Buzz Ramsey of Klickitat, Wash., takes a photo of Owin Hayes and Dave Calhoun holding a salmon in the Buoy 10 fishery on Monday. (ALLEN THOMAS/The Columbian)
A bit upstream of the Astoria Bridge, on the Washington side of the Columbia River, I chatted with another Buoy 10 angler on Monday who said he’d been fishing eight days and had lost the only fish he’d hooked.
When I asked John Demase, harbormaster for the Port of Chinook, how the fishing has been, his answer was “pretty slow.’’
In five hours of fishing, both above the bridge and below, with herring, spinners, anchovies and anchovy-filled Super Baits, the total for our boat was zero, nada, zilch. The only fish I saw caught were in the boat of Buzz Ramsey, brands manager for Yakima Bait.
A lot of anglers are not catching salmon so far this year at Buoy 10.
Last week, the catch rate at Buoy 10 was about half that compared to the same period in 2015.
Ron Roler, Columbia River policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and a Buoy 10 angler, calls it “scratch fishing.’’
But the sky isn’t falling at Buoy 10, not yet. There was a time when Buoy 10 season didn’t even open until Aug. 15. Although it’s really early in the run, the count at Bonneville Dam is on track to meet the exceptional forecast of 960,000 fall chinook.
Let’s face it, we got spoiled in 2015.
“It was gangbusters right off the bat, and so with a big run, that’s the expectation,’’ Roler said. “This year is kind of normal.’’
With a mega run of 1.3 million fall chinook to the Columbia, the fishing at Buoy 10 in 2015 was epic. It was exceptional upriver, too, at places like Longview, Kalama, and Bachelor Island. And the catch stayed good deep into October.
When this year’s forecast for fall chinook was issued in February, we all just assumed it would be a repeat performance in 2016.
It just might be starting later this year. I know I’m planning to be down there for eight days starting next week.
Most years, salmon fishing at Buoy 10 is not the slam dunk is was in 2015.
Yeah, there can be really good days at Buoy 10, but zeroes, too.
I’ve only been fishing at Buoy 10 for 16 years, so there are plenty of better and more experienced anglers.
I can remember one year when I went five days without a fish. Yet there was a good bite going on at the mouth of the Cowlitz River.
I asked biologist-angler Jimmy Watts of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife what was going on that year and he told me the fish “had found a secret passage to Longview.’’
For those of us who love trolling in the big water of the Columbia River estuary each August, let’s hope that’s not the case this year.
Morning Briefing Newsletter
Get a rundown of the latest local and regional news every Mon-Fri morning.
