Springer Fever

The 2006 spring run of Chinook Salmon (a.k.a. Springers) on the Columbia River was short lived. I think it lasted about 4 to 5 weeks before the plug was pulled in mid-April because of low counts. There was a predicted run size of approximately 88,000 fish.

By early April, every sport fisherman’s hope of realizing the predicted run was fading fast based on information gathered from creel reports from sporties, commercials, and the fish counters at various counting locations.

I could always count on catching the Springer fever. Folks are enamored by the famed Copper River Salmon. But in my opinion, the Springers from the Columbia River far surpasses the taste of the Copper River Salmon. There’s nothing more delicious than a freshly caught Springer fillet on the barbeque. It is my favorite salmon to eat.

My success rate for catching Springers from the last two years have been dismal. I had lots of fish that came off the hook for reasons unknown. The only silver lining was landing a 24 lb chrome springer – the biggest my boat has seen.

This year, I was able to fish for a total of four days before the season closed. In those 4 days we hooked a total of eight fish; six fish landed including 1 native and 2 fish lost. Our fish came from slack tides at the top of the Clifton Channel on the Tenasillahe Island side and most of the fish came from plain green label herring with a short leader of about four feet.

I also experienced some success using large Spin-N-Glos slipped at the chain swivel. Our fish were of the hatchery variety mostly in the eight to thirteen pound range –tasty, nonetheless.

Update: They re-opened the lower Columbia River for Springer fishing starting May 17 until further notice. The run forecast was also upgraded to 100,000. Like last year, the spring run was late.