NorthWest Kayak Anglers
Regional Discussions => The Mighty Columbia => Topic started by: Kyle M on August 19, 2016, 08:06:29 AM
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As many of you know, the buoy 10 fishery has been extremely slow this year. Even I out fished some of the real experts the last time I was out and that was pure luck I'm sure.
Why is it so slow this year? what are your theories? Here is mine: I think because the bait fish are much more abundant this year the salmon are coming into the estuary with full bellies and little need to eat. I believe the warm sea temperatures from last year helped support the growth of phytoplankton zooplankton and krill to feed the baitfish.
What is your theory?
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Hillary and Donald conspired with George to pull off an inside job. They raised a bunch of cannibal fish in a secret FEMA hatchery staffed by UN troops in the tunnels under Texas WalMarts, then flew them in the black helicopters out to the Pacific and dumped them in with the native fish. The highly trained and indoctrinated cannibal fish then began eating their brethren so that they and they alone would be given the rewards of the fabled spawning grounds...
*THAT* is my theory... ;D ;D ;D ;D
>:D :angel: :spittake:
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Except the helicopters are really very dark green, not black. :-X
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I'm with you Kyle. The amount of bait in that system right now blows my mind! I've marked lots of fish when not blacked out with anchovies.
Although you might be on to something RoxnDox.
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The baitfish aren't any more plentiful than usual. In fact, by my observation, they seem a little less prevalent than years past. Also, the majority of the fish I've caught or seen cleaned didn't have much bait in their bellies.
What is really anomalous this year is the pale meat color in the majority of fish caught. Potentially indicative of a dietary change at sea. Add to this the lack of sealions (in the ocean) and the fact that humpbacks, dolphins and porpoises are aggressively feeding in very shallow water, I'd guess that something major changed in the offshore food web.
-Mark-
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Odd. The fishing seemed fine to me. Did you guys try cut plug herring? I'm sure there is a tutorial on here somewhere...
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The baitfish aren't any more plentiful than usual. In fact, by my observation, they seem a little less prevalent than years past. Also, the majority of the fish I've caught or seen cleaned didn't have much bait in their bellies.
What is really anomalous this year is the pale meat color in the majority of fish caught. Potentially indicative of a dietary change at sea. Add to this the lack of sealions (in the ocean) and the fact that humpbacks, dolphins and porpoises are aggressively feeding in very shallow water, I'd guess that something major changed in the offshore food web.
-Mark-
I've noticed the bolded down this way for sure. It started at the end of last summer and most of the ocean caught fish have been pale. I haven't seen any krill when I cut bellies, mostly anchovies, sardines, candlefish and other baitfish. The river salmon from the smith, chetco and rogue from last fall (smith and chetco) to this summer (rogue) have for the most part had bright orange flesh. Weird.
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Odd. The fishing seemed fine to me. Did you guys try cut plug herring? I'm sure there is a tutorial on here somewhere...
I get 50% credit for all your salmon accomplishments Eric. Blind luck or not. :laugh:
-Mark-
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I was under the impression that the past two years were the anomalies with large numbers of salmon caught in early August and that most years things don't pick up until the last half of August. Of course we can't count fish passage at Buoy 10, but we can at the Bonneville Dam.
It's still very early up there, but it looks pretty average so far.
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Although it hasn't been white hot at buoy ten, I think plenty are pulling a Jeffersons... (moving on up).
I was looking at the numbers this morning and noticed something interesting. 8/18/15 and 8/18/16 were the first days the BON counts jumped over 4k. It's one little data point but I think it bodes well for the Gorge chinook fisheries.
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I agree with Spot in the pale meat. This seems to be the only unusual thing I've noticed this year. The past 2-3 years have been the unusual years as far as I can tell in that they set a pretty high bar for total number of fish and angler success rate. Like Snopro mentioned about the numbers, were actually tracking right along with last year's trend line. If you recall last August got off to a slow start for Chinooks but picked up dramatically after the 20th or so.
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I'm going with the RoxnDox theory.
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The fish have been there for at least a month & there has been a really good bite but I've found it harder to pattern the fish this year & the bite seems spotty & brief. I see a lot of boat movement, guides chasing bites with poor results. Honestly, there are a lot of fish upriver & I feel it's time to get over B10 & look closer to home. I saw a good bite & some big fish landed the other day within an hour of Portland. I can't wait to see all the fish porn & read the reports that are gonna come rolling in from you guys. BTW, we need a new Pic Of The Month already.
I'm curious about the pale meat, although it cooks up just fine. I thought maybe it was a specific run of fish. All the fish I've seen from the blind channel Washington side were perfect red meat.
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We all suck at catching salmon, stick to rock fish they don't count them. Spot you can have 89.643% of the credit for my two salmon the two times I caught out of the 3 days I kayak fished for salmon ;)
Ps both mine were a nice pink color meat and mighty tasty so that must be a Columbia river thing with the color.... come to think of it I'd probably be pale to if the only water I had to drink was from the river running through Portland. :puke:
:laughing4:
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Tules' ,as a rule, have paler meat.