Reilly with some Oregon chrome
Dang, with California’s salmon and steelhead fisheries limping along and Alaska’s king fishing not looking so hot, you’ve got to love what’s coming out of Oregon and Washington’s Columbia River Basin! Looks like another banner season of summer steelhead fishing is on tap! Check out the latest DAM COUNTS

If it ever goes into full operation, Pebble Mine, located 200 miles southwest of Anchorage, would likely be the worst environmental disaster to ever befall the state. Situated in the headwaters of Bristol Bay, you can pretty much kiss goodbye some of the world’s most prolific salmon and trout streams if Pebble gets going. And here’s a shocker…there may have been some closed door dealings between the State of Alaska and Pebble Limited Partnership when exploration permits for the mine were issued. Wow, what a surprise…Big Cash trumps all!
Read the story HERE
The Nush, back in her glory days
Man, I hope I didn’t jinx it…just days after I posted a piece here called
Nushagak Dreamin’, in which I reminisced about my 7 years of guiding on the best king salmon river on the planet: Alaska’s Nushagak, I got word that the river was having it’s second-worst run ever and was closed to fishing.
Maybe Nostradamus is right…I mean, when the ‘Nush gets closed, something really, really bad is going on.
Read more
HERE
Something good’s up with the Columbia River. I’m not sure if it has to do with those spring pulse flows to flush out smolts that they’ve been doing recently…good ocean conditions…or a combination thereof, but the river’s been stuffed with fish the past couple years. If you’ll recall, the summer run steelhead numbers were through the roof in 2009 and the coho run was also massive. Now you can add sockeye to the list.
So far this year, over 350,000 sockeye salmon have made it over Bonneville Dam, three times the amount predicted by biologists and a modern-day record. And the run’s not over yet. Read more HERE
Sherars Falls...the upper limit of Deschutes king fishing.
You know me…I like good fishery news when I hear it and here’s one Oregon salmon anglers will be stoked about: The lower Deschutes River will remain open for Chinook salmon fishing through Oct. 31 under a temporary rule adopted by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The river is currently open for spring chinook fishing. The spring chinook fishing ends July 31, and the fall chinook season will open Aug. 1 under the newly-adopted rule. The river remains open for Chinook from the mouth at the I-84 bridge upstream to Sherars Falls. The daily catch limit for fall Chinook will be any two adults and any five jacks. (Jack salmon are Chinook 15-24 inches long.)
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Live long and prosper, little buddies!!
Hope this helps…the California Department of Fish and Game just completed a release of 16.5 million Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon smolts on June 15.
The majority of the fish were placed into acclimation pens in San Pablo Bay prior to release, while others were released in rivers that flow to the bay. Smolts that survive to adulthood will return in two to four years to spawn in Central Valley rivers, boosting the recovery of the species in California waters.
“We hope this year’s above-average water flow and the use of a variety of release sites will improve the overall survival of the smolts and increase the return of adult salmon to their home rivers,” said Neil Manji, DFG Fisheries Branch Chief. [click to continue…]
Vinman with a nice Clacka steelie
Well, it seems like good fishing and fishery news is harder to come by these days, but here’s one for ya: The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife today approved a temporary rule increasing the combined steelhead/salmon bag limit (total of three fish a day ) on the Willamette, Clackamas and Sandy rivers, effective June 18 through Oct. 31.
Under the rule change, anglers are permitted to retain up to three adult adipose fin-clipped fish per day. The combined three-fish total allows for retention of steelhead, salmon or both, of which no more than two may be salmon.
The temporary measure was enacted in response to strong early returns of summer steelhead that have been observed at ODFW fish counting stations in the three rivers.
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Open up and say ahhhhh! (IGFA photo)
Holy creature from the Black Lagoon, Batman! While this titanic beast may look like something that may slither up out of a storm sewer and start devouring unsuspecting city dwellers in some John Carpenter flick, it’s actually a pending
International Game Fish Association All-Tackle Word Record wels catfish!
While fishing with a live bream on the River Po in Mantova, Italy with IGFA Captain Alberto Bartoli, angler Roberto Godi hooked into this enormous, 250.3-pound cat…which fought like a wounded wildebeest for 45 minutes before being subdued…weighed…and released.
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