We've had a record fall salmon run here in the Columbia River Gorge and the salmon fishing has been all-time. Normally, catching two or three trophy salmon in a season is pretty good, we've been doing better than that in a
single day. Kayaks are still kind of unusual around here, but the great fishing has been bringing out more kayakers on cold autumn mornings where the kayaking conditions can range from challenging to treacherous.
Most of our salmon fishing is done on the Klickitat River in southwest Washington where it empties into the Columbia River. Salmon fishing season is a big event and there are often more than a hundred fifty boats packed into a fairly small area. Kayakers either have to launch into the Columbia River, which can be very dangerous due to currents and quickly changing wind conditions, not to mention power boaters desperate to get that salmon.
The salmon fishing season started for me with a couple Coho salmon.
Things got a little better with a big Chinook and an even bigger Coho. The fishing was really good on this day. The biggest fish I hooked up was a native Chinook, I let him go hoping he would make it upstream to spawn a new generation of native salmon. The other two fish are hatchery salmon.
The salmon run looks like it's coming to an end for the season, but I did manage to get another Coho on a slow fishing day.
You can read more about it on my
blog and there is a
PacNW Fishing Photos topic on the
Hobie Kayak Fishing Images forum. I have some videos of the salmon season and other kayak fishing from the area coming up, I'll get to editing them when the crappy PacNW winter arrives in the next few weeks.
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