Astoria/Illwaco Salmon

This is my first Summer without a power boat.  I have fished the mouth of the Columbia in August for a long time (Ocean and River).  Never in a kayak.  I have never had to be overly concerned about river current speed.  I am hoping I can join a trip with people who have experience fishing there with Kayaks and can show me the best way to go about it in a kayak.  My kayak is well equipped & I have safety/immersion gear.   

Launch a good ways north or south of the river.  Folks are catching in as shallow as 60 ft of water.

There aren't a lot of us but if your days are flexible, you should be able to find a fishing partner. 
BTW:  Check out the article on Fishing B10 from a kayak in the August NWSportsman Magazine.

-Spot-

If you are looking for a surf launch just look at a map and decide where about you want to put in.  The northern most access I would choose is from Peter Iredale Rd. but there may be a bunch of lookie loos pointing and taking pictures.  An added bonus here is if the NaCl is a little sporty for your taste Coffenbury lake is a distance casters throw east, remember to bring the generic catching under a 2lb fish spinning rod.

Where I prefer to launch is from the sunset beach-ish area.  The water is a bit more flavorful (crabs) and it is far less crowded.  On the other hand, if you want to fish some structure (or prefer a green water launch) the Necanicum river in Seaside is your best bet.  You can drive the entire Clatsop spit although remember it is patrolled and you can get a moving violation.

When you get more comfortable in your tub the sunken jetty has some surprisingly nice fish.  That is a entire different conversation though.

Should add that I am not a fan of combat fishing.  B10 is great but I prefer to not indulge in that wonderful chilli cheese, beer fart and untuned engine aroma from the next boat in the line.

    Fugitive,
 Are you looking to fish Bouy 10 or out in the ocean ?
 I'll be fishing the Washington side above the Astoria Bridge for salmon near Knappton. There is a rough launch there that is perfect for kayaks. It's about 4 miles in from the bridge. My scheduale is pretty loose at this time so let me know when you'd like to go.

 Some of our folks have fished out of Hammond before . And while I haven't fished that side yet -- it looks pretty good from the launch going in toward the "sawdust pile".

 Should be a great season ... stay in touch.........

Spot-thank you, I will pick up an issue tonight.

Mark- yes, the river is what I'm trying to figure out with the kayak.  It looks like I will have a week lull in projects mid August.

Have kayak fished a bunch on the Columbia by Portland in the last year.  However I have a lot more river to play with before ending up outbound into the ocean up here.   If fishing the lower river is impractical, I will continue fishing in the ocean.

I don't want to undermine the awesomeness of the B10 salmon fishery. I've done it and I'll do it again. However, there are just as many places much closer to home and less difficult to fish for fall chinook on the big river. Plus you can take home 2 chinook rather than making the long drive for 1. With almost 2 million fish headed this way getting doubles should be quite doable for most of August and September and then you can switch to targeting Coho. Let me know if you are interested and I can show you a few spots where you only need to paddle 30 feet and start fishing right away.

Spot-thank you, I will pick up an issue tonight.

Mark- yes, the river is what I'm trying to figure out with the kayak.  It looks like I will have a week lull in projects mid August.

Have kayak fished a bunch on the Columbia by Portland in the last year.  However I have a lot more river to play with before ending up outbound into the ocean up here.   If fishing the lower river is impractical, I will continue fishing in the ocean.

It can be extremely challenging from a kayak. Not to say you can't do it but it's not generally a spot people throw out open invites to. You generally need to fish with some of the old salts a time or two before you get that invite.

Do you have an idea of how fast you can pedal or paddle your kayak? Getting stuck in a 5 MPH current when your top speed is 4 MPH isn't a good thing You can use zeepzoom to see what the currents will do on a specific day. Hit the time animation on the bottom to see the speeds.

http://www.deepzoom.com/indexSilverlight.aspx#/Views/Boat.xaml