OFFICIAL 2023 Columbia River Spring Chinook Thread

plugs said:

We'll be out in the morning on the hook. Outgoing daylight to 2:30 down here. Breakfast served at 1st light 3 working dogs & 3 never wrapped rookies 🤪 When the tide dies out we usualy troll our way back to the ramp to burn the leftover tuna Candidate for the Superbait walk of shame back to the ramp "Electric Sombrero"

View attachment 1002879

View attachment 1002881

Click to expand...

plugs said:

Had a monster take down that snapped a 1062 in 1/2 before I even had a hand on it. Probably a oversize sturgeon. 2 rods in the boat all day on the hook dark to dark and that was the only bite we got. On anchor and our best of our working plugs wrapped in tuna. Water temps is still at 38 degrees down here. Were going to wait 2 more weeks and pray for 41 degrees anyhow. There was only 1 other boat out our ramp and he was a newbie trolling triangles and spinners all day on the outgoing tide
We marked somewhere around 15 or so fish today that my guess was salmon which was far better than last Friday.

Click to expand...

mic4fish said:

Wow Chris! Little early for the mounties to be out tooling around?

Click to expand...

plugs said:

Started out the day on the hook, no hits. Started trolling shortbus triangles and chartuse dyed cut plug herring around 11AM or so. finally around 2pm I just let a bait down and I actually got a bite just as kicked the kicker into gear. Hmmmmm let me rebait and think about this a second. Ok so I'm on my last herring, the water temps only 38, they may be a lil lethargic, let's try this dead slow slow slow. . 5 mph 10 mins later Bingo fish-on. I got it with 30 feet of the boat and the hooks came out. Now I'm out of herring and have to go home. I start to put everything back in it's place and I look up and the guy that had been following 1/2 the day has one on. He got it in the net. He got a beautiful 17 lb. buck.
Herring in the brine and back out in the morning armed better knowing GO SLOW

Click to expand...

Merganser99 said:

Actual report - March 8, 7 - 11:30 mostly in front of St Helens. 1 rod. No action. Plenty of fog until 9:30 or so. Didn't see any fish for the few boats around. Ran through a rain/snow mixture back to the launch at Ridgefield. Not so fun in a open boat! There was both a fish checker and an aquatic invasive species inspector waiting for me there.

On the plus side, the water color and level were great. The herring looked awesome. The boat ran perfectly and I had a safe and successful shakedown trip.

Click to expand...

cougfan350 said:

I got on the board today. First springer in a lot of years.

Click to expand...

plugs said:

Report from Willow Grove is there is no report!!! No bites for me. My buddy's rod just slammed down tip in the water then came right back up wiggling away. That's the only action we had for 2 rods for 7 hours. Got back to the ramp fish checker said before us 11 boats, 16 rods no fish 1 lost. Water temps still at 39.7 down here. and oh my god you should see how many sea lions and seals at the mouth of the Cowlitz. We're going to hold off till Friday and hope to see temps up at least 3 degrees by then

Click to expand...

joeer77 said:

Anyone got a water temp report today? I saw 39F yesterday on Owin's video. Going tomorrow.

Click to expand...

Silver Hilton said:

View attachment 1004846

Trying to calibrate my depth finder. Anyone got a better value for radiance in the Columbia?

Fishing off Kalama, water is maybe, maybe 18 inch visibility. Dozens of seals below the launch, balls of smelt all around the island and downriver.

Click to expand...

plugs said:

Well finally after 11 days on the water finally caught a dam spring chinook this morning. I always pre-wrap bait on my plugs the night before I go fishing and the Wife picks out one to fish. Well I haven't got all the way through the rotation to fish her plug until today. So today after changing plugs twice I felt guilty and put on the plug she picked out (Flame Thrower) and through it out. 30 mins went by and it looked like the tide was going to change to incoming an I was going to start trolling. I was getting my trolling rod all ready and I looked over my shoulder and the plug rod was just bent straight out the back and peeling line. I missed trying to get it in the net twice doing the 11 1/2 foot rod in 1 hand and net in the other. 3rd. time back to the boat fish rolled on it's side and in it went. Tuna wrapped K14 Flame Thrower, 5' leader, 28" dropper, 72' behind the boat, 17 ft. water, 2nd cup of coffee

View attachment 1005074

Click to expand...

plugs said:

Outgoing tide most the day tomorrow. Breakfast wrapped and ready 🐟
View attachment 1005514

Click to expand...