OFFICIAL 2023 Columbia River Spring Chinook Thread

marshman said:

Time to go View attachment 1005675

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eyeFISH said:

Cliff Notes version:
Fished 2.5 days 2.5 bites… a dandy tidewater white-face in the box for Butch with Robbie on the netshot to seal the deal.

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Now the full meal deal for the real readers out there….

Four snow squalls on the o'dark early drive to Cathlamet on Friday morning. FREEZING run up to the anchor spot, only to get dumped on with alternating snow and rain. Pretty certain I had a half a plug bite that would NOT commit. Made a BIG move downriver to pick up Butch's fish literally in the eleventh hour (we fished 10.5 hours)

Day 2 was another FREEZING morning, yielding to rain, then eventually a blue hole that lasted nearly 3 hours. I was down to only a short sleeve shirt. Then the next big black squall rolled in from the west. Leanne lost one to a pesky seal that was stalking us along with his 3 brethren. When all four river-dwelling marine vermin were committed to following directly behind our troll path, it was time to ski-daddle. Moved to an off-channel spot to make one last troll before calling it quits in the tenth hour.

Day 3... another FREEZING morning with light snow shortly after daylight, eventually yielding to a bonafide BLIZZARD with silver-dollar sized flakes falling as far as the eye could see. Crew was married to the BigBuddy heater and hot-water bottles from the spitter-sink for hand warmers. Made a deal with them that I would pull the plug once snow actually started STICKING to the boat... and that pact was honored as promised. No hits no runs no errors. 🥶🎣❄ it’s a beautiful spring day … somewhere #nospringforthesespringers | gotta love that flasher. Leanne Gardiner | Travis Tritt · It's A Great Day To Be Alive

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CKthumper said:

Yes, but... Those numbers total out to 796 rods for three kept and three released. Just how good would the early birds and diehards have had to do to make fishing anything better than horrible?

And...since my post on the thread about The Fishery has revealed me to be greedy and selfish, if the checkers miss enough early/late fish to skew the catch estimate downward, that would lengthen the season and let me and my "friends" have an even bigger cut of someone else's share, right?

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Ibexfishing said:

Not necessarily
Often times the bite is very early in the morning and those boats are back before the checkers arrive, or a very late bite and the checker has already checked out. Plus, a lot of the more successful springer fisherman keep their boats mored and can go all season without a checker ……

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Little Champ said:

How does trolling a cut plug herring even have a chance when competing with a million smelt already in the river? We went out last Saturday, Frenchmans to Willow. 4 rods for zero takedowns... smelt everywhere.

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Little Champ said:

How does trolling a cut plug herring even have a chance when competing with a million smelt already in the river? We went out last Saturday, Frenchmans to Willow. 4 rods for zero takedowns... smelt everywhere.

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plugs said:

Well started out ugly, miserable weather at day break. Then in the afternoon the skies opened up into a beautiful day and at 4:41 Mr. Persistent was rewarded with this beauty of a Spring Chinook.
I was fishing solo again today so had to do the cooler pic. (sorry)
Fished for hours in a spot I was marking fish all day yesterday and at 3PM said screw it and made a huge move down river. I screwed around searching with the electronics looking for something new. Dropped anchor around 4PM and 4:30 my rod just got hammered. got the fish to the boat looked over at my phone and it was 1 and done @ 4:41
22 feet of water
28 inch dropper
5' leader
8 oz. lead
KF-14 Spotted Pickle
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Ibexfishing said:

Absolutely a beautiful fish

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plugs said:

Big too. That's a 120 qt. Igloo and there was like 3 inches at either end from touching;

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