Report for the day. We need rain. When will wdfw shut down the chehalis for hatchery broodstock? It has to be coming down the pipe if these fish don't move. Cover water to find biters.

broodstock? Seriously? You need to bone up on the GH complex a bit.

October 7, 7-12:30...Pump House area

People, people and more people......boats, bank, gravel bars....Fuller Bridge to below S. Monty.

Cowlitz River type jet boaters....3/4 to full throttle past bank fishermen and past anchored boats, just to get where there is more boats than where he came from. Saw 3 boats try to run where they shouldn't, lots of gravel got moved around today.

Fish....a few silvers, some jacks, more Chinook hooked than I like to see. Same boats hooking Chinook, that were rigged and fishing Chinook water.

I agree with others, rain needed, need to moved fish into the upper stretches of all the Chehalis tribs.

QIN starts netting the Chehalis, 10/8/17 - 10/10/17, if WDFW gets the numbers, maybe we'll know if "numbers" on the pre-season were correct???

Not sure about getting the fish moving, getting them to stop is the problem. First they came in waves not paying attention to anything. Then on the barometer drop last week the whole bloody herd moved right up the river in two days and slowly building back up. The herd made Porter before yesterday with seals right with them. The fish seem to park some but most only pause then right back at it. Makes a bitch in the bay and tidewater but lord inland it is what they wait for bright fish up river early. So for me it is not getting them to move I want the beggars to SLOW down. Everything hooked lately is silver white right out of the ocean moving upstream and no stopy down low. Lot of Chinook jacks ( three yr old ) still coming in and reports of Chum showing so go figure.

Drifterwa,

Agreed on the full throttle but to some defense it's hard when there are boats anchored above and below every skinny stretch of water. I had too thread between two boats on anchor right at the confluence at the satsop last week and both guys got pissed. If you anchor up right in the exit of that channel don't get mad when boats blaze by. Once past that turn you should of course draw back and respect everyone on anchor.

One other thing... That is cowlitzish, several boats last week with 8ft leaders, bead and weights just flossing against the East wall below Fuller, I watched one guy boat a king, hold it up for a photo, go to toss it back slip drop it in the boat the proceed to wrangle the thrashing hen back into the river. 18tf alumaweld tiller with prop not pump. Older boat younger guys.

I walked in below the mouth of the Satsop. My observation is the chum are trickling in along the North Shore.

I would personally rather someone go past me on plane than 1/2 throttle. I try to be respectful of people anchored but there isn't much option when it's a narrow chute with 2 boats anchored above it.

Full plane 100%.... don't dilly dally getting past me plowing up a MEGA wake. Get it over with.... NOW!

Can confirm the chum showing up already. Hooked one twitching last week near the mouth of the Satsop.

Anxiously awaiting catch reports from the QIN.... Hopefully, when we do see them, they won't be immediately followed by an "emergency sport fishing rule change," like they were in 2015.

Published to the wdfw website?

Wow... those Willapa coho numbers suck.

I've got another weeks data beyond that.

Hatch coho catches are lagging horribly at only about 1/5th of predicted.

Wild coho catches just under half of expected.

Ugh....

Any word on hatchery coho egg take to date? Looks like we're seeing really poor numbers in the nets (probably projecting out to something like 40% of forecast?). Unless a whole bunch of hatchery fish bolted for the hatcheries early, prospects are not looking good for the rivers staying open much longer.

Someone give me some good news!

You talking Willapa or GH. Burst of Chinook in willapa arrived at the Naselle I believe so that is better. Coho no idea on that as it is to early to tell. In GH eggtake being missed is slim to none as the take is not that large. I was told QIN did OK then nothing on the balmy weather. As to numbers hard to say as that huge two day movement just left nothing in tidal other than a slow steady parade and about the time they built up some the QIN arrived. Key is if you find them stopped you do well inland otherwise you fish what is swimming by that minute and that gets hit and miss as they seem to be in small schools. So some are doing well and some not so just depends on the day and location. The one thing that is a constant is that they are steadily moving inland before pausing, then just move again.

I would say that description matches what I'm seeing. Fish are either holding in tidewater or in places I can't find them. Had good fishing (for mostly the wrong species) Monday, and I finally nabbed a net-marked hatchery hen coho, just as I was getting ready to give up. (Looks like at least one got past the nets.) That was in one lower Chehalis trib. I walked a large section of the other major lower trib on the same day, and it was a kings only (and not many of those) show, with zero signs of moving fish. Nice afternoon for a walk, though.

So is a late push of kings on the Naselle reason to be optimistic that the fish are running late, or is it only good news because it means more kings in the Naselle?

Oh... And I was talking Grays Harbor on egg take. That they don't need a lot doesn't do much to assure me we won't get shut down; recalling that it was Grays Harbor hatchery egg take concerns that shut us down in 2015.

That the Tribe did "OK" is probably good news....

No good news in Willapa as it is only a question of how bad bad is. The GH on eggtake concerns last year was pure BS driven by we gotta do something from Olympia. If in GH and there are not enough Coho to make eggtake you would not know because you would not be fishing. We are around 5 to 1 W over H in GH and the lates from Skookumchuck Mit and Bingham Late production are in it.

Now your right part. If the late Coho come in well below prediction then the QIN Steelhead season does complicate it. So that could happen and I doubt unless something compelling comes along the QIN would pull and a problem could develop.