NWWC EXCLUSIVE: Best spots for a lower Columbia March springer
NEW Feb. 23, 2009 / 7:30 p.m.

CATHLAMET, Wash. - It’s been a tough couple of years for Cathlamet-area spring Chinook hunters.

As recently as four years ago, this lower-Columbia gathering point was one of the hottest Chinook spots on the West Coast. The last couple of years?

Not so much.

It was slow in 2007, and the bite just flat didn’t materialize at all during last year’s brief 12-day lower-river season.

So what does 2009 hold? Hard to say, but with a handful of early fish already being caught in the Willamette River, the lower-river troll might be worth a look before things start cranking around Longview and Portland.

Here are some lower-Columbia key spots to hit between Tongue Point and Puget Island:

Tongue Point to Tenasillahe Island: With a couple hundred square miles of water pouring through the extreme lower river from Tenasillahe island downriver, finding obvious fishing spots is a challenge. The best advice is to follow the shipping channel as it cuts across the river above the head of Rice Island.

“If you come right up the shipping channel past Tongue Point, the channel cuts across to the north between Rice Island and the next island up,” says Columbia River Jedi Master Clancy Holt. “The channel swings over to the Washington side, and that’s what the fish do, too. They’ll stick to the Washington side along that whole series of islands just below Tanasillahe, for 7 or 8 miles.”

Best fishing here tends to be with plugs on the outgoing tide.
 
Clifton Channel: The Oregon side of Tenasillahe Island is, according to Holt, “just one of those places where boats congregate.”

“It’s not necessarily better than any of the other spots close by, but you do run into fresh fish there because it’s far enough downstream that they haven’t been fished on very much,” he says. “One thing about that area is that it’s a pleasant place to troll. The depth is even, it’s not very snaggy, and there’s a nice, long piece of water to troll.”

Clifton Channel is one of the few spots on the lower Columbia where you’ll see trollers on the move through both stages of the tide, but Holt – like a lot of other guides – does his trolling on the incoming tide and into the very early stages of the outgoing, and then finds an anchor spot and rolls out the plugs through the outgoing tide.

“There are several pilings you can tie up behind, or find a place to anchor and fish Kwikfish in that channel,” he says. “If you’re going to troll, you want to troll herring on a low, incoming or high tide. Most people fish that in the upper 1/3 of the channel, but I think that’s a mistake: it’s good all the way down the channel.”

Tenasillahe Island (Washington side): On the side opposite Clifton Channel, the sandy flats along the north side of Tenasillahe are good places to anchor on the outgoing tide.

“You can anchor in water from 8 to 25 feet deep there, basically anywhere you can find the right depth along with a sandy bottom,” Holt confirms. “There’s a row of pilings right at the very top of the island that’s very, very good, and three or four good spots on the Washington side where boats congregate. You can anchor up and run plugs on the outgoing tide there, and you’ll also catch some fish trolling, too.”

Puget Island: This is where you’ll start to notice the influence of the Willamette, as fish almost routinely tuck into the channel on the south side of the island on their way upriver.

“Fish travel on that side more, especially early in the season,” Holt says. “I’m pretty sure the smell from the Willamette pushes them over to the Oregon side, and they’ll definitely follow that smell up that side of the river. There are far more fish caught – and I see more travelling fish with my sonar – on the Oregon side all the way up to the (Wahkiakum) ferry. There are about a half dozen spots to anchor on the Oregon side that are really good.

You can fish a handful of different locations around the perimeter of the island: 1). The pilings that run along the entire lower end, out slightly into to the channel between Puget and Tenasillahe, on the Oregon side; 2). The pilings above the Wahkiakum County Ferry landing, on the Oregon side; 3). Jones Beach, on the Oregon mainland near Westport, where you can plunk from the beach; 4). On the Washington side, above the bridge to Cathlamet.

Puget Island to Willow Grove: Fish will continue to favor the Oregon side of the Columbia as they continue upriver toward Longview, with proven interception points for boaters at the Ammo Dump (a series of docks and pilings across the river from Mill Creek) and good plunkers’ spots at County Line Park and Abernathy Bar on the Washington side.

“I’d say that 75 to 80 percent of the boat fishing between Willow Grove and Puget Island is on the Oregon side,” says Holt. “That’s especially true early in the season. A little later in the season when fish are spread out a little bit more, you can move to some of the pilings over on the Washington side above Puget Island and do okay.”
-JS