what are the 3 best rivers in washington to catch springers? also what type of rig do i use for them, and what size hooks, leader, etc. thanks in advance.

sullie, i thik its still a bit early..lol.. i have caught 1 springer my whole entire life, but then again only fished for them a few times, but the one i mangaed to catch was on a chartruese bucktail jig under a bobber, its productive if you find a deep enough hole, use a slip bobber if you need to get far enough, eggs work also, the sol duc gets some fish, im not sure how many, need to check with bob on that one, i only know of the columbia besides that for springers..

Sullie,
What kind of fishing are you talking about doing?? From a boat or banking it?? Are you talking OlyPen or the entire state? If you are talking the whole state, I'd say the Columbia with out question. At the mouth of the Cow, Kalama, down at Prescott or County line (and other hot spots too numerous to list) Trolling herring or Spinner/Prawn combo, and anchoring with Kwikfish. Try the Wind River or Drano with MagWarts if you can deal with the crowd.

You will probably get a hundered different opinions on this, but I travel from Kitsap County down to the Columbia for my springers.

Good luck and hope yopu bang some springers this year!!

If you are just banking it I would still say the Wind would rank in the top 3. This is a drift fishery with limited access (even moreso this year I'm afraid due to the slobs that leave garbage behind). Ask Parker and Superfly to show you their secret spots. Cowlitz would be the only other southern river worth your time from the bank. I don't know anything about the Oly Pen/ Sound rivers. I hear the Icicle has a decent fishery, but I don't know.

How to,,, simple backbounce the "COCKTAIL" and hang on!

Ya give up on steelhead season already??
:p

The 'Duc's plants in recent years haven't been very big .. the guys in the know do okay, but it's not a fihery like you'll see elsewhere in the state.

Springs = shrimp in my book

thanks for the info. sorry that i didnt say that i was going to be banking it most of the time.

I'd go to the Columbia. The fish that go up the Quilluate (spelling??) and the Sol Duc are 100% hatchery I believe and aren't very aggressive. I remember fishing last year for them and seeing them jump everywhere but ended up with one missed strike at the end of the day. We were using wrapped kwikies for them. The other boat in our party did hit one however and it was a beautiful chromer that was almost 20 I'd say. But I've always had better success on the Columbia in my uncles boat.

I don't do Drano too often unless it's blowing so bad that the Columbia is unfishabe, but that happens sometimes so up there I go. The few times I've done this the CPUE from the bank appeared to be better than from the boats. Just chuck a magwort with the rest of the crowd - get there early for a rock. A side benefit is the entertainment one gets from hucking at the boats that troll too close to the bank area - combat fishing at it's finest

This year I'm fishing for springers in February - I did better the first week in March last year than I did most of the rest of the season.