big daddies(salmon) with fins.

WHERE Anchored in 7-30 feet anywhere from Bonneville to Woodland ( Mouth of Lewis) should be a good safe bet. I'm sure there are also plenty of places to ambush between Woodland and Astoria. Pay attention to the graph for other items that make up a successful fishing spot(currents, dips in the bottom,dropoffs,sloping bottoms, etc...).

How Spinners (size 3 and 4 blades), flatfish( t4,f7,U20,K10,X4, etc...). Attach to a leader 28-40" long, same lenght for dropper(slider). For spinners, you can design your own, or try out a #4 Blue Fox in Chartreuse. Scents can change hourly, but your basic salmon scents (herring,sardine,WD40,Anise, etc...) are a great place to start.

Hope this gets you started. Enjoy the vacation !

Chris http://www.catchsomefish.net/images/ifish/coolgleamA.gif

[Jennie@ifish]

FWF1, now THAT was a good answer!

Thanks!
Jen

[lucky duck]

Thanks FWFI.

Chris

[Stratocaster]

How about k-13s, and why use the smaller kwikies? just asking.Thanks FWF1.

[Nanook]

If you were catching ID Painter, fish Summers the same way you always do. :wink: Downsize a bit in warmer, clearer water.

Rick

[Ramstrong]

Dan,

You use the smaller flat fish because there are also steelhead in the water :wink:

As far as June hogs go 62# is big, but it's only a little over half the size of a real june hog. I don't know if you've seen the old picture at a cannery in the summer? There are 80# plus fish laying all over the floor. It's very depressing to think that something as stupid as not creating fish passage completely wiped the run out.

[rob allen]

Barnettm is correct the June Hogs are extinct. They were a race of chinook that returned to the columbia above grand colee ( never could spell that right). Anyway there may be chinook around in the summer and some may be large, as is always the case with chinook, but they aren't the June hogs of old.

[barnettm]

We caught a 20 pounder last week below Bonneville from the bank using a shad dart. Fought it for 20 minutes with a very laid back attitude because we thought it was a shad on steroids. Released it without removing from water. It was mighty tired but swam off quite well.

[Leatherneck]

We fished for them the last weekend of june last year and did very well. U-20 and small spinners. 10-15ft of water. We were trying to catch steelhead but ended up with 5 chinook over 30lbs. Fished way above the oak tree hole. It all came to a end when this dirtbag on the bank thought we were in his hole. Might be the same guy that ****** talks about. We moved and didn't touch another fish.

[Sturgeon 42]

would I fish my secret fall chinook holes in June and July :grin: :grin: :grin:

[Thumper]

I'll be out there on July 16th fishing for summer chinooks using spinner prawns. The beauty of spinner prawns is that you get the advantages of both spinners and bait. Both steelhead and salmon hammer them.

Search "spinner prawns" and pay close attention to ******'s way of rigging them. ****** is my spinner prawn idol. :bowdown: His set-up is absolutely deadly, and the bait lasts a long time. When the bait starts to lose color, change it. I've caught 90% of my fish in the first 20 minutes after changing baits.

I use only 12 pound line and leader as I suspect that the steelhead may be a little line shy, but if you do that you have to be gentle. If you use light leader, then use light line too, otherwise the leader has to absorb all the shock of playing the fish and it will break easily. For that same reason I also use a very flexible rod. For hooks I use an Owner #6 terminal treble hook and a #1 or 1/0 upper hook. That seems small, but again the steelhead are there and they may be a little picky.

Two "secrets":

First, my most successful colors are a small clamshell blade in red/white with red beads or a Hildebrandt 24K gold blade and pink beads.

Second, when you get a hit, feed, feed, feed the fish until you can't stand it any more. With prawns the fish will munch on them and then apparently turn away. Don't set the hook. Just snub down when they are well turned and going away. Those Owner hooks will do the job. I'll often wait until the fish has taken 30 feet or more of free-spooled line. Obviously you need to use a slider weight to make this work well.

[ 06-06-2003, 07:57 AM: Message edited by: Thumper ]

[id. painter]

Thanks very much for the info . This helps me much.
I have a good fishing partner who is a little worried about going into the big blue ocean ,, but loves to catch Salmon. He is trying to get me to go to the Clearwater river and fish for the dark spawney looking springers. Im trying to find a salmon that looks and eats better, without the blue. I need to break him in slowly and the start taking short good weather trips out for some ocean trolling. Thanks again for the help. id. p.

[Nanook]

Leatherneck - you want to help me "fix" him this year? :laugh: Marine and Navy "swat" team? :shocked:

[ 06-06-2003, 09:21 AM: Message edited by: ****** ]

[bllelk]

ID Painter

If you get down as far as St Helens, let us know when you're coming. We'll throw a burger on the grill. Barb (slowpie) would be interested in what's going on in Pokey. :cheers:

[Leatherneck]

******, the whole incident with our bankie friend really sucked. It came close to blows but he got on his walkie talkie and called some of his drunken friends over. By then we were out numbered. If he had hit us with the lead he was throwing in our direction a few of us former marines would have stormed the hillside no matter how many of them were there. Will see you up there this year and hopefully the bank maggot bully.

[Nanook]

Let me know and we will do a take the first two boat slots next to the bank trip. :shocked:

Bank folks and boat folks always got along and helped each other up there before this inbred and family showed up. :wink:

I actually quit fishing up there because it all became not worth a limit of anything for the hassle and stress. :depressed: Combat fishing is a way thing of the past for me.

Have a great season.

Rick

[NEUTRON]

Hey Jack, like they are always yelling at Tiger from the tee box...."YOU DA MAN!" good post.

Swabbies and Jarheads on mission, workin together...naw

[Nanook]

You "chicken" Roger?? :grin:

[AnglersRental]

"Grand Coulee Dam, completed in 1941, was built without fish passage, effectively eliminating the upper third of the Columbia River as spawning habitat. Despite well-intended efforts by fishery biologists to transfer the upper river runs to tributaries of the Columbia below Grand Coulee, and to substitute hatchery rearing for natural spawning habitat, little was known at the time about the life cycles of some of the species that once spawned in the upper reaches of the river. Most notably, the completion of Grand Coulee Dam doomed the magnificent run of giant Royal chinook which for thousand of years had spawned above upper Arrow Lake in British Columbia. Known colloquially as “June Hogs”, these fish averaged over fifty pounds, and had been the mainstay of the Columbia River commercial fishery for many years. The June Hogs disappeared forever in the late 1940s."

Excerpt frpm a NMFS report -

UG

[ 06-08-2003, 11:35 AM: Message edited by: Uglygreen ]