Columbia River Chinook Fishing

By Harry Morse,Southeast Regional Conservation Educator Editors note: Like many Idaho anglers, Harry and two co-workers headed for the coast for some big-water chinook fishing. This feature is their story. Watching the giant Chinook salmon at the Bonneville Dam Viewing Area put me in a trance. Once thousands of these magnificent fish came to Idaho to be stopped only by Shoshone Falls. But not any more. The great fall runs of chinook salmon in Idaho are gone. We just spent four days salmon fishing at the mouth of the Columbia River for fall chinook. Now we were watching the very fish we tried to catch. It was one step further up the rivers navigating the first of many dams and eluding thousands of anglers trying to catch them. Lets Go Fishing! Did you ever pay $34 to camp at a roadside rest and be happy to have a spot? Or how about $4.99 for a small box of Wheat Thin crackers or wait in line with hundreds of other boaters to launch your boat? The line of vehicles pulling boats stretched over a mile and blocked traffic on the local highway. Welcome to salmon fishing at Buoy 10, one of the hottest places on the west coast to cast a line. Also one of the most crowded. The fish are big and bright. Fish that draw anglers from over thousands of miles away to feel the thrill of the line ripping line off their reel. "Which way do we go?" asked Dick Scully as we glided out of the boat basin area into the Columbia. The mouth of the Columbia River is over three miles wide with mudflats, sandbanks and river channels on both the Oregon and Washington sides. "Follow the boats out the channel and then we will go down to the mouth and fish the incoming tide," I said. This was a new experience for fisheries biologists Dick Scully and Dave Teuscher. Fisheries biologists taking vacation to go fishing so they could see first hand the gauntlet salmon run on their fall migration to spawn, and the incredible fishing pressure. Two launch ramps on the Oregon side of the river and the four on the Washington side had poured over a 1,000 boats into the river at the mouth. Stacked end to end you probably could have walked to the moon on them. As one angler said, "Why go to a boat show? At this fishery you can see every kind of boat ever made." Every motel, campground and guesthouse was full. To get fresh bait you had to get on a waiting list at a bait store or marina a day in advance. Eating at a restaurant was out of the question unless you had several hours, so we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner one night while we fished. Magnitude Overwhelms "This is something you need to see," said Teuscher. "The magnitude of this fishery is almost overwhelming." While he was wondering what he was doing in this insanity a salmon hit his bait and the battle was on. It streaked out towards several other boats and Scully pivoted the boat following the fish to avoid another boat cutting the line. I grabbed the net, pointed at the fish and yelled at other boats to get out of the way. Fish On! Teuscher nearly had a heart attack when I missed netting the fish on the first pass. Miss it once more and I would probably be swimming with the fish. Teuscher is 6'5", very strong and was a little too emotionally attached to the fish for my own good. Never count your salmon steaks before the netter puts the fish in the boat is my motto. He didn't seem to be in a humorous mood. Idaho Salmon History Lesson As we barbecued salmon that night, Teuscher gave me an Idaho salmon history lesson. Fall chinook came all the way to Shoshone Falls above the town of Twin Falls before Hells Canyon Dam and the lower Snake River dams were put in. The fall Idaho salmon run contributed about 250,000 salmon to commercial ocean anglers; another 50,000 entered the Columbia River providing 20,000 to 30,000 to Indian and non-Indian river anglers. The remaining 25,000 to 30,000 made it to Idaho to spawn and provide Idaho a fishery. That great run of fish is gone. Only a small population remains with 100 to 1,000 wild salmon returning according to Teuscher's colleague salmon and steelhead population biologist Charles Petrosky. The sad history made me pause a moment, reflect, then I asked Teuscher if he wanted another piece of barbecued salmon.