How far up the Willamette do coho go?

 

Last year we had a few of them cross Leaburg Dam on the McKenzie.

 

That is so cool.

 

Spent a few hours above the falls yesterday. Screen was very quiet and the effort was low.

 

No fish. Last year by this date we had a couple days with over 2000 coho over dam. This year not even 200 per day.

 

My friend and I went out on Saturday evening and hardly marked anything. It was a wonderful boat ride, though.

 

What was the water temp? I really feel the push cones with flow and temps.

Also a little early, but worth the effort. 9/29 is my earliest fish above the falls, 11/4 my latest. In other words, it's just getting going!

 

Been out a few times, marked several but no biters. Hoping the rain yesterday starts them pushing up.

 

Non-native fish allowed to breed in the upper Willey! OMG, what's the odfw coming to? Let's just hope they don't let summer steelhead over North Fork Res!

 

I Was above the the falls yesterday morning and marked a few early, but after that the screen got pretty quiet. Nothing to show for my time, And I didn't see anybody else any do any good either.

 

Blue boat guy here; at least I was there in my blue boat Monday. Surface temp water was reading 66.5F on my electronics. Slow fishing, bite still needs to improvement.

Interesting, it looks like I'm “Registered Canadian” on IFish now. Don't know how that happened, eh. Thank you whoever changed me back to American. 🇺🇸

 

Slow fishing, bite still needs to improvement.

I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but we will have slow fishing until some coho actually get over the falls. Otherwise all there is to catch is smallmouth and pikeminnow. Last year may have been a real fluke with the big numbers. Hopefully not but we had a lot of fish above the falls by this date last year.

 

WFD fish ladder counts haven't been updated since Friday. Counts were just starting to reach 10-year average numbers then. Hopefully the past two-year numbers still come.

 

Last two years spoiled us, dead up there still

 

Went out for a few hours yesterday. water temp was 65ish (wasn't paying much attention). Pulling 360's with mexican hat spinners netted us three bass.

 

Spent the morning from before sunup to about 11 trolling the boat launch to the falls. Saw a couple caught, no bites for me. I was surprised how many people were fishing there. It used to be so few and now it seems it has become quite popular. Too bad the run seems a lot smaller this year.

 

Still no fish.
It is strange that the above the falls fishery is so crowded now. I saw 2 guides last year way up river. I've seen 24 foot hardtop boats trolling up above the falls too. Looks funny but I guess if I had that boat I would fish it too.

 

Went out of West Linn from 10-5 today with my buddies. We gave up salmon fishing and switched to bass after trying a few different spots between the launch and the Molalla River.

Last year on this date, there were over 22k Coho over the falls + we had already been a week or more into 1,500-2,000+ fish over the falls per day. I hope to see another year like that, but I don't think this will be it. I think it will come in just above the ten year ( I hope im wrong!) and far below last year ( Also hope im wrong!!). Still better than a great day working.

 

What is it? The big turn out the last two years means their offspring will be coming back four years from then?
23/24 run's hatch will be back 2027/28?

 

Coho usually take three years from spawn to return. We have one more year left to see the the results of two years ago, and two more years to see the results of last year- It's all up to the ocean at this point. Let's hope for good conditions, wherever these things go.

 

Fished 7-11 above and below the molalla river mouth. We saw no fish caught, 1 jump and there were a lot of boats. We tried super baits, spinfish, wigglers and spinners with no luck. I’m headed to the mouth of the Klickitat come once the Columbia reopens.

 

Plenty of fish rolling between falls and mouth of Willamette. Next week counts should jump.

 

We got two on Saturday and another two plus jack yesterday. Didn't see many others caught.

One from yesterday had some sores on it. Meat looked fine but I cut out the mingy bits. All the others from this year have been prime quality.

 

Above, or below the falls?

 

We may have already had several days of counts over 1k, or even 2k. There no way to know that I’m aware of until the counts are posted..

 

Ifish’ed above the falls trolling Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. Friday was like what I heard a TV host recently describe as a fish desert. Very few fish marked and I witnessed no action. Saturday a completely different story. A good bite was on between 8am and 9am, I saw at least 8 fish netted and lots of fish marking. Sunday I netted one early, about 7am and witnessed two other first light fish on. Didn’t see any other action after 7:30 Sunday and didn’t mark many either.
It’s hit and miss up there, Saturday seemed the best day for the growing fishing fleet from what I observed.

 

I’m new to fishing above the falls – any recommendation on how far back on the line counter to troll with pro trolls and spinners?

 

Because the depth changes a good bit up there and coho biters are inclined to come up (or down for that matter) to inspect your offering, I find that about 20 or so pulls or fishing 14ft down strikes a good balance. I have a livescope and see plenty of people fishing 8-10 feet deep, and that works fine too and helps avoid snags.

The key isn't getting coho in the upper Willy to come look, it's getting them to bite. I regularly see swarms of 5-10 coho at a time mob my offering, which produces the best likelihood of a bite (are they competing?), but even that's only 50/50 and depends on offering what they're biting. On any given day, what they're biting seems to be different.

 

@watertight just need to be below the surface. It isn’t that deep in most places. with 4-6oz of weight 25’ or so should do the trick. Speed and current play a factor on weight and amount of line.

 

I caught one today 10 oz weight and 25 ft on line counter. Silver 360 with prawn spinner.
We fished about 4 hours and saw 2 other fish caught. It looked like both of the biters were caught with 3.5 spinners.

 

Guys the Columbia opens tomorrow. The above the falls fishery is just not really that exciting unless there is a big run. The fish are pretty old (in terms f table fare) when you can catch bright ones in the Columbia

 

Yes, dont fish above the falls. those fish are garbage anyways.

 

found one today. Throwing a #4 blue fox. What I learned today was, if it feels like your bass fishing (throwing into cover) you’re probably doing it right. Tried pulling maglips for a bit but no dice.

 

I was fortunate to net one today also. I didn’t see much action after first light . Observed three fish netted between 9:00 and 9:45 before netting a big bruiser buck myself just before 10:00. Didn’t observe any action after 10:00. Fresh coho for dinner :Yum.