by John Kruse, July 12, 2020

SOCKEYE SALMON

Sockeye fishing opened on the Columbia River from the Highway 395 Bridge in Pasco to the Highway 17 Bridge in Bridgeport on July 1st and with a two fish limit angler interest is high.

Some 200,000 sockeye had passed over Bonneville Dam as of July 1st. This is indeed a good run compared to last year’s paltry returns but still about 8 percent below the 10-year average. Although the season is open now for Upper Columbia River anglers the best fishing won’t happen for another week or two. As of July 1st, only 22,580 sockeye had made it over Priest Rapids Dam.

The initial hot spot for this fishery will be just below Wanapum Dam south of Vantage though some anglers are already having good success above Rocky Reach Dam near Wenatchee. As the month progresses the hot spots will be just below Wells Dam south of Pateros, and in the Brewster Pool below the mouth of the Okanogan River. If you don’t have a boat there are some opportunities to catch a fish from shore just above Rocky Reach Dam. However, trolling for sockeye is the best way to go.

Traditionally, trolling a bare red hook behind a flasher is what most people used to get bites from sockeye salmon. In recent years though, offerings like a Mack’s Lure Cha Cha Sockeye Squidder with a small squid body below a mylar spinner in hot pink, red or orange have become go to offerings for many anglers to include Bob Loomis with Mack’s Lure who helped design them. Loomis also recommends baiting the hook with a small amount of coon shrimp. The photo accompanying this article is proof that this works.

It’s still too early to know if Lake Wenatchee will be open for sockeye fishing this year. Biologists like to see at least 27,000 sockeye heading to the lake before they open a season and it will be hard to get an idea as to how many fish are making the turn from the Columbia into the Wenatchee River until the middle of July.

Meanwhile, sockeye fishing remains closed below the Hwy395 bridge in Pasco to protect endangered Snake River sockeye salmon. As of July 1st, only 88 sockeye had crossed Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River east of Pasco.


SHAD

It’s been another strong run and for the second year in a row we are on pace to have over six million shad go over the fish ladder at Bonneville Dam again. For the next week or so a great place to fish for these sporty fish is on both the Washington and Oregon shores below John Day Dam where there is plenty of room to spread out.


BREWSTER SALMON DERBY CANCELLED

Even though summer Chinook salmon fishing is opening on much of the Columbia River this month, the popular Brewster Salmon Derby has been cancelled. It wasn’t a lack of salmon that did this event in though. Posting on Facebook, organizers said, “Covid-19 state and county mandated rules make it virtually impossible for us to safely hold a derby this year.”


MORE MONEY TO COUNTIES FROM FEDERAL LANDS

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced this week that counties in Washington State will receive 24.1 million dollars from this year’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program. These funds are allocated every year to individual counties, compensating them for the tax-exempt federal lands that lie within their boundaries. These lands include national forests, fish and wildlife refuges, national parks and Bureau of Land Management land.
This year counties are seeing a million dollar increase in the funds they are receiving across Washington State. The approximate funds received by each county in our region are:

Chelan County - $3,244,000 ($150,000 more than last year)
Douglas County - $164,600 ($20,000 more than 2019)
Ferry County - $889,000 ($78,000 more than 2019)
Grant County – $793,100 (an $18,000 increase)
Klickitat County - $113,600 (a $2200 increase from last year)
Stevens County - $633.100 ($25,000 over 2019 funding)

John Kruse – www.northwesternoutdoors.com and www.americaoutdoorsradio.com




PHOTO CREDITS:

Bob Loomis and I caught these sockeye fishing the Columbia River near Brewster a few seasons back – J. Kruse