Fishing Washington

From Smoking Hot to Slow

Clay Walker — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:45:14 +0000

It has been some darn slow fishing for Spring Chinook in the tributary rivers. The water is running cold and the few fish that are in the rivers have been reluctant to bite most days. Instead of the normal hot fishing we experience this time of year it is slow but steady fishing. Most days we are pulling 2 or 3 fish by hovering eggs in the deep holes and back trolling Kwikfish and diver / bait rigs in the mid depth holes on the Lewis and Cowlitz. I have been working the Kalama by back bouncing eggs and Kwikfish. The river is up which makes for fast currents and difficult times for pulling plugs which is often a hot ticket on the Kalama.

On the upside, I have been running some Carp fishing trips, Bowfishing right now, with fly fishing trips soon to follow. It is early in the season for carp. With the cold water the best days have been windless days with sunshine to warm the water. The fish are there and easy enough to find. Stay tuned for tips and tricks, and the latest scoop on when the fishing gets hots. Bowfishing is a ton of fun and the guys on the boat have been having a blast hammering the fish.

Shad season is not far off and I am already booked heavily on the trips for the mid weight battlers. I fly fish these migratory Shad and even in high water conditions the fishing can be flat out spectacular. 20 fish is a slow day and 100 fish days happen every year. This is a fishery that every fly fisherman and woman should try at least once in a life time.

Keep you lines wet and your hooks sharp.

Clay Walker

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Best Springer Season in a Decade

Clay Walker — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:21:51 +0000

Well gang, we just wrapped up the best Columbia River Spring Chinook season in a decade. With the weak hatchey run to the Willamette River the gill netters weren’t allowed to fish the lower river. This meant that the Spring Chinook made it up the river and were available for the sports anglers to catch. Bad fishing days were few and far between. Lots of full limit days have occured for sport anglers and guides. Trolling with Herring and Flashers was a key producer, with K-13 Kwikfish with or without a Sardine wrap working for the anchor crowd. The I-5 to Camas area was the hottest stretch with literally hundreds of boats trolling the I-205 to I-5 bridge. The anglers that know what they are doing were hammering the fish. Event the non-experts were pulling some fish. Now that the Columbia is closed it is time to focus on the tributaries and moving to the back bouncing, back trolling, and hovering techniques. Stay tuned for tips, tricks, and other techniques that will help you catch the most prized salmon of the year.

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Springers Filtering into the Columbia. Season set for the Year

Clay Walker — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 05:54:46 +0000

Get out the Kwikfish and Herring rigs gang. The first springers have been caught in the lower Columbia and more are moving up every day. This years run prediction if for 263,300 Spring Chinook to cross Bonneville Dam. Both the Columbia and Willametter Rivers will be open. The Columbia below the Willametter will be open from March 24th thru April 4th. It is a seven day a week fishery with a limit of 1 fish a day per person. Above the Willamette the open dates are March 16th to April 30. Tuesdays are closed to fishing and the limit is 1 fish per person. The Willametter River hatchery Springer runs is expected to be low and you can expect to have lower than normal retention rates than most years around the mouth of the Willamette. This is also a good sign that you should focus your efforts in areas where the upriver fish tend to run. The Willamette fish run up the Oregon side of the Columbia as they approach the St Helens area. I will be focusing a lot of my efforts on the Washington side of the river around the Lewis and Kalama River mouths. This will allow me to pick up the up river fish while picking up the fish that hang in and around the river mouths as they prepare to migrate up the tributaries.

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Smelt a No Show on the Cowlitz so Far

Clay Walker — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 05:34:48 +0000

Smelt fishing remains slow on the Cowlitz River. Sturgeon fishing is slow in the Cowlitz and will stay that way until the smelt show. The Cowlitz and Columbia have both reached the magic 43 degree mark where the pilot run of smelt should be coming upriver in waves. And the sturgeon shhould be right behind them. The Sandy was hot this weekend with a mix of hatchery and native fish hitting in the upper river sections. Southwest Washington Rivers have dropped into shape and the Wild Fish are on the bite. A buddy of mine fish Saturday morning on a small local river and he hit three nice fish including a 15 lb native that ripped our most of his line before coming to hand. Steelheading is heating back up for late hatchery fish in the Blue Creek are of the Cowlitz. With the weather finally clearing up and rivers dropping back into shape, coastal rivers are all starting to produce well. It is time to get out on the water and catch the largest steelhead of the year.

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Cowlitz steelheading ready to warm up. Smelt soon to follow.

Clay Walker — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:17:29 +0000

The Steelheading this winter has been a tough one at times. The drift boat has been sitting mainly unused with all the high water. I have managed to pull a few good trips on the Kalama in between the bouts of rain and blown out rivers. The late hatchery steelhead are getting ready to start hammering lures and bait on the Cowlitz. Side drifting has been producing some dark steelhead with a few fresh fish being caught. The hatchery fish in the Cowlitz have been set up by the state so that they come in over an extended period of time. The is a health shot of fish that is supposed to be headed in this month. Expectations are high for a good February with mixed catches of hatchery brats and native steelhead.

Once the Cowlitz hits 40 degrees or higher the smelt should show up in the Columbia and Cowlitz rivers. Early netting has had a few smelt caught but not in high enough numbers to be able to start dipping. I will be keeping a eye on the river and will post when the smelt dipping gets hot.

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Winter Steelheading Runs Hot and Cold in South West Washington

Clay Walker — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:00:50 +0000

Winter Steelheading has run both hot and cold in Southwest Washington and northern Oregon. Steelheading in the Sandy and Clackamas Rivers have really heated up with the native broodstock hatchery brats moving in and on the bite in between heavy winter storms that have blow the rivers our making the unfishable.

The washington steelheading scene has been steady fishing with lots of blown out river days. Even on the worst days we have been able to pull steelhead to the boat but it has not been a spectacular winter season so far. The hatchery steelhead are slowly tapering off and many of them have already spawned. The Native runs have been starting to build to catchable numbers in the Cowlitz, Lewis, and Kalama River systems. As we move in to February and March the natives will be in the rivers in full force. These months are a great time to focus your efforts on the coastal streams like the Satsop, Wynoochie, Chehalis and others for monster Steelhead of 20 lbs and higher.

In the Cowlitz sidedrifting rules and this has been the go to method for the guides and local anglers. The Hatchery brats have been being caught in front of the Blue Creek Hatchery Ramp. On a slow day you will be fishing with 20 other boats in a 100 yard section of the water, on a busy weekend that may be 100 boats. Pure insanity! I take my clients and we work the river from Blue Creek on down to Mission Bar. Instead of working over the schooled up fish with the crowd, many of which are now dark or spawned out. I spend my time searching for groups of fresh bright fish moving up the river. These fish are agressive and ready to bite. Being fresh they eat great and fight like a hooked banshee.

The go to method for the side drifting crowd is on or two size 4 hooks with a corky or cheater and a small cluster of eggs. Steelhead are not big on the suflite cures that catch Chinook. I prefer to focus my egg cures for steelhead around borax, salt, and sugar cures that are mild and have no extra chemicals in them. A personal favorite is a jello and salt cure that is simple and easy. I store the eggs in Borax to toughen the egg skein and skins to make for a long lasting cluster.

I often step out of the side drifting game and pull plugs and divers with bait for these hot winter fish. I like to back down slowly working the water hard and giving the fish a lot of time to see the bait in the colder water. Sand Shrimp behind a spin-n-glo or a cheater is a go to bait, eggs are a great second. On those days when nothing seems to work I pull out the plastic worms and either side drift or back troll them. These little plastic lures are Steelhead killers! I like to use berkely power worms since the extra scent can really increase the bites, and the hook up to bite ratio.

Keep your lines tight and your bait fresh.
Clay Walker

For the bank fishermen and drift boaters, hit the Kalama between the rain storms. When this river is falling or in shape it is a constant producer for

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Steelheading on the Cowlitz Slow due to Muddy Water

Clay Walker — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:46:18 +0000

Well the fishing fanatics were out on the Cowlitz despite brown muddy water. There were at least 30 boats in side drifting in front of the Blue Creek ramp. Some steelhead were caught but it was few and far between. I did not see any chrome fish on the bank or coming out of the boats. All the fish had color and appeared to be early November fish. The Kalama was green and threw out a few fish for the anglers that were on the water. I moved up above the side drifting horde and threw plugs out the back of the boat. I ran dark plugs in the slow water and we managed to pull a few half hearted hits but did not hook up solid on the fish. It was one of those all around tough fishing days on the Cowlitz.

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Grays River Steelheading is On!

Clay Walker — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:37:49 +0000

Steelhead fishing on the upper Grays River has started as of the 15th of December. There were lots of anglers on the water with most of the holes being taken at first light. Fishing was productive but not hot on the 15th. I saw about a dozen fish hooked up and caught by 12:00 when the hail and heavy rains started in. This was a scouting fishing trip and I decided to load up the girlfriend and head back into town for some Christmas Shopping instead of having her out there freezing to death. I did manage to put the hooks into a nice 8 lb fish throwing a green hot shot in a nice long run. Most anglers were casting float and jigs. The water was dark with a good shot of silt and a green / brown color. I figured throwing a reaction lure would work and it did. The fish was in front of a rock and hit about 10 feet from the rod tip as the plug swam past the rock.

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Coho Fishing is hot / Steelheading is picking up

Clay Walker — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:25:27 +0000

Winter Silver fishing is in full swing. Days catches are varying from 2 to 10 fish a day. The trick is catching the rivers between the heavy rain storms and river level swings. The fish are coming into the rivers chrome bright and willing to strike. Winter fishing is a hardware game. Eggs and other bait will work but plugs rule supreme for drawing strikes. We throw plugs in the deeper holes, backtroll them in moderate and fast current areas, and troll them in slow water holes. Fatfish, Wiggle Warts, and Brad Wigglers all work. I prefer dark metallic plugs in clear water and fluorescent orange and Pink in tannin colored or murky water. Winter Steelhead are starting to show up all of our rivers and fishing will be hot in another week with steady catches of fish happening all the way into March and April.

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Sturgeon Fishing Slows as Winter Sets In.

Clay Walker — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:34:23 +0000

Sturgeon fishing is slowing down as winter temperatures hit the Northwest. The sturgeon are still in the rColumbia River, but the colder water is slowing their metabolism and willingness to hit your bait. The bites we are getting are very light and you have to watch your rod closely and set the hook on the first solid take down. Most fishing effort will be switching over to the Willamette River for the rest of the winter. The Willamette runs a few degrees warmer than the Columbia during the winter months and the Sturgeon tend to hit better due to the warmer water temperatures. Look for the Sturgeon to be tight to the bottom and watch your sonar closely to be sure you don’t miss the fish. Make sure to work the deeper holes where the sturgeon will be holding in the cold water conditions. I like to use squid with a sand shrimp wrap during the winter months. Don’t be bashful about using scents. A good shot of strugeon frenzy or any of a number of shrimp, fish oil, or crawdad based scents can increase the number of bites and hook ups you will get during a winter days fishing.

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