RIVERS
Buoy 10: Boat anglers are catching some hatchery coho.
Columbia: Catch rates in the lower river have slowed since the river level dropped. Last week, the state sampled 2,626 anglers who had 519 adult and 66 jack fall chinook, 17 steelhead and five adult coho. Sturgeon anglers are catching some keeps in The Dalles Pool.
Cowlitz: Anglers are primarily catching fall chinook at the mouth and the salmon hatchery, while steelhead are being caught at the mouth and the trout hatchery.
Green: Twitching jigs without a float has been the most effective method to hook coho. A lot of chinook are moving up the river as well.
Nisqually: Fishing for chinook has been fair in recent days. Try using eggs drifted under a bobber in the slack water. Others are using Glo Balls and black yarn.
Puyallup: Fishing has been good to very good for coho. Most people are using corkies and yarn. Color preference seems to depend on the angler. Orange, red and black have been popular choices.
Tilton: A total of 169 fall chinook adults, 19 jacks and two coho adults were released at Gust Backstrom Park in Morton last week.
Yakima: Nymph fishing has been the way to go in the lower canyon in recent days. There are plenty of summer stoneflies as well as caddis, yellow sallies and crane flies for fish to key on. River flows dropped to 1,550 cfs on Tuesday morning, below normal levels for this time of year.
LAKES
American: The action for dock anglers fishing for trout has been on the slow side. Those people who have been having success are casting glitter dough bait out as far as they can and letting it sit near the bottom.
Leech: Trout fishing has been good. Try using wine-colored or green leeches fished on a clear, intermediate line for brook and triploid rainbow trout.
Long: Anglers using green or chartreuse spinnerbaits have been having good luck with largemouth bass, including some that are topping 5 pounds.
Silver: With the water temperatures cooling, the trout bite is on the upswing. The action has been best early in the morning. Dough baits fished just off the bottom are working for trout. The catfish action has slowed a bit.
Spanaway: Bass anglers are having success using buzzbaits, spinnerbaits and Senko plastic worms.
SALT WATER
Beaches: The action for coho has been as good as it has been in about five years, and the searun cutthroat trout action has been very good. For coho, try a Clouser minnow or Shock and Awe in pink-and-white or chartreuse-and-white.
North Sound: The coho fishing remains excellent. While most of the fish weigh 4-7 pounds, there are some larger fish also being caught. Anglers checked at ramps in Everett and Shilshole averaged more than a fish a person over the weekend.
Sekiu: It is a similar story in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. There were 173 anglers checked at Sekiu on Sunday, and they had caught 241 coho.
South Sound: Overall the fishing has been good, with coho dominating the catch. People have been catching coho off the slag pile, running a hoochie behind a dodger about 60 feet down in water 120 feet deep. Other options are Redondo, Browns Point and Commencement Bay. Salmon fishing in the deep South Sound has been slow.
Contributing to this report: Gamefishin.com, David Anderson at Bill’s Boathouse, state Department of Fish and Wildlife, The Evening Hatch, Washingtonlakes.com, Art Tachell at Point Defiance Boathouse, Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sports Center, Bill Kenney at Henley’s Silver Lake Resort, and Anil Srivastava at Puget Sound Fly Co. jeff.mayor@thenewstribune.com 253-597-8640 blog.thenewstribune.com/adventure
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.