Springer Season 2018

It is finally time to come out of hibernation!

Life got in the way of much of my Winter Steelhead fishing this year.  The itch needs to be scratched.

ODFW/WDFW announced the Spring salmon season for the Columbia River which started yesterday March 1st and is set to run through April 7th.

There have been a few reports of a couple fish being caught in the system already.  The excitement is building.  My 1st mate and I decided to do a shakedown run with the boat and hope to luck onto an early Chinook ourselves.

My gear is relatively modest.  I run Okuma 9′ 6″ SST Salmon rods with Shimano Tekota 500LC reels on my boat.  I line my reels with 65# Tuf-Line braid.  This year at the Sportsman show, I came across these 200# mono bumper leaders I thought I would give a try connecting my flashers to the main line.  They come in different lengths.  I went with the 24″ and 30″ bumpers.  On one side of the boat, we used the typical Shortbus flasher and cut plug herring.  On the other side of the boat, we rigged the Shortbus 360 flasher and a Superbait stuffed with tuna and some sauce.

With Ridgefield, WA now as my new home port, we picked up our annual pass and launched at the Ridgefield boat ramp.  We headed out to the Columbia where the water temp was a chilly 40.2 degrees.  The weather was mid 40’s and overcast with occasional rain squalls.  The first of the Spring Chinook tend to head up the Willamette River via the Multnomah Channel so that is where we started. We trolled the incoming through the high tide.   We had one rod get a quick hit, but it was no surprise that we ended the day with no blood on the deck.  It is still early.  🙂