Uphill? Downhill?

Hey gang, I need some opinions.

Springer season begins soon.  Typically, the way people fish them here in PBs is to fish the outgoing tide.  They run upstream, then troll downstream...downhill.  I have done this in the yak, but to be honest, the flows in the Columbia in the spring make this technique difficult and makes for a short day.  In the fall, I have had success on both incoming and outgoing tide .

Is it reasonable to fish the incoming tide for springers? Waste of time?  Low slack?  Any opinions appreciated.

Not that I'm any expert on Springers, and I have the success rate to prove it...so you get what you asked for, an opinion:

I typically target about 3 hours centered around slack tide and troll both directions until the current makes one direction prohibitive. Of course, runoff conditions and the magnitude of tidal changes influence the effective fishing window of this approach. 'Resetting' without fishing one direction doesn't float my boat.

Dave

I troll both directions for all salmon fishing. I seem to catch more going the "wrong" way.

I'm with craig ..both directions and a buncha sideways.  The heavy flows of the Columbia in the spring are what prompted me to pony up and buy an Oregon license to fish the Willy. Pay no attention to the tide,it's hardly noticeable.  Check river level and turbidity. Plus,you can keep 2.  Much easier to fish effectively  going up.
I'm sure Spot and Rawkfish will weigh in here with some good advice....catch their seminars at the Sportsman Show if possible!

Yea...in know the Willy can be really hot for Springers....just have a hard time justifying all the costs Oregon puts on it. I am also clueless on where to put in. I think I might have to bite the bullet this year.

Yea...in know the Willy can be really hot for Springers....just have a hard time justifying all the costs Oregon puts on it. I am also clueless on where to put in. I think I might have to bite the bullet this year.

If ya bite the bullet,let me know. ...I'll let ya in on my super secret launch spot. It's really cool...smell of creosote, homeless people muttering,junk floating by...    but,frequented by the occasional springer.  Just kidding. .it's a great, easy launch.  Let me know. ..gonna start practicing in a few weeks.

I'm with craig ..both directions and a buncha sideways.  The heavy flows of the Columbia in the spring are what prompted me to pony up and buy an Oregon license to fish the Willy. Pay no attention to the tide,it's hardly noticeable.  Check river level and turbidity. Plus,you can keep 2.  Much easier to fish effectively  going up.
I'm sure Spot and Rawkfish will weigh in here with some good advice....catch their seminars at the Sportsman Show if possible!

SSSHHHHHHH! Sideways WAS the secret. 

They say while trolling downhill more salmon will see your bait/gear, but this doesn’t mean they will strike at it. That said, sometimes just a different presentation will instigate a strike; hence the side to side approach. IMO if you can effectively present your gear in the strike zone for an adequate amount of time either trolling uphill, downhill or side to side then the direction should not be the determining factor for success. Especially with springers, there are other more important variables that one can focus on to increase their effectiveness OTW, such as speed. Reading the water, weather, & conditions and adjusting accordingly may prove to be efficacious while the trolling direction is less of a priority.  This spring we should see more water in the system & I imagine you’ll see more boats trolling uphill.
If they offer the two rod endorsement again on the Willamette this year it may justify paying the out-of-state fee.  Also, trolling with dberd will increase your odds of catching fish and even some lost gear aka “river booty.”

Keep an eye on the Columbia River levels from mid-March until the spill starts on April 10th, or until they shut it down, and when it gets to a low-ish level, go for it. Don't think too much about the fact that you can't spend your day trolling downhill like the powerboats. Much of the time you may feel like you're essentially just hovering but there's nothing wrong with that, especially if you're hovering in a fish travel lane. You can't get your bait infront of a fish if you're not on the water.

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Here's an interesting conundrum for you.  I catch the majority of my Willamette/
Columbia Springers going upstream.  That said, I spend the majority of my time trolling upstream but my actual fish per hour slightly favors the downstream troll. 

What I take from this is that there is a slightly higher chance of hooking up trolling downstream but not enough to make me want to sprint back to the top after each downstream pass.

I will however try to ensure I get at least 1 long downstream troll during the key bite times such as tide change, sunrise or sunset.

-Mark-

Thanks so much guys.

Not sure how I missed this thread the first time, but one of my preferred trolling methods it to troll to garbage floating downstream.  It tends to result in bit more of an erratic trolling path which adds action to your lure, and you clean the river as you troll.   Just watch out for trucker bombs if you are  in Portland Harbor. 

Trucker Bombs    nice thought.