FISHING
Coho fishing should be good this fall in the Cowlitz, Lewis and other Lower Columbia rivers, thanks to big numbers of returning salmon. A client of guide Todd Daniels shows off one from a recent season. (TALLTAILSGUIDESERVICE.COM)
Stray Southwest For Silvers
‘A phenomenal number of them returning’ to Washington’s Lower Columbia tributaries. By Mark Yuasa
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utumn has officially arrived, and that means there’s a mass of feisty, mint-bright coho salmon migrating into Lower Columbia tributaries. More than 1.5 million adult coho are expected at the mouth of the big river – the best and largest return
in many years – with 338,833 of those destined for streams below Bonneville Dam. This compares to a total prediction of 181,000 in 2020, and an actual return of 363,600, and a historical average of 377,900 from 2009 to 2020. “Even if we’re off on the forecast by a good margin, it’ll still be a decent return of coho to the lower river
tributaries and elsewhere on the Columbia,” says Quinten Daugherty, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist. While too early to make an actual judgment on the run, what we do know at press time is that Buoy 10 anglers knocked the socks off of coho in late August and early September. Many of the fish were large, too, 13 nwsportsmanmag.com | OCTOBER 2021
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