Check out this rad footage of salmon and char chasing and biting my spinners. I recently trolled No. 7 spinners downstream with an Okuma Waterwolf camera rigged in-line and there’s definitely some cool stuff to be learned by seeing what’s going on down there!
Chum Salmon: Blue Collar Brawlers
Chum salmon don’t get a lot of love from anglers. After all, wouldn’t you rather chase something called “The King” instead of a fish with the nickname of “Dog?”
But this bad rap is unwarranted. They are biting, fighting machines. Sure, they’re not as good to eat as other salmon species, but from a pure sporting standpoint, they’re terrific. Our man Reilly puts it best:
“They bite like crazy, they pull hard and there’s usually lots of ’em around…what’s not to like?”
Indeed!
Kodiak Island: A Multi-Species Fandango!
As promised, I am going to get a little more into last week’s Alaskan adventure here…starting with the awesome diversity of species you can catch armed only with a spinning rod, rental car, a handful of lures and a healthy sense of adventure!
We obviously didn’t get our mitts on everything that swims around the island — not even close — but we did pretty well considering we had no access to a boat! Here’s a look at some of the critters we caught…Click here to read more…
Chum Salmon reintroduced into the Columbia River
Chum salmon, long considered to be almost extinct on the Oregon side of the lower Columbia River, might again return to its tributaries if a cooperative effort of the Oregon and Washington departments of fish and wildlife proves successful.
The first week of April, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) released 106,000 juvenile chum salmon into lower Big Creek in the first phase of project attempting to re-establish the species, which began to disappear from the Oregon side of the river more than 50 years ago. While the reason for their decline is not completely clear, biologists believe that severe habitat degradation, among other factors, played a key role. Click here to read more…
Fall Chum Fishing
Though they/ve long been treated like the red-headed stepchildren of the salmon world, chum salmon are starting to gain a pretty dedicated following these days. When you take a closer look, it’s easy to see why – chums are plentiful and can sometimes top 20 pounds; they bite great and are absolutely tenacious when hooked.
The only real downside to them is they are not as tasty as kings, reds and silvers. But that’s really not a problem — just keep a couple reds for the freezer and then have a ball catching and releasing chums all day long!
