10/01/2024

9/01/2024 - 9/15/2024, lot's of Coho jacks, not many Chinook jacks. Coho, small, hatchery were in good numbers BUT you had to release them....WDFW must have had a plan, the river has been open for years on Coho September 1.

If the WDFW plan was to reduce impacts on Chinook, hooking mortality, they did good.......tough to have a mortality on Chehalis run size so small, that it could be called "non-existent". Time to shut down any fishery that targets Chehalis Chinook, hatchery or Wild.....

9/16 to current date......Many 4-6 pound Coho, skinny water jack fishery has been good, IF you have good eggs. Coho that I've seen, small 20+ inches but not many in the 9-10 pound range.

If you're a jet boater, low water can be a problem, more than a few boats have "filled the pump" with gravel.......

Agreed that small coho are very normal early, and I've seen a dandy or two as well, but I'm talking 3 pounders here. I would consider 5 pounds a relatively small adult.

On the other hand, I DID encounter some really big coho jacks in September (21-22 inches), so maybe some of those fish I've been seeing are just "turbo" jacks? One can hope.

But yeah... kings. I have seen good numbers return late (Oct.-Nov.) before, but even in those years, at least SOME were apparent in the Chehalis and lower tribs by Oct. 1.

Anyone else seen them? Obviously, we don't need to know where; just need to know you've seen them...

Haven't seen a single Chinook this year. I agree with the consensus up to this point regarding small coho and absent Chinook. Hopefully it'll turn around.

QIN pulled on schedule and the modeled fishery was 3100 plus coho and 600 plus chinook. I doubt that happened unless the drift nets in the bay cleaned house because the fishers above the 101 bridge most certainly did not. The next QIN set is 4 days starting Sunday at noon and will answer many of the questions we all have.

Sometimes you have to fish to know what's going on but I would feel much more confident if there was a series of weekly updates (regardless of r-Squared) to have an idea of what is happening. Not hard to do. Or wasn't forty years ago.

This.

I headed to the river after work today (Satsop), and I am no longer concerned about chinook. There were a LOT of kings, from chrome to black, flipping around. So many I couldn't help but catch a couple. That said, while there were some bright coho around (to include a few big ones), the numbers there weren't as good. Saw lots of kings caught (and thankfully released), and about half the people there got a keeper coho. Better than I expected to see, if not great.

Feeling a little better again, but I agree that next week's gillnet opener will be an important marker.

I really don’t like getting into this stuff but here goes. We lost above Fuller Hill because folks would not leave the Chinook alone. The problem with the Satsop is of similar circumstance. So ….. those are Summers staging up and the old rule was they reach the Springs by October 10th. Enforcement has been bitching for a couple of years about this problem with some fishers bothering Chinook and it needs to stop. You don’t accidentally catch staged up Chinook you have to target them. Years ago it was suggested to keep the river above the nursery bridge closed until flows increased. With the objections to the status quo from Enforcement growing from what I know it might happen. In fact the attitude and conduct of some fishers and the growing numbers might mandate it. Now that is sad.

Here is what I have for today. Had seals at the house and fish went right upstream with the incoming tide and then not much. I watched the NTs for a couple of hours this afternoon and only a couple fish a drift coming over the bow. Right with the nets were sealions up to five staying with each net. Several sealions picked off fish along the shore by the Log House on their own. Upriver was good fishing for some.

The thing I got out of this was we have fish moving but it appears the vast majority are in schools in tidewater. Above south Monte the pattern should look different but I have no idea. So today was the first break we have had in the numbers of fish moving at least seeing anyway. Hopefully this is the start of something good but always present for me is 111+ coho preseason forecast. This does not look like 111+ coho no matter how you look at it.

111+ got people to buy their license

And next year there will be bonus pinks....