Well finally got disgusted with the salmon fishing at the Brewster pool. It reminded me a lot of last year when all the water was getting spilled over the lower dams for the fish due to the judges orders in Oregon. So I looked up the lower dams and low and behold WAMMO, it all made sense to me why the salmon fishing was lousy again at Brewster pool. Just like last year the upper Columbia is generating for the loss of power from all the water getting spilled at McNary and such. For example the spillage at McNary Dam is 145 kcfs, WOW! They are only using 98 kcfs to generate power. Getting to Chief Joseph and Rufus Woods Lake this means that the river flows are way up from normal for this time of year. The normal flow is about 120 kcfs, and now the flows are good in the early morning and gets really fast as the day progresses, up to 190 + kcfs. What this causes is the water temperatures to remain fairly low in the 60’s above and below Chief Joe Dam. For the salmon this means that they are not holed up in the deeper water and have spread all over the river and hard to locate. For the triploids they are naturally a lazy fish and don’t like the fast moving water. Up at the lower net pens where I normally fish the river is narrow at that point and the water is really moving up there at 190 kcfs. So if you fish the pens get there early and get your catch of the day before the flows pick up. Good Luck

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