Spring Salmon Fishing TIPS & TRICKS! - Early Season Success Techniques.

All right, everybody. Welcome to another addicted podcast. We are sitting here in studio with the great Eric Swanson, like we had a couple weeks ago, but we're talking another special occasion tonight. We're going to be doing some spring Chinook discussion because by the time you guys are hearing this, we should be in the freaking thick of it. But before we get started on that, I want to give a big shout out to our sponsors, Nick wax, you know, because guess what? It's still going to rain in the summer months and you're going to need your Nick wax guaranteed. Now you're just going to see it coming though. What's that now? You're going to see it coming in the spring. You're out on the river. It's sunny. It's nice. You see this black wall coming towards you. That's spring weather. Yeah, that's what I mean. That was Saturday for me. Coats on. Oh, you got hit by a couple of those big squalor good ones where it was night. It was like 70. Everybody was like t-shirts and all of a sudden down river. You could just see, you could see the wind on the water and you could see the dark clouds and then 20 minutes later. And then 20 minutes later, it was some 70 and sunny again. Oh goodness. I'll never forget this total tangent. Sorry, everybody. We're in Florida and that wall of water came. Oh yeah. That reminded me. You could hear it from like a quarter mile away. Just when it was just like sit down with Columbia on a hog line, getting jumped on with springers getting smoked. I remember, I remember a couple of years back since we are talking springers guys. Yeah. One thing to be really alert about is the weather of course, but I remember. Looking up, looking to the South, seeing the red wall, like pulling up the radar, seeing that it was just red and then we were parked on the beach across the river. Told my guys ago, it's time for lunch. Let's go over. And so we shoot over the bank, put the boat on the bank, fill the anchor out. Go sit in the truck and it lets loose and boats are flying off the water. They can't, they can't, you know, get out of there quick enough. Yep. 20, 30 minutes later, the skies break. And then what generally happens after that squall comes through? Fish bite. They always, it's weird. They do. So if you can like take your punishment, right. But you're not going to be as punished. If your coats have Nick wax on them. Exactly. I like that. Same way. Boom. I'm getting good at this. Damn. Yeah, that's right. Colin Marlino touchdown. Well, yeah, we got this. We figured, you know what? It's right in the thick of it. We're going to be doing some Springer talk and actually is the first one of all of us to be out there. That's true. He's actually put some time in. So give us the report. Yeah. Cause we're all about reports here on fishing addicts. Yeah. I'm kidding. But so I fished five rods on Saturday and six rods on Sunday from like seven to four. And you know, no bites. I mark like two fish each day, a ton of smell, a ton of sea lions. So I'm going to switch tactics tomorrow and fish a different river system where the water's a little bit warmer and try and get away from the smell and get away from the sea lions and go somewhere else. Well, I mean, let's, let's, let's, okay. You know what, let's get to be foul. We're going to talk right where you are in the Willamette, you know, there's really, I mean, when we're talking spring, we always talk Columbia and Willamette there is, there is that. Okay. You can fish the Columbia, right? Where you're going to have all the other tributaries of fish, all the upper river fish coming through. Um, and so your odds of there being more fish out there is greater, but then when you go into the Willamette and when you go into the channel, you've got some concentrating effects and a little bit warmer water right now. Yep. So that Columbia, when I was out there Saturday and Sunday, it was like 41 and a half, and then when it ended the day on Sunday, it was like 42, two. So it's, it's creeping up there, but the channel in the Willamette was sent about 46. Oh my gosh. 46. Yeah. It was, it was quite, that's pretty damn warm. So, you know, I'm not going to say anything for this year. I can remember in some years past where that Columbia was like in the upper thirties, 38, 39 last year, when we first started, it was like 37 and a half. It was insanely cold. Right. And that's all we had is long sturgeon season, but that's for another podcast. If I'm wrong, the Willamette definitely, I mean, obviously moves a little bit slower in speed than the Columbia. Do you think these like warm weather days like this, Willamette obviously heats up a lot faster. We've had a good week of warm weather. I've seen it before where you start off the day, degrees a day, like two a day. Like sometimes you get a 70 degree afternoon in the, and that's surface water, of course, but it'll bump up a couple of degrees a day. And you know, it doesn't take very long, a week of, you know, 60, 70 degree afternoons for that water to really bump up. Yeah. It's surprising that it is even colder. Cause it's, it's very unregulated. Willamette goes a long way without any sort of dam system. You know what I mean? It's, it's interesting that they pour in there so early like that. Well, I'm wondering if you have like stuff like the Oregon, like Oregon city falls, like churning that water. So I was like, you know, as it's baking through the Valley, it's not, you know, I don't know. I mean, I don't really know the dynamics of that, but one thing you don't want to say too is like, but it is a gamble. So it's not like, I know you didn't want to say Willamette at the start of this, but it's not like, it's like reporting. Cause let's be honest, it's still a needle in a haystack. It is. I mean, I fished what the 27th and 20th of February. I mean, yeah, it was, it was a needle in a haystack for sure. But they are getting caught like, and it's a good sign that they are getting caught in, in both places. I've gotten pictures. In fact, even just this morning, I've gotten one picture from the Willamette system, which can be anything from Oregon city. Now we'll just leave it at that. And I got one from the Columbia. So it's like, pick your poison. So on Sunday, three of my buddies caught fish in the Willamette. Three guys that I know personally caught fish in the Willamette while I was in yeah. So I was like, yeah, there's something to be said though. We all see coming back from the coast. So guess what? I mean, you're a steelhead vision. Smell. I think you're dead on with that smelting the sea lion thing. It just, one, you're not, let's let's see. We watch it. You guys watch them down in Astoria all fall, chase them off of your flash. I mean, that's happening right now as well. So it's like, well, let's talk about the smell because you mean, you know, one thing, the smelter, it's weird because we've seen years where those smell will push all the way up to the Sandy. Like, you know, I'm talking like 10 years ago, maybe 12 years ago. And it didn't seem to like deter the springer bite. Cause you would definitely catch springers with, you know, eight to 10 smelts in their belly stuff. So they're on the feed. Like it's not just the, the happenstance plants, but I remember on those years, like I ended up running a lot of like prawn spinner, even when the water was really, really cold and right. Don't get me wrong. We were not not silver and shiny. Right, right. Trying to be different. And, uh, and that paid dividends. I remember on one specific year. Um, we were, we were still allowed to fish that story. So I had to at least be more than what, four or five years ago. Um, but so like, yeah, that smelt can be a deterrent, but I think it also like said, I mean, those fish got to be, they got to be feeding on this last year. They got to be driving to it. So following it, following them, they say that a lot of times those springers follow the smell. Right. I don't know who really coined that. Yeah. One thing I know for sure is, you know, I marked them down there. Like we mark anchovies in our story. I mean, they were from 10 feet below my boat to the bottom and 30 feet of water. Were your rod tip shaking and stuff at one point? Well, so I hadn't. So my very first pass, I'm running through that. I marked these. Oh yeah. Your rod tips will sit there. Oh, into the past when they were starting to get pushed up. Um, you know, I've marked them on, I'm like, everybody reel up. I thought it was a big snag or something. I'm like, reel up, reel up, roll up. And every single rod had a smell. Snagged snagged on them. So that's illegal harvest there, Mr. Swanson. We're going to have to turn you in for that, sir. Well, I released them on harm. So I fried them on harm. You know, after that, I'm like, okay, these are smelting. Then my next pass, they were about 400 yards further up. And then you, I could basically just, you know, it was marking the wad as they were kind of migrating up river. And by the end of the day, it was just so thick in there. No kidding. So is there, there was even a bigger one of you heard a good, I mean, I saw a little video yesterday, a guy doing one dip, one dip and all the guys, this, this, this smelt dip that they had to use. It killed them. It's really big. It took, it took me 30 minutes to get mine yesterday. You know, and you know, getting three to five every scoop, but I did see some of those videos where they're like 50 and you could like barely get it on water. One unnamed river that we were on last winter. This time it was the same thing, which is as common, but fairly uncommon for having it, but yeah, you could have, I mean, it was just a three foot wall of them in the bank out in that black. Yeah, that's interesting to hear that. There's that many still ocean ruled. That's yeah. So, I mean, that's, I'm going to say it's, it's good to see him. It's good to see him that far up. And it's also good because it sounds like if we get another smelt dip, if there's that many, so fresh ones sitting in the Columbia, you didn't see any dead ones, did you like float down? Yeah. So, I mean, shoot, that could be some real, real nice fish. I mean, or some opportunity maybe for the sport guys to get them next week. Yeah. You never know. It was definitely a lot of them around in, you know, one of the better dips I can remember doing. So definitely, definitely good news. So what do you think the strategy is going to be? So, so we got some pretty, we got some really nice weather this week. We've got some pretty tough weather the following week. So like, what are you going to be? I mean, do you, Mr. Swanson think that this is going to turn this fishery, you're going to turn it like every other fishery in the damn Northwest to turn into a 360 fishery? Yes. So a couple of years ago when we really started fishing 360s, you know, I swore to myself I was never going to run them for springers because I always thought water was too cold. Well, you know, as we kind of, you know, develop along this, you know, learning curve of fishing these 360s, last year I ran them and had great luck with them. And, uh, and this year I'm probably going to run them a little earlier than I normally would, especially if there's a bunch of smelt around, um, you know, I'm going to switch it up and, and try it. Um, you know, once this, once the turbidity goes down a little bit and, you know, we can fish these things effectively. Um, yeah, I'm gonna run them. Yeah. You know, you think about, you know, the, the fish reading smelt and then now, you know, I mean, I always believe that those flashers create like a schooling effect, like you have, I mean, yeah, kind of key into that a little bit. Right. So, you know, I kind of think that, you know, if these fish are full of smelt and they're not exactly hungry, I think like you said, that schooling effect, we can kind of trick them. Well, those, those Hanford reach fall fish ain't that hungry either, 300 miles from the fricking ocean and they still eat it. So that's, so I'm, I'm kind of, kind of leaning that direction. So I have a bunch of leaders tied up, you know, especially with these orange labels that we have now, um, you know, could, could lead to some really good fishing or so, you know, at least, uh, the opportunity to have, you know, camera, isn't a lot of the, and I might be completely off here, but isn't a lot of the 360 fishing relative to like current speed and water heights and stuff, is that why you think is, is it going to be a lot harder to fish 360s and do this? You know, I think if they do remain 20 ounce leads and stuff, if they spike the Columbia, like they do every first week of April, yeah, it could be tough. You know, we, we might end up doing four or five miles an hour downstream trying to get these things to work. So I think in that instance, you know, we're going to have to kind of revert back to triangles. And this is way, way right. But right, right. We, I mean, like, what about like pinpointing like back kitty stuff or like slower water? Like, do you think there's something to be said about a big river like that? And using those 360s, like just trolling like for trout almost, you know, like no treating it like a small river. No, I think, I think you're absolutely on point. I just, it's hard to catch the fish timing them when they're coming. I mean, well, no, cause they're going to seek out. I mean, as I mean, it's, it's no different than like the bank guys whooping on them when the waters come up. So every spring, you know, we're all going to have to, we're all going to have to deal with the runoff and now this year, the season set till April 4th, maybe we don't see a big component of that runoff and tell the seasons are, you know, but, or, but sometimes we see it, it can turn on real quick. There's nothing too scary in the forecast right now. That's looking that way. But man, I just believe, you know, if you're going to have good 360 fishing, it's because you have, you have good visibility for the fish. You have, you have better than four to five foot because I just don't think as anglers, we have a very, we're, we, I don't think as anglers as a whole, like we're not that good at just running three sixties to where like they are a foot off the bottom as we are at the triangles. Right. Exactly. And so whether they not, or they are behind the wing dams, you've got a good, good sounding equipment. You take one of them, the T-Rex, I'm damn near guessing. Right. You know, until it's like, okay, there's no way. Yeah, but, but in the fall, but in the fall, even with the T-Rex, but in the fall, even in the T-Rex, if you're within 20 feet of a salmon, he's going to see it. Cause we got the 10 foot of visibility, each side of the salmon. Yeah. There's a 20 foot wall or a 20 foot window there that you have to troll through and you're going to get his tension. Right. The spring, you cut that down to two feet, three feet, one feet. Sometimes, you know, you don't do it. And that's when you got to, that's when you have to start slowing the presentations down and you're not what works. But I mean, I'm going to knock on wood here, but it's still like sub zero temperatures in Idaho and Montana. I mean, it's really cold out there still. So I think you guys are going to see some really nice water conditions. I think, you know, the other thing is too, is it gets pretty delayed too fast. Right. You know, it gets pretty delayed too. And, and, you know, by the time we got four weeks of the seasons, as of this date right now, you know, and it takes, you know, 10 days, you know, for some of that big water to really come down. No, I mean, I'm not, I'm saying like probably like the weekend after this coming weekend, I was going to say 10 to 14 days, you're going to start wanting to go back to, I already called Steven's Marine and scheduled for what my boat's going to go in and get its yearly stuff. Because if you don't do that now, you're not going to do it. And basically I called him and they're like, I'm not going to say that. I called him and they're like, I called him and they're like, they're like, I'm like, yeah, I need to bring it up. They're like, Oh, we're full. I'm like, Oh man. I go, what if I just drop it off for the day and bring it back? And then I did not say that I did not say that you jerk. But I said, Hey man, I go, I just need to put the prop on and just have a quick checkup. He's like, is that it? I'm like, yeah. And he's like, okay, drop, drop it off. It'd be like, I'll just stay there. I'll wait for you to be guys to do it. Just give you a clean bill of health and let you go fishing. Yes. So when, when is your going to be your first? Well, it was going to be the 23rd, but then that was going to be like my first true trip. But then people backed me to the 20th and then they opened the lower. Now it's back to the 17th, the day after seal had closed. It's like, that's, what's just going to be. And, and you know, if I sneak out a day beforehand, cause steal a trip or something cancels, I'll do it, but I'm just getting ready. And once it, once it shows, yeah. Let me tell you what that, uh, that spot we normally fish is, uh, the bottom has changed quite a bit. It's, it's not the super flat bottom anymore, but you know why I'm not afraid of that, that bottom changing because I got hummingbird bottom contouring. So I'm just going to have to remap it. Anyways, a couple, couple, three, four passes. You'd be set. Yeah. But it's definitely, is it as humpy as, um, the other place that we were forced to fish? Oh, that sucks. I know. So when, when I dropped in there and set all my rocks, what about on the inside, because sometimes like that inside 20 foot line stays a lot flatter out of there, it was, it was flatter, but it was still, and I don't know, you know, obviously it's been two years since we fished down there. So I kind of relearned it, but it was definitely, you know, you, your rods be dragging, tick, tick, tick, and they drop back down and they, and then tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, and bellies come back sandy. Yep. Exactly. Yeah. Dragging pretty hard. So that, that was definitely interesting. Kind of relearning a spot that, you know, I hadn't fished in two years. So it was kind of fun at the same time. Um, but good to get out there and kind of learn it before the fish really should start showing up. So you think you'll change and keep going there? Well, I think I'm going to drag a lot more, you know, most of the time when I used to fish down there, you know, you know, rod would tap every so often, you know, you're kind of in the zone now you have to crack the throttle justice coach. You know, now I kind of find myself digging my rods more, you know, cause those couple of fish I did mark, they were, you know, three feet on the backside of that home. So I knew if I wasn't digging over the top of them, I was going to be three feet over the top. No, no, not this Billy. I could barely see the prop on my big motor. So it was like, Oh, is that cloudy? It was like two and a half. Oh yeah. Is that the lamb? It was pretty dirty too. It was affecting that side of the river. So anyway, it's just a good trip to get out there and learn and kind of reacquaint myself with that area. Did you find any snags? I did. There's two new ones in there. Gosh, I need those GPS points and coordinates for you. One of them, one of them is right off of the, uh, the wing down about a hundred yards off of it. Of the little one. We're talking code here. People, the big one, the big one, just the one right below the island. Oh yeah. Yeah. They got two of my rods. All these guys out there like, no, yeah, that one, that one, that wing down below the island. Yeah. So I, I'm more of those. Cause they, you know, I could, I could see them on my graph too. They were pretty, they were pretty good ones. They look like stumps. Oh man. It's like, you wish they'd put some gillnets in the river to clean those things out like they used to back in the day. Right? Kidding. Yes. Just kidding. Anyways. Yeah. Snuck that shot in there. So you've done your homework. You've gone out there, done a couple of tests. Major. The motors are clean. Got your bait. What else? What else, what else, what else has Eric Swanson done to prepare for the major onslaught of spring Chinook that are hopefully going to die in your boat? I definitely, you know, I serviced all my motors. Um, you know, cause a lot of these places I'm fishing, you know, they're 12, 15 miles from, you know, where I'm more in my boat at, so doing a lot of running and gunning, so I, uh, you know, I got my boat in last month and, you know, got all the oil change and the gear lube change. And, and, uh, that's when, you know, covering, you know, 50, 60 miles a day, running back and forth and things like that. I'm not going to have overheating issues, you know, change, uh, the, uh, water pump and things like that. So what are you going to do? What, what do you do, uh, after the Columbia closes? Cause I know like we're, you know, everyone's ultra hyper-focused on the Columbia and unfortunately just today we've seen some restrictions and some regulations come down, especially on some of the Washington trips where they've reduced some catch or they've closed some rivers just outright, um, to, to actually try to collect some more broodstock and higher than levels that they've, they've been doing before. But I mean, how long are you going to be catching springers? So I'll be catching springers all the way through June in the Willamette once the Columbia closes. And then I do a lot of summer Chinook fishing in that lower Columbia. So once that kicks off, you know, I'll be doing that every single day. And that, I think they're predicting like 83,000 summer Chinook to return. Um, so once I transition, you know, out of spring Chinook there in June, then immediately roll into summer Chinook. So it's kind of, you know, that's the fun part about this year is, you know, basically middle of March I'm fishing dang near every day until October. So, you know, with, you know, as long as we have, you know, good seasons and we have opportunity, I'll be out there. Right. I mean, the forecasting right now, I mean, everything except for, like I said, a few Washington tributaries on the spring Chinook side of things, like, yeah, I was talking with Ryan about that last night. So you can start mid-March and we'll probably fish till Thanksgiving in some big water opportunities out there. So yeah, I mean, 2021 is definitely starting out with a little sunnier outlook than 2020 did. That's for sure. Exactly. So, you know, it's always fun to, you know, springer fish and then transition to summer Chinook and then transfer into, you know, Ocean Coho in July. And then buoy 10, you know, that Astoria fishery in August. And then, you know, up here where we live in September and then up river in October. I mean, it's, it's a good, it's a, you know, this is a good year to be a fisherman, you know, lots, lots to look forward to. That's super. I'm so excited. It seems everything's looking up. It's a super exciting spring that we have coming up here. It feels like spring already. It does. I was in a t-shirt ripping up and down the river in my jet boat today. It was fantastic. Oh, yeah. Oh, great. But there are a lot to look forward to. I hope you guys enjoyed this podcast out there. We thank you so much for making it in here tonight, Eric, and you guys stay out there, keep chasing those fish and stay fishy. We'll see you guys out there.