Columbia River, Pacific Ocean salmon

those lodge scales aren't always the most accurate & I've heard tell of some guides actually stuffing 16oz leads in fish...always good for a chuckle. There is another formula for determining a fish's weight
reported weight= actual bled weight + the square root of the sum of the number of miles from where it was caught + number of months ago it was caught

that 84 pounder is a durn big, chunky fish, girth, it's all about girth
 
Mike, that is one nice fish you got there. Biggest Chinook I have boated is 26lbs so that is a brute in my book.

The Alaska fish is sooooo big the one guy forgot to smile (actually looks like he may have something up his postierer). I kind of struggle with the concept of a salmon bigger than any halibut ever caught on my boat but that is a big deep fish.

So if I drag Shearwater down your way will you show me how to salmon fish? You look to be having way too much fun and are getting some beautiful fish this year Mike.

stevej
 
Mike those are all nice fish. what are you using and where? incoming or outgoing tides? details man details.
 
The ocean fish, including the puny little 29 pounder, were caught with whole herring on barbless mooching rigs behind a diver. The river fish were on a red/white/brass spinner. I try to avoid the flashers and the hoochies and the other jewelry. The fish that hit with all the stuff on there would have hit the same lure or bait without the stuff, I always figure, so why deal with the hassle. Although, out of superstition based on the only thing that would get us fish last year, I do use the divers with the fluttery wings.

The ocean fishing doesn't matter too much on the tide times, but the tide does dictate when the smaller boats can go out. A morning incoming tide is always the best bet for a smooth bar, so most of the fish we took from the ocean were on the flood. We did have a couple weeks with real small tide exchanges, so the bar was passable during the ebb. Like I say - the fish hanging around the mouth of the river outside don't care what time it is if they see your bait.

The best time for the river bite this year has been the last hour of the incoming, through the high slack, and an hour or so into the ebb. Right as the ebb starts there is a feeding frenzy at the big Astoria bridge that lasts for a half hour or so if the fish are there.

With the rain last weekend and the gillnetters this week, the river fish have all been driven up river or slaughtered. All those natives I so carefully released that may have been unlucky enough to find the gillnets were likely tossed back for sea lion food.
 
Lovely evening...

PZZ210-220600-
COLUMBIA RIVER BAR-
231 PM PST MON NOV 21 2011

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR ROUGH COLUMBIA RIVER BAR IN EFFECT
THROUGH LATE TUESDAY NIGHT...

.IN THE MAIN CHANNEL....COMBINED SEAS 12 FT THIS EVENING...THEN
BUILDING UP TO 15 OR 16 FT TONIGHT...THEN HOLDING AT 18 TO 20 FT
ON TUE. HOWEVER...SEAS TEMPORARILY NEAR 17 FT DURING THE EBB
AROUND 130 AM TUE MORNING...AND NEAR 21 FT DURING THE OTHER EBB
AROUND 2 PM TUE AFTERNOON. BREAKERS POSSIBLY DURING THE EBBS.
Click to expand...
 
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