With the kids both living in the Portland area, I enjoy my visits there and it usually allows me a day of fishing.

The Columbia River is quite a resource as it holds many different species and offers mostly year-round fishing.   

On this trip, the spring salmon season was on my mind.  Spring Chinook (springers) or king salmon as they are widely known are regarded as the hardest-fighting and best-eating salmon and fisheries biologists and managers spend a good part of their careers predicting runs and setting seasons. They have tools, unimagined even several decades ago, that allow them to predict available numbers of fish, even down into the hundreds.

These tools allow them to set and reset seasons; they even get a look into what each day of the season might yield. This year, they extended the springer season twice on the main stem of the Columbia. We missed them both, but we took advantage of the open season available on the Multnomah Channel and the Willamette River.

As a guide myself, it is not always easy to just hire someone and be “The Customer.” I want to dive in and work and I am WAY out of my element just being along for the ride, but I managed. On the day we went out, wife, Cindy, and son Tyler, along with my brother Bill and niece Sarah joined us. Our guide Larry runs a nice 22-foot boat very suited to this fishery and didn’t disappoint with his knowledge, attitude and gear. After a fast 15-minute run up river, we were on the spot along with about 20 other boats. Within minutes we had lines in the water and were trolling for kings.

We had agreed that we would fish for salmon until noon, then switch to sturgeon. The salmon just weren’t cooperating so we moved downriver into about 80 feet of water, switched gear and before we had three lines out, Cindy had a fish on.

We have caught some pretty big fish together and she certainly knows how to handle a rod and reel, but this fish was like nothing she had fought recently. For the next three hours, it was one sturgeon after another. None were giants — about 25 pounds and 48 inches long was our best — but these prehistoric beasts fight like they are three to four times their size. There is always the “one that got away” and after one big jump behind the boat, that fish had Ty helping Sarah try and get it off the bottom for about 10 minutes, only to come off right at the boat. It’s the kind of fish that makes you want to come back again and again.  

This is the beauty of a diverse fishery, and the Columbia is certainly that. Salmon and sturgeon are the two main species, but there is an exploding walleye and bass fishery scene, especially on the upper Columbia around the Tri-Cities. Yes, there are many more regulations than we are used to here in Montana, but you can easily navigate your way around them. You can certainly bring your own boat and someday soon I will when I have more than just a day or two to fish, but hiring a guide at least the first couple times is money well spent.

If you would like to know more, shoot me an email or join me this Saturday at Snappy’s at 9 a.m. when I will give a seminar on fishing Flathead Lake and discuss the Columbia.

Howe runs Howe’s Fishing/A Able Charters. Contact him at [email protected]