The Fishing Corner

By Larry Dublanko

The month of October is known for many events. In the baseball world, October means the World Series. In these parts of the country, it is beginning to look like the inland salmon season is getting into full swing.

We are seeing a later season this year, and it has taken the shape of a coho fishery except for hatchery kings on the Humptulips River. On the other hand, the big news has been the closure of the Willapa Bay tributaries to salmon fishing. The low return numbers of returning salmon to tributaries has dictated this action.

In the mean time, anglers will be paying attention to the rules and regulations pertaining to silvers. Throughout our region, it is mostly a hatchery coho fishery with the exception of the lower Chehalis River where there is a one adult salmon retention rule in place to include a wild coho through November.

It comes down to the fact that anglers are going to have to know the section of the river they are fishing and the specific rules which apply to that portion of the river.

Because there are many release rules in place, anglers will have to know that barbless single point hooks are mandatory almost everywhere. In addition, the Humptulips River is closed to night fishing. Whereas, normally it is open 24 hours and anglers could pursue steelhead in this measure, and due to the fact that salmon inhabit this stream, added care is being employed by protecting them. The river is clearly a daytime fishing event.

Two new and different regulations for our local streams this year include the widespread hatchery only coho fishery, and secondly all local rivers will close to salmon fishing at the end of November. Again, this measure is to protect all wild coho which generally occupy rivers even into the month of December or early January.

When pursuing coho or silver salmon, a wide range of tackle is generally used. While some anglers are bait fishers, the majority of anglers will use some form of hardware. This may include a corkie and yarn combination while employing the drifting technique. Others use spinners or plugs successfully. Color combinations suited for water color is an important matter to factor in. Lately, anglers have been using a variety of jigs to entice these fish. This technique has proven to work well. In addition, new and improved floating devices have become popular. One is going to have to experiment to get the proper combination. It won’t take long to figure this out especially if close attention is being paid to the efforts of other anglers.

So, October has become salmon fishing month in Grays Harbor. The target is clearly hatchery coho for the most, and these fish must be pursued within a narrow window of time due to a shortened season.

Here’s hoping we have the cooperation of the weather to get this done. Any adverse weather pattern will shorten this opportunity. It can get really tricky balancing the runs with correct water flow. In a perfect world, we could see this all play out favorably.