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How to catch Sturgeon 101

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With summer on the lower Columbia River quickly approaching,  I have been hearing lots of stories of the have’s, and have-not’s of sturgeon fishing.  Some boats are already reporting 30+ fish days and others are reporting how some boats only touched one fish all day long. Having spent the last nine June and July’s in the Columbia River estuary chasing these dinosaurs, I want to share some ideas of where to find sturgeon in this vast area of water and how not to upset other sturgeon anglers in the process.

Rule 1 – Move your boat with the tide. Sturgeon are lazy; they flush back and fourth on the tide, scouring the bottom of the river for food. This is where the rule of “edges and ledges” come in. Find those natural funneling ditches & edges and you will find fish. I tend to move down towards the bridge in search of fish on the outgo, then move back up towards Tongue Point on the incoming, anchoring in promising spots along the way.

Fishing for Columbia River Sturgeon

Rule 2 – Your goal is to intercept the fish as they flush back and forth. I can see “lines” of sturgeon come through an area on my fish finder. I will fish water from three feet deep to 40 feet deep, depending on where I am seeing fish. If you don’t have side scan sonar, you will need to vary your depth to find the fish. Beginning of the incoming tide, I tend to find them in deeper water and/or the upstream side of sand bars, and then shallower as we approach max flood.  After the tide changes I start shallower, then work out deeper.  Don’t be afraid of shallow water, but also know which way the tide is going. More than once in the summer I have seen the tide drop out from underneath boats, leaving them high & dry until the next tide change.

Rule 3 – Set the timer. Sturgeon fishing can be a rigorous sport if you are searching for fish. Max time I will spend in any one spot is 30 minutes without a bite. Once the time limit has expired, I start working my pattern searching for sturgeon in a different depth of water or near different structure.

Rule 4 – Change your bait often. Again, I start rotating baits about every 30 minutes if we aren’t getting bit. If the belly of your anchovy is blown out, change it. All of the rods got bit but one didn’t? Change the bait on that rod, there is a reason it didn’t get bit. No sturgeon has ever complained about the bait being too fresh. I plan for 1 pound of anchovy per person, then one extra pound for the boat. You never know when you will be catching allot more sturgeon than usual or having bad issues with trash fish eating your bait. Don’t be cheap, take enough bait and then some, you’ve gone through allot of effort to go fishing, don’t cut yourself short on bait.

Rule 5 – Don’t “CORK” someone. I was told that “corking” is an old gillnetter’s term used to describe a fisherman who sets up above another fisherman and intercepts that boats fish as they flush back by on the tide. I could care less if someone anchors below me, just don’t anchor above me. It seems counter intuitive at first, but going back to rule #1 & #2, those fish are flushing through on the tide and tend to come through in lines. Be courteous, give other anglers room.

Rule 6 – The exception of rule 5; you can anchor below other boats, but not too close. The reason is this … if you’re below me and I hook a hot oversize sturgeon (6-11 foot fish), she will undoubtedly get into your anchor rope and cause all sorts of chaos.

The Columbia River estuary isn’t the Willamette or the mouth of the Cowlitz, there is no need to hog line down here. We often have to leave our anchor to chase big fish. Dropping off anchor just to have to try to maneuver past another boat directly below us isn’t much fun. 300 pound fish go where they want and often that means they will wipe out all of your lines and wrap up in your anchor rope. Do everyone a favor and be courteous by allowing extra space between your boat and others.

Lacey DeWeert – Total Fisherman

360-560-5992 – lacey@totalfisherman.com

Mooching and Drifting for salmon in the Columbia River's Buoy 10 fishery!

Posted on by kmnewell

Check out our Astoria Fishing Charters and Washington Halibut Charters

Using lead weights to take your bait to the desired depth when fishing in the Buoy 10 area has really caught on with a huge number of salmon anglers in recent years. Lead’s effectiveness and simplicity make it the preferred choice for many seasoned anglers and guides.

rigging-anchovies-for-salmon-1

This year’s huge salmon run has allowed me to do some experimenting and I have found great success utilizing two new techniques. Mooching/jigging and drifting. While these techniques have been employed for many years in other salmon fisheries on the west coast, they are almost never seen on the lower Columbia River.

The advantage of employing these techniques is that it allows you to keep your bait in the fish zone as long as possible rather than quickly trolling through the school of salmon and then needing to fire up the main motor and run back up stream and troll down through the school again. This technique also allows you to utilize lighter lead to deliver your bait to the salmon because the boat’s motor is not in gear moving you forward and away from them. Also, if all of the anglers on the boat look out for each other and work as a team, it allows you to keep fishing while someone is fighting their fish, similar to a bottom fishing trip.

rigging-anchovies-for-salmon-2

Mooching for salmon is a simple process. Longer 10.5′ rods have an advantage but any rod can be used. All you need is an anchovy or herring, hooked to your two or three hook leader, a swivel with a lead sinker fixed to a drop line or just hooked to a slider. 6 – 16 ounces of lead seems sufficient for most conditions but you may find that you prefer to go lighter or heavier for certain river conditions.

To start the mooching process, hold your rod tip about a foot above the surface of the water and let your bait fall to the bottom (or any desired depth). Don’t free fall the bait, make sure to keep a little tension on the line while it is falling because it is very common for the salmon to grab the bait during the drop. When this happens you will often only feel a slight bump, instantly respond by setting the hook or reeling until the line comes tight and then setting the hook.

how-to-catch-salmon-on-the-columbia-river

Assuming you are dropping all the way to the bottom (my preferred approach),once bottom is reached, close your bail and lift the rod skyward. Remember you started with the rod’s tip about a foot above the surface of the water, now lifting (moderately fast) will allow you to raise the bait 9-10 feet upward, then drop the rod tip back down reeling the slack line in at the same time, this is when you will often feel a slight bump, set the hook! That bump was the fish grabbing it. You can do this “lift up and reel down” technique until you retrieve your bait all the way back to the surface or you can just do it in the “fish zone” which I consider to be the bottom 10 feet of the water column.

We often just raise and lower the rod 9-10 feet with out reeling in on the drop and checking to make sure it hits bottom every 3-4 lifts. This is more of a jigging approach than what is traditionally considered true mooching. I’m always watching the fish finder to see where the salmon are located in the water column, calling out to my anglers where I’m seeing the fish so that the anglers can adjust their baits depth accordingly to get it in front of the salmon.

rigging-anchovies-for-salmon-4

Occasionally some of my anglers tire of the up and down lifting motion of mooching/jigging and they just place the rod in the rod holder and the next thing you know, we have a fish on that rod! Kind of surprising when we have often thought in the past that the trolling motor needs to be running in order to drag the bait through water and make it spin. The reality is that with great bait, moving water, and a boat that is getting pushed by the wind and being jostled around by the waves, there is more than enough action and enticement being provided by your bait to make the salmon bite it.Remember to always start with your rod tip just above the water before lifting, and after dropping back down be sure to end with it just above the water, that way you allow yourself to get a full upward sweep as well as a good hook set. New anglers find that they make loose fish using this technique because after setting the hook they often just start to reel the fish in. Make sure that after you set the hook, you then reel all the way down the water’s surface and give the fish a strong upward lift to again firmly drive the hooks home and ensure the fish is on the line, then continue fighting it by lifting up and pulling the fish toward you and then lowering the rod and while reeling to take up the slack. This is the standard fish fighting routine for seasoned anglers but an all to uncommon approach for folks new to trying to land large fish.We will often troll until we hook a fish (or until we see fish on the fish finder) and then while we are fighting the fish the other anglers just pick their rods up out of the rod holders and start jigging them up and down making sure to lift the rod skyward faster rather than slower because it is the speed of the spinning bait and the abrupt stops and up and down direction changes that trigger the fish to strike.

I find the drifting technique to work well in deep water (over 50 feet deep). However it can also work very well when the tide is ripping really fast in shallower water. In deeper water I put the baits down suspended anywhere from 20-45 feet deep on the line counter and stick the rods in the rod holder without the motor on. Specifically speaking about the drifting technique, as long as your line has some angle to it (rather than hanging straight down) as you are drifting then it is definitely spinning. If it is just hanging straight up and down then you may want to consider mooching it up and down in the water column to impart more action to it.

Amazingly enough we have caught dozens of fish this season utilizing these techniques when there wasn’t a single fish being shown on the fish finder.
For Coho Salmon my bait of choice for mooching is whole anchovies rigged with a three hook leader and for Chinook Salmon I prefer Blue Label cut plug herring again with a three hook leader. For both types of bait, the bottom two hooks are 4/0 and the top hook is a 5/0.

I and my wife Lacey DeWeert who runs the other guide boat for our business use nothing but Maxima fluorocarbon leader material for all of our salmon leaders. We find that it’s abrasion resistance keeps large salmon from biting through it. We also find that since it is a little stiffer than standard nylon monofilament, this allows the bait’s spinning motion to be transferred up the leader to the swivel, thus keeping those notorious twists and kinks out of our leaders. Generally we use 40 pound fluorocarbon leader which has replaced the 50 pound nylon monofilament that we used in years past. It’s strong enough to handle any of our salmon, we never get bitten off by toothy Tules anymore and the thinner diameter allows the bait to spin even easier, providing an amazing presentation. This has been one of the huge keys to our consistent success during Buoy 10 salmon season.

Kevin Newell – Total Fisherman Guide Service

8 reasons to use fluorocarbon line and leader!

Posted on by kmnewell

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It used to be that anglers just had one decision to make when buying fishing line and that was determining how strong their line needed to be.  “Hmmm do I need 6 pound or 8 pound?”
Nowadays it’s a little tougher, there are lines that promise to do everything but clean and cook the fish!  Tougher, smoother, more visible, invisible, stiffer, thinner, abrasion resistant, and the list goes on and on.  Let’s forget about all of the features that are available across the myriad of brands and focus on one easy decision, why should I use  fluorocarbon instead of traditional monofilament line?
Monofilament is actually the term that can be generically applied to all single strand fishing lines, the more accurate term when we are talking about “good old mono” is nylon.
Both nylon and fluorocarbon are essentially plastic lines that are made by extruding hot resin through tiny holes, taking what was once a hot soup of plastic and making it into a long thin filament of line.  What makes the two products unique is the resin. It’s the stuff that’s in the soup that makes or breaks the line!


Dupont introduced the world to nylon in 1938 and in 1939 they created the world’s first nylon fishing line.  However it wasn’t until 1959 when Dupont introduced the Stren brand that nylon fishing line rose above braided Dacron to become the standard line in use by most fishermen here in the U.S.
Seaguar was the first fluorocarbon line ever made, and it has been around since 1971 when it was invented by Japan’s Kureha line company.  Seaguar eventually found its way to the United States in 1992.

Fluorocarbon is being used by more and more fishermen because:

  • It’s known for its exceptional abrasion resistance.
  • Low stretch.
  • Its ability to almost disappear under water.
  • It’s very dense which makes it sink well.  Fluorocarbon will not float.  Pay attention dry fly fishermen!
  • Normal heat, cold, and water have little effect on the strength of the line.
  • Doesn’t absorb water like nylon.
  • Since it has low stretch it provides better sensitivity.
  • Fluorocarbon is chemical resistant.  Nylon isn’t, so be careful with that bug spray and sunscreen when using nylon!

Several years ago, fluorocarbon lines had an issue with knot strength but this is no longer the case.  More manufacturers coming on line with more advanced equipment and resins have resulted in a very high tech product with exceptional knot strength.
Ultraviolet rays from the sun, the heat of a hot car and cold winter fishing  have an insignificant affect on fluorocarbon.
Fluorocarbon will last longer on the spool than nylon.  You still have to re-spool when the line is looking bad or frayed, but with fluorocarbon you will have to do this less often.
When buying fluorocarbon lines and leaders it is important to know that even though you are buying the same brand name, you may not be getting the same line in each package.  This is a good thing because leader and main line perform different functions and need different characteristics.  The manufacturer may not be using the same resin or process to make both its leaders and lines.  Leaders are often designed to be stiffer and with less stretch whereas that same manufacturer’s line may be flexible with little memory and since it is intended for use as main line it will have more stretch.


We personally use braided main line, but use Maxima fluorocarbon leader material when fishing for salmon, steelhead and trout.  I have found this material to be incredibly strong, and because it is so abrasion resistant it allows me to step down to a lighter leader such as 25 pound for spring Chinook and 40 pound for fall Chinook.
When I was using nylon leader, I would use 30 pound in the spring and 50 or even 60 pound in the fall.  We use the heavier lines in the fall because the salmon have harder, sharper teeth that will just slice through soft nylon lines.  Since switching to fluorocarbon I have not had a single Chinook bite through the line.
If there were any draw backs to using fluorocarbon line it would have to be that it is so darned expensive.  This is the next generation of fishing line and the fluorocarbon manufacturing process uses the latest technology and in general it’s just more expensive to produce than nylon.
100% fluorocarbon can cost several times more than nylon, but it also catches more fish and lasts at least twice as long.  Maxima fluorocarbon is the only brand that we currently use. There are some cheap fluoro resins available in other lines as well as fluoro-coated nylon lines, but nothing beats using the real thing when you fish for a living or if you live for fishing!

The author, Kevin Newell, and his wife Lacey DeWeert are professional fishing guides in Oregon and Washington!

Click here to go fishing with the Total Fisherman Team

Top 5 Sturgeon Fishing Tips

Posted on by kmnewell

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Sturgeon fishing tips

Sturgeon fishing tips and techniques are fundamental for consistently catching high numbers of sturgeon and big sturgeon.

The following 5 sturgeon fishing tips are techniques that I employ on a daily basis as a sturgeon fishing guide and they have put a lot of sturgeon in the boat over the years!

1. Fish where the sturgeon are.

Fishing where the sturgeon are may seem like an obvious statement, yet I can’t tell you how many times I see anglers fishing in areas that just don’t hold sturgeon or aren’t holding sturgeon at that particular time.  Sturgeon are a very mobile fish, they move on the tides, they move to follow food, and they move to stay comfortable. These fish move a lot and they aren’t always moving where you expect them to be moving!

One of the best tools that an angler can have when pursuing sturgeon is a very good high end digital fish finder, such as the new Lowrance HDS series or a digital Humminbird or Furuno.  It not only pays to have one of these units, but it pays even higher dividends if you really know how to use it. Read the manual, go out on the water and practice with it (not while fishing), and then read the manual again. These units are complex but they aren’t impossible to use, and a little bit of practice and reading goes a long ways!


Another tried and true approach to finding sturgeon, especially sturgeon that are willing to bite, is fishing in water that has adequate flow. As a general rule of thumb, big sturgeon are found in big fast-moving water. If you go to Bonneville your going to find that the big fish are in the fast water and the little fish are in the slower moving side areas and eddies.  If your on the Willamette fish closer to the center of the river, the middle of the river has more flow.  Big sturgeon like to eat big food and it takes a pretty good amount of current to move big food!

2. Keep your sturgeon bait fresh.

Keeping your sturgeon bait fresh … again pretty simple stuff, but it doesn’t matter if I’m salmon fishing, steelhead fishing, or sturgeon fishing, I see anglers trying to use their bait for way too long. I can understand the mindset that causes this behavior, it’s one of two things or a combination of both; “Well the fish aren’t biting right now, so my baits fine” or trying to conserve on bait because it’s expensive. The end result is the same,you’re not as likely to catch sturgeon on old milked out bait, as you are on fresh bait, or fresh out of the package bait.

anchovies for sturgeon bait

Three things make sturgeon bait fish well; guts , blood, and slime coat.  If the guts are missing from your sand shrimp or smelt/anchovy then the majority of its sturgeon attracting ability is gone. The same thing goes for the blood, a huge amount of the blood is in the guts and gills, when the blood is gone then the bait isn’t bait anymore it’s just a little fish on your hook.

The third thing really only applies to smelt and anchovies, and this is the slime coat. The slime coat is the outer protective coating that each fishes skin and scales are covered with.  This slime coat is their first line of defense against infection from parasites and other nasty things that want to hurt them. When we smell a fish after touching or being close to it, it’s the slime coat that we smell, it’s this same slime coat that allows other fish to smell it when it’s used as bait.  When the slime coat is gone, the bait doesn’t feel slimy anymore; it just feels like wet bait. Freezer burnt sturgeon bait and bait that has been soaked too long on the end of the line have both lost their slime coat, and should be changed out.

Don’t be this guy, “My bait looks just fine, I don’t need to change it.”  I hear this all the time from my customers, many of whom have their own boat and are avid fishermen, and every time I smile and say “It’s not how it looks, it’s how it smells.”  At least half of the sturgeon baits fish catching ability lies in the way it smells, and for you salmon fisherman out there, the herring’s flash and vibration attracts the fish but it is the smell of freshly baited herring that seals the deal.
Again don’t be that guy, change your bait often! Change your bait twice as often as you think you should, and if you want to catch even more fish then change your bait three times as often as you think you should!  This is super effective and it’s not a secret, it’s just work, and yes, extra bait money.


3. Move around.

Sturgeon fishing on anchor is not the same as salmon fishing on anchor. The old adage of “Well they have to come through here sooner or later”, which is often applied to salmon fishing, simply does not hold true with sturgeon. If you’re not catching sturgeon for at least 45 minutes, then you need to move. Don’t sit there with all the other boats that are around you, (who are also not catching anything) and announce that “well the sturgeon must just not be biting”.  Wrong.  The sturgeon are biting somewhere, and they are biting for somebody, make that somebody you.

Sturgeon Fishing

Moving to different spots looking for sturgeon was the key to success this day!

Even if you don’t know where to move to, still get up and move.  Anything is better than staying where the sturgeon aren’t, at a minimum you will learn some new locations or be able to eliminate some locations.

4. Sturgeon hooks and leader.


Anodized (black, red, blue) hooks stay sharp longer than hooks that are bronzed or are just straight nickel.  The anodizing process adds a few more layers of protection to the base metal and keeps the hook’s point from wearing down as quickly.  Using anodized hooks is especially beneficial for sturgeon fishing in saltwater, where the saltwater has the tendency to just eat up standard nickel hooks.

Red hooks stay sharp the longest, but they don’t stay red, the red gets worn away and you see a goldish silver plating. Black hooks work almost as well as red hooks and they retain their black coloring.  Personally I prefer black hooks over red hooks when sturgeon fishing.

Sturgeon leader material doesn’t have to be Dacron. Dacron has long been the de facto standard for sturgeon leaders, the only problem with Dacron besides being moderately expensive, is it just doesn’t last.  Dacron has a tendency to fray under normal use, and has a strong tendency to fray when rubbing up against the head of a large sturgeon. In the last year I have switched from Dacron leaders to leaders made from braided line such as Tuff Line, Power Pro, or Sufix.  I only use 120 to 130 pound braided line. After switching to nothing but braid for my sturgeon leaders, I have found that these leaders outlast the hooks, which is a new problem, typically the Dacron would get fuzzy and require a whole new set up to be tied long before the sturgeon hooks ever got dull.

5. Use a light tipped rod for sturgeon fishing.

Sturgeon can be very light biters, and if they’ve been pressured hard then they know that the  resistance they feel when they pull on the bait means they’re in for a quick ride to the surface. You don’t want sturgeon to feel resistance when they are biting the bait. Using a really stiff rod hinders you in two ways, it keeps you from seeing the light bites, and it makes the sturgeon spit out your bait because they feel the rod.

Sturgeon fishing in some areas such as the Columbia below Bonneville Dam require a heavy sturgeon rod, but a heavy rod doesn’t have to have a really stiff tip.  If you’re going to fish Bonneville, find a rod with lots of backbone but with a tip that has similar flexibility to your salmon rod. If you’re sturgeon fishing other areas such as the Willamette or the main stem Columbia then use your medium action salmon rod.

Just one quick note on being a good sportsman, these light tipped medium action rods can definitely land big 8, 9 and 10 foot sturgeon, but it’s extremely hard and very unfair to the sturgeon to try to do so while remaining on anchor in all but the slowest water current. There is a reason you have a buoy ball on your anchor line and it’s not just to help you pull in your anchor; throw the rope, drift out, fight that big sturgeon quickly, and then come back to your anchor. Getting these big sturgeon in as quickly as you can is what is best for the sturgeon’s health and best for the longevity of our sturgeon fishery.

When sturgeon fishing, some people don’t know how long they should fight big sturgeon,  a good time frame of should be less than 30 minutes anywhere outside of Bonneville. Bonneville sturgeon fishing requires heavy lead in deep fast-moving water and this can make landing those big sturgeon in 30 minutes much harder.  However it can definitely be done, my rule at Bonneville is to not fight a sturgeon over an hour. If you can’t pressure a sturgeon hard enough to get him in an adequate amount of time then you need to hand the rod off to someone else and take turns fighting him.

Copyright 2013 Total Fisherman™

The author, Kevin Newell and his wife Lace DeWeert are professional sturgeon fishing guides in Oregon and Washington!

Click here to go fishing with the Total Fisherman Team

How to catch salmon on the Columbia River Tech Tip #2a – What technique is best?

Posted on by kmnewell

Check out our Astoria Fishing Charters and Washington Halibut Charters

This post should actually be called “How to Catch Spring Chinook on the Columbia River!” and  “Why is trolling so much better than anchoring?”

What fishing technique or method is the best one for catching spring Chinook on the Columbia River?

Before I answer this question, let’s take a look at the methods that are available for us to use in our pursuit of these awesome fish!

In general we have two choices when it comes to spring Chinook fishing.  Do we anchor or do we troll?  On any given day in March and April you will find boaters up and down the lower Columbia employing both methods, and both of these methods produce fish, so how do we decide which is better?  Let’s do a side by side comparison of the pros and con’s of each fishing method.

Springer Up Close
Springer Up Close

Trolling Positives:

  • Able to go back through the same area over and over again
  • Able to stay on the fish as they move upstream
  • Able to vary the presentation speed on the fly
  • Able to fish in every direction
  • More active approach to fishing
  • Boat isn’t restricted in its ability to maneuver

Let’s go into some detail on some of the positives that I have listed for trolling.

Go back through the same area over and over again

This is huge!  The fact that a fisherman can go back through the same fish holding water over and over again allows them to pull multiple fish out of one location and when that location stops producing he can then attempt to follow the salmon upstream or find another holding area.

One of the biggest mistakes that I see anglers (both pros and novices) make is that they don’t go back through an area where they hooked up!  I see it all the time, a boat will hook up, throw the fish in the box and keep trolling until they are out of sight.  Don’t be this guy!  Mark that spot on the GPS, go another 200 – 300 yards and if you haven’t hooked up again then you need to run back up and troll back through the same path you just took.  Do this once or maybe even twice and then if you haven’t hooked up, you will have some decisions to make, you can keep going or you may want to run farther upriver to see if you can get back in front of the fish.

Stay on the fish as they move upstream

The salmon will eventually start moving rather than holding in a specific spot and the ability to realize that this movement is happening and in turn follow the fish upstream is one the best aspects of trolling.  It’s simple, staying on the fish is going to put more fish in the boat.

Vary the presentation speed on the fly

Changing direction can also be a method that triggers fish to strike.  I used to troll like a drunken man staggers, because at one time I really put a lot of stock in varying my trolling pattern, believing that more changes in direction equaled more strikes.  Well after a while I figured out that this was important, but it wasn’t as critical as I thought.  One of the reasons I stopped religiously trolling an “S” pattern was because it made it harder for me to line up on the spots that I knew the fish were holding in.  I haven’t thrown this method away but I’m more likely to use a change in direction as just one of the many additional tools that I use at the right time to get the Chinook to strike, it’s like a change in speed, if I should be getting bit and I’m not, I will often change direction.

I like to think of these changes in direction and speed as “finessing the fish” or “working them”.  These are just little things that might get me that bite that maybe wouldn’t have happened otherwise, and they are things that you just can’t do on anchor.

More active approach to salmon fishing

How many of you are like me?  You get in the boat and expect to catch salmon right away and when it happens, well that is great because you were expecting to catch them right away.  But sometimes it doesn’t happen this way, and no matter what you do you can tell it’s going to be a slow day of fishing, slow days happen, I had one back in ’89 so I know they exist!  It’s times like these where trolling really shines, because it’s active; you’re at least moving around and seeing new things, working your rod, trying to find the fish etc.  On anchor … well you’re going to be sleeping, and dreaming about fish is as close as you are going to get to one.  A slow day of trolling isn’t nearly as slow as a slow day of anchor fishing.

What it all boils down to is this, “I get bored!” and I feel like I’m not being effective and my customers also get bored.  I also feel like I’m not working hard enough to get into the fish if I’m anchored up.  On a slow day of fishing I will take a tiller handle anytime! Trolling is extra effort but it seems like the harder I work the luckier I get and this really rings true on a slow day of fishing where the difference between a good day and really bad day might be just one fish.

The boat isn’t restricted in its ability to maneuver

What this really means is that you can quickly adapt to changes that present opportunity or to get out of the way of something negative.

When you’re trolling you often see another boat hooking up, fish jumping, or a real fishy looking tide rip or current seam.  All of these things say “Hey get over here!” to a good salmon fisherman.  Keep your eyes open and react quickly to these opportunities and you will find yourself in the fish.
On the other hand, salmon fishing on big water like the Columbia River also occasionally presents risks to your safety.  Logs, ships, tugs with barges, pilings, shallow water, rough water, bridges, other boaters, etc are all inherent risks that go along with the territory when you’re on the Columbia and your ability to quickly react to them is critical in keeping your day safe and fun.  When you aren’t tethered to an anchor you are able to more rapidly respond to situations that require you to get out of harms way.

Now for the negatives, there is always a downside to every technique and salmon trolling is no different.

Trolling Negatives:

  • Burn more gas
  • Go through more bait and lures
  • Trolling is more work and it’s difficult for beginners

You’re going to burn more gas

Trolling requires you to run your trolling motor all day and periodically firing up your main motor to move to another location or to repeat your pattern.  This is going to consume fuel and add to your fishing expense in a major way.  Depending on your boat you could find yourself burning anywhere from 6 gallons to 40 gallons (give or take) during a day of trolling.

Go through more bait and lures

Trolling for spring Chinook means mostly using bait and when you’re using bait you need to be changing it often.  I generally allow for a dozen herring per angler per day on my boat, I don’t like to be short on bait when the fish are really biting and I like to keep it fresh.  No matter whether you are using bait or spinners, inevitably you are going to be snagging up and losing tackle which adds to the overall expense of your fishing trip.

Trolling is more work and it’s difficult for beginners

Trolling for Chinook salmon is definitely not as easy as anchoring for them.  To really be good at trolling requires a lot of focus, attention to detail, and constant manipulation of the gear and the boat.  This technique can be flat out tiring, frustrating and not at all what many people envisioned a nice easy day of fishing to entail.  The learning curve is steep especially when weather and large numbers of other boaters are thrown into the mix.

The author, Kevin Newell, is a professional fishing guide in Oregon and Washington!

Click here to go fishing with the Total Fisherman Team

Copyright 2013 Total Fisherman

The second half of this article. Tech Tip #2b “How to catch salmon on the Columbia River – What technique is best?” Can be found here!

Alaska Bear Viewing – XTreme Bear viewing bear photography tours in Katmai National Park privately guided multi day close distance bear viewing tours in the highest concentration areas of brown bears.

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Kevin Newell & Lacey DeWeert are the Total Fisherman team!

Total Fisherman Guide Service was founded in 2000 and we have enjoyed every minute since!

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