Tag: Hanford Reach

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Hanford Reach Fall Chinook: Adjustments are the name of the game

It’s been a strange year to say the least on the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River. As I’m writing this we are in the midst of a pretty darn good Fall Chinook Run, and while fishing was absolutely on fire here early in the season, it has since cooled off, and been downright tough on some days.

We too have had our struggle days, and Barry and I have been very frustrated a few times this season. For the past few years the downhill trolling program has been absolutely on fire here, and we entered this season thinking that we would see more of the same, and while early in September was great, it didn’t take long for that bite to absolutely hit the skids. So, instead of just pounding away and hoping each morning would be better then the last we decided that there had to be a better way. We made some adjustments.

A little over a week ago we made the full on switch from downriver trolling 360 flashers to what is now considered an old school technique, we went backtrolling. We dusted off the plugs, shined our divers, grabbed the eggs, and went to work. We haven’t looked back since. For some reason this year backtrolling divers and eggs, and plugs has just been the best way for us to catch fish. Now that doesn’t mean other methods are not working, it just means that we have finally found consistent action after making the switch.

Backtrolling is how I cut my teeth on this fishery and it has been such a blessing to be able to fully commit to one of my absolute favorite methods for catching salmon. We are now more relaxed, our gear is in the “slots” longer, and we are catching more fish than we would if we had stayed the course. Now, I’m fully aware that the only thing consistent on the reach is that things change, and after writing this it may just be that we see an incredible downhill trolling bite, but for me, I have a little over a week left in this fishery before I head home for the Clearwater, and I’m going to spend my days relaxed and running my favorite plugs through some of the best water on the river. don’t be afraid to do the same.

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Hanford Reach Fall Chinook Report

Hanford Reach Fall Chinook

It’s been a full week straight of fishing for us on our 2019 Hanford Reach Fall Chinook season. This week has seen its ups and downs, but we are definitely on fish and we have had the opportunity to limit each of the past 4 days, some days we have pulled it off and other days we came in a fish or two short.

This is one of our absolute favorite fisheries of the year, and there is nothing quite like spending an early fall day on the Hanford Reach. The weather this time of year makes for some amazing days spent on the water.

All our fish have been coming on the downstream troll. We have been doing equally well on both superbaits and spinners pulled behind pro troll flasher.

Our program goes roughly as follows, remember there are a lot of times we may fish deeper or shallower depending on the situation. Bow rods with 12oz at 30′ (these often start much shallower, but when water depth allows we run these suspended all day) middle rods 12oz at the same depth as the bottom (if it’s 35 feet deep these rods are run at 35 and so on) back rods 10oz at 10 feet deeper than the bottom depth ( if in 35 Feet the line counter is at 45 and so on).

We also still have some openings for this year. Our open dates for Kyle’s Boat are as follows.

September:

29,30 3 open seats.

October:

1, 4 open boat

5th 3 seats

7th 4 seats

8th 5 seats

9th open boat

10th 2 seats

15th open boat

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Hanford Reach Continues to fish Great!

Hanford Reach Fall Chinook

We have had an absolutely fantastic week on the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River, near tri cities, WA. We continue to catch all of our fish downstream trolling, with both Brads Superbaits and VIP Spinners. Trolling has enabled us to cover a ton of water and locate the fish willing to bite.

If you are looking to get out on the water with us we have just a few days left open. Sunday the 7th, Monday the 8th, and Tuesday the 9th open. Book online on this website or give our office a call at 208-669-1569 and let’s fill these last few dates, before we head home and target steelhead on Idaho’s Clearwater River.

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Hanford Reach Salmon fishing remains good

We continue to do well on the Hanford Reach near the tri cites. Most of our effort continues to be spent down stream trolling both brads superbaits and spinners. Our favorite blades have been the VIP Bronco and Chartreuse Green Dot in the 3.5 sizes.

The Reach can be one of the most fickle and frustrating fisheries around, but when a good plan comes together it makes it worth the effort.

We still have some open dates before we switch over to steelhead at home on the Clearwater. October 3rd has 2 seats open, and we have open boats the 7th-15th of October. Give our office a call at 208-669-1569 to book or book online through our website.

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Hanford Reach Fall Chinook Report

We had a fantastic day today on the Hanford Reach near the Tri cites, WA. We did well downstream trolling both superbaits and Spinners. I really think the key to success this year is covering a bunch of water looking for aggressive fish.

The basic premise behind our downstream trolling game is to fish our gear in the bottom 5 feet of the water column. The setup that works well for us is to run lead dropper rigs instead of downriggers, we like 12 ounces all the way around the boat, and we typically run our gear with the depth reading and our line counters being the same, or +5. So, if we are fishing 40 feet of water we would run our depth using our line counter reels at 40 or 45 feet.

Hopefully this gives a little bit of help to someone just starting out fishing this way, and if you would like to spend a day on our boats getting some on the water training Kyle has an open boat the 3rd of October and open boats the 7th-15th of October. Give our office a call at 208-669-1569 to book your adventure.

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Hanford Reach Fishing Report.

 

We love it when a good plan comes together. Fished some water we have spent a lot of years in today and did very well!  We still have some openings for this great Chinook Salmon Fishing on the Hanford Reach. We have a full boat open the 12th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th. We also have two seats open on the 14th. We finish up fishing here the 22nd of October before heading home to fish the Snake River out of Heller Bar for the rest of October and November. Give our office a call at 208-669-1569 to get your trips booked.

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Hanford Reach Fishing Report 9/24/17

Fishing has really started to pick up on the Hanford Reach section of the Columbia River the past few days. We are seeing some great fish in our catches and these fish are still in fantastic shape.  We have been doing well downstream trolling superbaits behind Pro – Troll Flashers. We still have openings for 2 people on the 29th, and 30th of September and October 1st. We also have open boats the 11th, 12th, and 14th-20th of October. Don’t miss this great opportunity to get out on the water with us.

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Great Fall Chinook Fishing!

The start to our annual Fall Chinook season has be nothing short of fantastic!  We have been down here in the Lower Columbia River fishing the famed Buoy 10 season and it has not disappointed. We have been getting limits of Chinook most days and we are starting to see a bunch of Coho in our catch.  We still have Thursday the 31st of August open down here in  Astoria. This is our last open date and it is a full open boat.

We also wanted to take this as an opportunity to talk about our upcoming fall seasons. As many of you have heard it is not looking like we will have an opportunity to harvest and fall Steelhead off the Snake or Clearwater Rivers.  This is difficult news to swallow, but we want to make sure you know that there are plenty of great fishing opportunities ahead this fall and because of the lack of Steelhead we are extending our Fall Chinook season on the Columbia River.

Starting the 8th of September we will be jumping back on the migration of Fall Chinook up the Columbia and we will be fishing the Columbia River Gorge near Hood River, Oregon.  We plan on fishing this area through the 16th of September.  These fish in the Columbia Gorge are in great shape as most of them still have more than 100 miles to go before they spawn.  We will fish one of a few locations depending on where the best opportunity for fish is at.  Our most fished areas of the Gorge are the mouth of the Klickitat, Drano Lake, and the mouth of the Dechutes River.  All three locations give you a great chance to take home some great salmon. And the entire Columbia above Bonneville Dam has a limit of two Adult Chinook daily.

We are also planning on extending our Hanford Reach Fall Chinook season through the 22nd of October.  This will give us a great extended opportunity to catch these big Chinook as they state near their spawning grounds on the Hanford Reach.  We often catch some of our biggest Chinook of the year off the “reach” and fishing for these bruisers in the desert of Eastern Washington is a great experience.

We thank everyone for your continued support of Jones Sport Fishing! And without our great customers living our dream on the water would not be possible.

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Hanford Reach Fall Salmon Fishing Report 2016

We had a better day today on the Hanford Reach fishing for fall Chinook Salmon. Down stream trolling Brad’s Superbaits and pro troll flashers was our go to method. Fishing is really starting to hit it’s stride here and things will be rocking by next week. We have openings on the 3rd and 4th of October in Kyle’s boat. If interested in booking click on the Book Online Now button. On our homepage.  We also still have openings for fishing the Snake River for both Chinook and Steelhead. October and November are great months to put a bunch of fish in the boat.

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Hanford Reach Fall Salmon Fishing Report 2016

Today was a little slower for our boat on the Hanford Reach, but we still managed to have a decent day on great Fall Chinook. For three people we ended our day with 3 Adult Chinook and one Jack kept plus we released a nice hatchery Steelhead.

We are seeing more and more fish in the Hanford Reach daily and this fishery is going to break wide open any day. We still have a few open dates for our season. Kyle’s boat is open on the 3rd and 4th of October, and one of our affiliate guides is open on the 26th of September for up to 6 people.

Give us an email or text to Kyle@Jonessportfishing.com or 208-861-0654 and we can get your dates booked. FB_IMG_1474587562501.jpg