Fishing the Willapa River

   

     Anyone want to join up for a trip on the Willapa River looking for salmon this weekend ?
     Sunday looks to be the better day.Rain should deminish some and (I hope) Saturday's rain will bring in some fresh fish.I'll be out there hunting 'em down.

I can't make it Sunday but been reading up on Willapa, sounds like a great place. Where's the launch point? Toke Point or ? I may be able to make it later in the week.

iHop

   ihop,
  Check out the last couple of posts in the coastal river fishing thread.That will give you more of an idea of where I like to fish the Willapa.
   If you are fishing near Tokeland,you are pretty much out in the salt.It's great out there during the summer.In the  fall and winter months ,the weather gets really nasty out there.That's why I prefer to fish up-river.Much more protection from high winds,surf, and other bad stuff.That said,I'm leaning toward fishing the top end of the tide water,up near Ward Creek.Though it is much smaller water there,when I was fishing that area last Wednesday,I saw 2 very well fed seals working the water below my position.That usually indicates salmon are in the area.
  As of 8:30 Saturday morning,South Bend has gotten 1.26 inches of rain since midnight.That much rain should bring new fish into the river.It might be pretty muddy until Monday or Tuesday but by then the newly arrived salmon will probably be that high in the river.So, from the 101 bridge up, would be the area that I think should be the most productive.And supposedly,the rain is going to calm down after Sat which could be more user friendly too.

I'm headed out with Mark tomorrow morning 7:30 @ Ward Creek, anyone interested in coming along?

Let us know how you guys do.

  I sure hope to put up a better  report tommorrow night than I've done so far.Starting to stink a little.Gotta change that asap.
  I'm confidant that we will both give it our best shot................

Mark,

I finally found Ward Creek on the maps but didn't see a boat launch nearby. I have a Hobie Tandem Island on a trailer. Guess I could "go commando" and strip off the Amas and fish like a real kayaker. Let me know how you all do tomorrow and maybe I'll try to come up there later in the week.

Tight lines,

iHop

   IslandHoppa,
  Having seen pictures of your craft---the upper Willapa might be a tad small .However,the river between Raymond and South Bend opens up and would be very suitable for your tandem.And you could either peddle or sail that area and have plenty of room to manuever.There is a nice single lane concrete ramp in South Bend (and Ward Creek) with docks right there that is only a few years old.A very clean area that is right off Highway 101.
   Micahgee and I will both have stories to tell tommorrow (I do hope they are good ones).So stay tuned...........

Sorry to say we were skunked, again. We tried eggs, spinners and plugs. Other powerboats we talked to weren't catching much either, a couple of chum and even those had to be CnR'ed, and nothing in the way of coho.

More jumpers this time but still no bites. Highlight for me was seeing a river otter real close.

   Damn it........Skunked  again.........

   I sure  do hate to put up this kind of report.But it is what it is....lousy fishing.
   Micah and I got on the river at Ward Creek just a few minutes after 7:30 am.There are 4 more hours of in-coming tide,water clarity is decent,pretty foggy,and we are ready to tackle some silver.We both start out running plugs,K-14 on my pole a fire-tiger.Micah has a Mag-wart,fire-tiger as well.Both are running strong as we head down against the in-coming tide.We peddle/paddle about a mile and a half down river with out a hit and we haven't seen any rollers.I change out to a pink/white herringbone K-14 that is a proven silver killer,not sure what micah is running now.We are working the edges and occassionally crossing over to work the other side as well.Still no sign of any salmon.
   My right shoulder is pretty worn out from too much abuse ,so I decide to try eggs under a bobber for a while to give the shoulder a break.Micah works a little further downstream while I use the last of the incoming tide to start drifting back up river.By now the only fish activity we've seen is smolts and a few small trout jumping.Not even any seals in the river today.Very curious..........
   I put the pink/white K-14 back on and troll up river at slack tide.I'm working slots and holes where I have caught fish in the past but there don't seem to be any fish to be had.By the time I'm near the launch,I see Micah coming around the corner to meet back up.As we are pulling out a private boat is putting in and the gal we talked to said this is the worst fishing she's seen in the last 10 years.Hmmm........
   Since we are not seeing much activity here , I suggest we try Smith Creek.It's only 15 miles away,it's only 11:45,so off we go.
   When we arrive at Smith Creek there are 5 rigs there with trailers .Okay,I take that as a good sign,people are out fishing.We start up-river pulling plugs again .We want to find some fresh aggressive salmon.100 yards above the ramp a salmon jumps....Outstanding.We work the water harder.Looking for a bite.Getting into the smaller water above a log jam,we try tossing spinners and pulling plugs.See another jumper.Then see an otter.Hmmm.We continue up stream.The water visibility is good,current nice and easy,the scenery is stunning,but we can't find a fish that will hit.
   We turn around and start working our way back down.Again we try bait,spinners,and plugs.But we get no action at all.After 3 hours we pull out.Talking to a couple of other fishermen that came out right behind us,as well as a couple of PB on the river,no one has any good news.Oh--one guy had caught a chum.That's not what we are looking for.And he was over in North River (which is just around the corner for those not familiar with the area).
   So I still have the stink on myself and have not found Micah his 1st salmon yet..We will keep trying...we will find some salmon........we will cleanse this stink off.
   At least it didn't rain on us.It turned out to be an awesome day.Micah got to fish some new water.And we were out there trying.So I'm not going to complain...........but............I want some icing on my cake.....and I will make it happen..........
                      Mark

Mark thanks for the report. I hope your luck improves soon. I guess if we caught fish every time we went out they would have to change the name to catching instead of fishing.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/northfalcon/2011_willapa_bay_forecasts.pdf
Here is a link to WFG's pre-season forcast for chinook andd coho for the Willapa and North River drainages.They are predicting 52,000 coho to come up-river.
 So where are the fish ?The river should be thick with them.......right now ?
 Without getting into debates about commercial,tribal,drift nets,poor feeding,lousy ocean conditions,etc.......could these fish just be running late ?
  What do you guys think is going on? I've seen several comments about runs being late this year,but I'm not sure I believe that.Something is going on though.............
   Maybe I should head back to Alaska and hook-up with Kardinal_84......he's doing awesome lately.

The gill netters got 'em. this isn't even debatable. They got 'em.

Sorry to hear about your getting blanked. I have always had better luck heading upstream from Ward Creek. I troll upstream as far as I can on the last push of the incoming, and then fish up there a bit, and then troll back down. I usually like to troll in the direction the water is moving, and not against it.
However, when trolling spinners, once I'm upstream, I'll turn around and troll back down a little bit over some good water, then turn and go back up over it again. Sometimes I'll anchor and cast spinners. I haven't ever tried back trolling plugs there. I usually troll a 3/8 oz  #4 spinner about 4 feet behind a plastic trolling rudder, with no additional weight. At high tide, sometimes I go with 1/2 oz.  At lower tide upstream when trolling for Coho, I use a 1/4 oz, or unweighted spinner to stay off the bottom. Also, as we know, the Coho look up. Did you guys head upstream at all?

We headed downstream and worked our way back up to the launch. I'm gonna keep on trying (and likely failing) till I get a legal salmon! Definitely headed out again next weekend.