Hanford Reach salmon fishing off to sluggish start

It is late September. It is the favorite time of the year for many local anglers.

The reason they look forward to this time of year so much is the fall chinook salmon are now arriving to the last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River.

Part of the river, the Hanford Reach, offers some of the best salmon fishing as close to home as any salmon fishing will get during the year.

Just as sure as the days are getting shorter and the temperatures are cooling, the salmon are arriving. But so far the fishing hasn’t been red hot.

“The water flows are going super high and super low,” said local salmon guide John Plughoff. “It is affecting the consistency of the fishing.”

He said the high flows are creating major problems with weeds in the river, which fouls up lures and gear. And the super low water conditions are leaving stagnant, non-biting fish.

Even with the big water fluctuations, Plughoff said he is scratching out two to three nice salmon a day.

“There are lots of veteran guides coming in mid-afternoon with only four to five bites for a boat of six anglers,” Plughoff said. “Some are bringing in two or three fish, but some are coming back with zero.”

According to catch reports from the Washington Department Fish and Wildlife, in the past week fish checkers had checked 1,729 anglers in 667 boats as well as 95 bank anglers checked at the Ringold access and they had caught 458 adult chinook and 58 jacks. Based on the information collected, an estimated 1,616 adult chinook and 203 jacks were harvested this past week from 6,016 angler trips.

Anglers averaged 1.3 chinook per boat, and roughly 22 hours per fish.

Total catch numbers through Monday this week were 1,923 adult fall chinook and 203 chinook jacks caught in the Hanford Reach.

More and more fish are arriving, as the counts at all the dams from McNary on down to Bonneville are showing 5,000 to 8,000 a day moving upriver, which should help improve fishing. But who knows what will be happening with the water fluctuation.

Plughoff said he has been catching his fish with a variety of baits and techniques. Backbouncing Spin-N-Glos and eggs, trolling flashers and Super Baits, or backtrolling large diving plus like the 4.5 Mag Lip have all been getting some bites.

Some of the best fishing holes are around the Vernita Bridge. Boat launches just above the bridge are primitive at best, but anglers use them every day to get on the river, close to the fishing holes.

A little farther downriver there is a boat launch at the old White Bluffs ferry site, and another at the Ringold fish hatchery.

Depending on water conditions, this week, and next are normally the very best for fishing for fall chinook at Hanford. When the salmon arrive at their spawning grounds, they begin the natural transformation from bright silver, to darker, almost red spawning colors. And, while the fish are still fun to catch, they are not quite the quality as some people prefer for the barbecue.

Anglers are still catching some chinook downriver at the mouth of the Klickitat River and at Drano Lake. And, they are catching a few coho there too. As the fall chinook run begins to wind down, the coho fishing there should improve. That is if the fish come as expected.

Some 386,000 Columbia River coho are projected to return this year, which is similar to last year’s forecast but would be well above last year’s actual return, if the fish come as expected.

The last two years the numbers have been down and the fishing has been marginal.

This year’s run prediction is nothing like the run of 2014, when coho arrived up river by the hundreds of thousands, and anglers found absolutely incredible fishing during the months of October and November.

For years anglers trolled old style Wiggle Warts in fluorescent red, orange or pink for coho. Over the years though, different lures have been added to the mix. I have had really good success using the half-ounce Fat Wiggler, and last year the 3.0 and 3.5 Mag Lip was also really productive.

Another good choice is a prawn spinner. Using a size 5 or 5.5 spinner blade in red/white with a few beads ahead of a double hook set-up where a dyed prawn is skewered, has been really productive. The prawn spinners are run about four feet behind a Fish Flash in-line rotating flasher and dropped down with a 6-8 ounce dropper and trolled upriver.

Early morning is the best time to catch coho in the tributaries, but anglers willing to put in some extra time and fish throughout the day will catch fish. Like all salmon fishing, patience is rewarded because the bite can come on at any time.

The salmon are here. More are coming. Now is the time to get after them.

This story was originally published September 28, 2017 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Hanford Reach salmon fishing off to sluggish start."