Kilches River

Fishing freak · 10-30-2001, 02:38 PM

Anybody know if there have been any chinooks spotted in the kilches. I know this is not a great chinook stream but i thought that it might be fun giving it a whirl and possibly having some fun with chums. Have the chums arrived in this stream yet? Also, does the kilches have a run of sea-run cutt-throats ( I know they are catch and re-lease only)Is the river driftable yet? Thanks in advance!!!!!

Chris Nordling · 10-30-2001, 02:52 PM

Fishing Freak,

There was a small school of chum near the logger bridge on Sunday. They are catch and release only thru November 15. The water was very,very cold and extremely clear. Hopefully these next few storms will move more nooks into the Kilchis.
There are cutt-throat( c& R), steelhead and chinook that all make it up this little river in the next few months. I think the cutties are there for most of the year.

Happy fishing,

Chris [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

~ Team U.S.A. ~

10-30-2001, 02:53 PM

Please don't target the off limits chums in the Kilchis river because they are trying to make a comeback from almost extinction. It's illegal to do that now. The Kilchis is a good chinook river with the same timing as the Wilson river and it has lots of searun cutthroats. Frog

Chris Nordling · 10-30-2001, 03:18 PM

Frogwater,

I had no idea that targeting chums was illegal. This years regs clearly state a catch and release only from Sept 16.- Nov. 15. They must have changed after I got my copy. I personally am fishing for chinooks, but when a chum nabs my eggs or drift rig, I still mumble fish on, and quickly release my catch. I'm more worried about someone specifically targeting the small number of cutties. Just my .025

Chris [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

~ Team U.S.A ~

Fishing freak · 10-31-2001, 06:40 AM

My understanding is that it is legal to catch and release chums up until the 15th. After that it is illegal to target them.I have not targeted chums for years. Are they making any progress in rebounding the numbers. I know that they have been protected for a number of years. Thought my son might like to fish for cutties this weekend ( he fishes with barbless lures)while going after some chinooks.

V. Green · 10-31-2001, 07:03 AM

I somehow doubt that decreased fishing pressure on chum salmon will really help too much. Until the gravel mining is reduced or stopped on the Kilches the run will be unlikely to improve.

V. Green

garyk · 10-31-2001, 01:21 PM

Since we're talking about my chum buddies, Jim Lichatowich, in his St.Helens presentation, hypothesized that the collapse of the lower Columbia chums was linked to the similarly timed collapse of sardine stocks.

And that with sardines making a come-back, we might see an increase in the chums too.

Lets hope he's right. The prior post about the gravel mining is right on the mark as well.

4Salt · 10-31-2001, 02:41 PM

If I'm not mistaken, chums are plankton feeders. it would seem strange that there would be a direct link between the sardine population crash, and the decline in the chum populations. Up here in WA chum runs are cyclical, much like sockeyes. If you look at data covering the last 40 years, you can see a definite pattern of increase and decline. What these are in relation to is still unknown. I guess in can be chalked up to that mystical force known as "Ocean conditions".

garyk · 10-31-2001, 02:47 PM

I thought they were plankton eaters too, and am only posting what I understood Lichatowich to say. It may be that at certain times of their life they may eat one or the other, sardines or plankton?

Maybe someone can/will clarify this point?

HOGTIDE · 10-31-2001, 04:05 PM

I think the confusion here is that, in the past, chums, as juveniles were less suceptable to predation due to the large schools of sardines off of the Oregon and California coast. Chum smolts migrated 'with' the sardine schools and did not stick out like such a sore thumb to ocean predators. Sardine stocks have been way down for the past couple decades, making young chums baitfish !

Jim L. also discussed the importance of oil-rich sardines to salmon return and survival, which made this 'Sardine Topic' kinda confusing.........I think ?

Crabby 2 · 11-01-2001, 07:14 AM

I'm not sure if chum salmon are plankton feeders or not, but last year on Holloween Day I caught and released a large chum in the Ghost Hole on a blue sized herring. Yesterday, I caught and released a large chum salmon at the Coastguard Tower. It too gobbled a blue labled cut plugged herring. Are they really plankton feeders as adults? Those fish sure liked my freezer burnt offerings! BTW, we did land a nice 18 pound chinook too. They're still coming in.

Dale

Fishhead · 11-02-2001, 01:41 AM

I was down there on Halloween and didnt see any chums at the Logger bridge. Water was tinted brown..............Fishhead Vic :grin:

garyk · 11-02-2001, 09:51 AM

Hogtide, your explanation may have nailed it.

That sardines served as both a decoy for predators and important food source for adult chinook and coho (still not sure about chum).

I was particularly intrigued that night by the interest in restoring chum to local Scappoose creeks -- neat idea!

willierower · 11-02-2001, 01:54 PM

I recently got some var reliable info that quite a few rivers on the Oregon coast have remenant runs of chum. And that they are making a slow steady comeback in some of theses rivers. What really surprised me is that a river on the south coast I fish quite often has a small healthy run of chum. This stock is making a slow steady comeback. Hopefully in my lifetime we will be able to enjoy theses fish.

garyk · 11-02-2001, 02:08 PM

I'm glad to hear they're making a comeback somewhere's in Oregon.

My experience is with the Tillamook system dating back to about '86 for chum fishing.

1988 was good, as was '89 and maybe 1990, shortly thereafter the Kilchis and Miami populations took a nosedive.

Of course, what I'm calling a 'good run' is still only a fraction of what the runs were like in the 1940's when I understand the commercial catch of Kilchis chum was about 50,000 fish.

big black mouth · 11-02-2001, 08:27 PM

I was walking down the necanicum river to one of my favorite nook holes when I noticed some spawning fish in a side channel, to be honest I was not sure what they were I kept my distance and continued on. later down at the hole an old man asked me if I had seen those chums, he said he has not seen chum in this river for 30 yrs. I will never forget the sight, to see the back fin out of the water with no flesh on it just bones, they were in bad shape, and a big buck attacking any hen that tried to leave the side channel for the main river. These fish had sort of a lepard pattern on there backs and I know now they were chum

HOGTIDE · 11-02-2001, 08:58 PM

Well, hopefully Jim's theory on the return of the chum is correct. Today the Necanicum River; tomorrow Scappoose Bay and Tide Creek !!! :smile:

[ 11-02-2001: Message edited by: HOGTIDE ]</p>