Chinook salmon, Coho, estuary fishing, bay fishing, 

 

 

Unfortunately many times in today's world, the PERCEPTION of fishing success is so low,

 or because of restrictions, that many have quit buying fishing licenses,

and do not go fishing even when a limited season is open.  Or with "In-Season Management", they cannot plan ahead because they do not know what area is open or closed.

 

   This fishery is mainly a Chinook fishery, with the season officially, usually opens about the first of July, or when the adjacent ocean waters are open, but the main salmon run does not really enter the bay until the middle of August.  "Dip Ins" are salmon that are swimming down the coast, (probably heading for the Columbia River) that follow the coastline, then when they come to a river/bay, where fish food (usually anchovies) will drift into the bay with a incoming tide.  These salmon will be following THEIR food and also slide in an back out with the outgoing tide.   These are not salmon that are yet committed to the spawning phase.

 

   These few "dip in" Chinook can show from mid July until the first week of August into the mouth of the bay, but unless you live there and/or have the time, it is usually not practical to make a trip only to keep your fish-box clean.   There however can be a enough "dip ins" mixes with the regular Willapa run to make it worthwhile from the first of August on, as the usual timing with enough fish to begin to be productive would be about the middle of August to the middle of September.   This can very well change with the weather however, as if it is hot, the warmer river water will keep these fish out in the ocean longer.

 

  Fish Run Timing Here :  Shown below we see a chart prepared by WDFW showing Willapa Bay salmon run timing.  My take on the dual peak spikes for Chinook, is since this chart shows commercial netting dates covering many years, where the commercial season may have had a early minimal test Chinook fishery would account for the minimal catch in July but did not get into full swing until a month later, and that the slump between those spikes meant the commercials took a sizable number of Dip In and/or stack up fish, then it took a while for another wave to move in for the second spike.  

 

   However from this chart below, (1990-2003) which shows pretty conclusively the time that you as a recreational fisher should consider being on the water.  However this timing may change slightly depending on the weather.

 

   Here the average hatchery Chinook here will be 10-18#, you will also encounter up to 35 pound  4 or 5 year old big saltwater Chinook, and when hooked in 14 to 25 feet of water, they can not go down, so do put on a fight and occasionally may run.  These fish return to the bay as the result of three salmon hatcheries in Willapa Bay system, Forks Creek, Nemaha and the Naselle.   The forecast for 2008 year’s Willapa Bay Chinook salmon return is around 35,000, a healthy number compared to many other western Washington watersheds. 

 

   In 2010 the vast majority of Chinook were fin clipped, with 2011 being more clipped so you can only retain the clipped hatchery fish.   In the 10 days that I fished here in 2011, we only encountered 1 unclipped Chinook out of 15 fish.   However most fishermen there in 2012 experienced a increase in unclipped fish. The year 2014 for me was about 60% clipped as was 2015.  This high rate, for me is attributed to the many miles of the Willapa River above tidewater that is spawnable water for Chinook and not controllable by WDFW's hatchery program.

 

   The Willapa Bay/River above Tokeland can be fished with a smaller boat, even a car-topper, IF YOU WATCH THE WEATHER, and stay within reason, close enough to one of the launches.  Almost always the westerly wind picks up to near 15 MPH in the afternoon like most coastal locations which can make for choppy water conditions and wet fishers in small open boats if you have to buck these waves getting back to a launch, so here the upriver launches are a benefit.   Your normal fall bad weather will be coming from the west or southwest (right up the slot where most of us fish).  This allows for the wind/waves to stack up from coming off the ocean, getting worse the farther they can go inside the bay.  If the wind is from the north or northwest, you have a lot more protection from the surrounding higher hills.

 

   And it can also be FOGGY here also, usually in the mornings but can also be foggy in the afternoon, so take a GPS plotter with you, mark some locations off a chart before you go.  Also when you stop at the Tokeland Marina, consider purchasing a set of two of their laminated charts for $8.50 each of the bay that do list GPS locations.   Sorry this business has evaporated due to the low salmon runs and WDFW mismanagement.

 

   As mentioned, there is fog to contend with here at times.  In the late afternoon (after 4:30), I have seen it sock in so bad that without a GPS plotter to guide me, it would have been very hard to find home (which ever launch or dock you came from).  However I have seen it foggy all morning so bad you can maybe see 100 yards.  It seems the farther upstream in the bay you get the lesser fog is.  Fog and wind HERE for a small boat is not a good thing because of the narrow channel and adjacent mudflats, especially on a outgoing tide.

 

   I have seen 12' Port-a-Boats, 14' Jon boats, even a 10' Zodiac, 2 people aboard, with only an electric trolling motor for power there.   Not ideal, but OK, IF they understand the possible weather conditions and react as soon as the wind begins to blow.

 

 

 

   Every year there are some nice Chinook and some Coho taken from these waters.  The salmon runs coming in from the ocean to their spawning grounds in the river can be influenced by many things such as tides, ocean conditions, river water flows, water temps, light levels and more.  The biggest factors in some opinions are the temperatures, tides, and water flows.  However do not discount an over abundance of baitfish (usually Anchovy) to where they are so thick in places that your sonar indicates you are on a sand bar, but you know you are in 30 or 40' of water.  In cases like this, there are so many that your single lure gets lost and the fish are not really hungry.   For a link to my Estuary Fishing CLICK HERE.

 

   As the salmon start entering the bays in enough quantity for the sport fisherperson to have any success about the first week of August, they are still feeding and following the baitfish in and out with the tides.  In these areas the most popular and successful method of fishing for salmon is using herring, anchovies or other food fish that the salmon feed on in the ocean.   The Coho won't normally start showing in any numbers until about the middle/end of August, or even later.  The Chum population has been all but decimated, but with WDFW plans of recovery putting them inline to avoid a ESA listing.  This is no directed chum fishery (either sport or commercial) and restarting a hatchery program, with the long range goal to bring them back to historic levels.  Abundant Chum fry in the bay provide food for other fish, like the Chinook or Coho fry.

 

 

  Fish Travel Times :  It has been my observation that in the early part of the salmon season, (early July to early August) in the outer area of the bays during (first 2-4 miles) that fresh ocean salmon will "dip in" at a high incoming tide following the bait.  These fish will usually also move out with the outgoing tide.  The lower area of fishing at this time is what has become known as "Washaway Beach", which is on the north side of the river mouth up to the rock breakwater.  This "dip in" fishery could extend up river upper and end at about river marker #2 (just outside of the Tokeland boat basin) depending on the bait and the tide.

 

   You notice I said FRESH OCEAN fish, these fish are not anywhere near approaching the upstream migrating, spawning fish that you will encounter later in mid August or September.  About 50% of these early fish are mostly headed south to the Columbia River (as verified by WDFW commercial netting at that time).  I have even caught a 20# Columbia River Chinook Tule here in mid August.  The later fish are committed to entering their home streams for a rendezvous farther upstream on the gravel and they travel differently.

 

   For many years fishermen have believed that salmon are flushed into the river mouth on the incoming tide.  Yet salmon have to face into the current in order to breathe, so if this is the case the fish will be headed downriver/into the incoming tide, but moving upriver with the tide. This will not allow them to see where they are going.  OK, but what if they are chasing baitfish?  By doing this, they will be moving under their own power and going in a direction of food which is in turn being flushed upstream.

   Now once these salmon are in the upper part of the estuary, (above Tokeland) when the tide starts to go out, what do they do?  Depending on their sexual maturity, some may stay in the estuary for a while.  Some may return to the ocean, again chasing bait.  This scenario could happen numerous times, some returning while others may remain to later move upriver to spawn.

   But what about the more sexually mature fish that are not that really interested in food?  They use the smell of their home stream to navigate, so logically the upriver migration may take place in the outgoing tide, where the salmon can swim into the current, smell home, and use it to navigate that direction.

   On LARGE rivers like the Columbia during the fall migration, there may be a mix of both incoming/outgoing tide fish.  Could it be possible that this "flush in" just happens to be when the most fish were congregated there and initially caught by charter boats which developed the easiest time for catching (Buoy 10 firing line)?

   Now how does this relate to smaller estuaries like Willapa Bay or Grays Harbor where there is no a large number swimming over the bar at any given tide?  To have fishable numbers for the recreational fleet here, the fish have to "stack up" in holding areas.  Now add to that, these recreational fishers have to have the fish as a "WILLING BITER".  So which is the best time for a fisherperson to fish in any given area of the estuary??

   Once they are committed to the flowing river it probably makes little difference except if the high incoming tide seems to be what allows more water flow, allowing them into the actual upper section of the bay, then to move into the upper tidewater section, waiting for rains that will send them into the main flowing river. But water temperature will also play into this.

  Fish the Bottom ? : Most fishermen have been told repeatedly to fish close to the bottom for Chinook.  However it has been my observance that returning salmon seem to use the sides of the river channel in the estuary as a guidance system.  They normally do not follow the bottom of the center of the channel (how do they know?), but by following the sides of this channel while in the bay, where they have some additional guidance.

   Now consider this -- At a slack tide, (either high or low, but normally high because at a low tide there is usually not a lot of water other than the shrunken area.  Where do these slack tide salmon get there guidance?  There is no current, so they probably seem to become bewildered and mill around waiting for a tidal movement.  Many are caught at mid-water depth at these times.  So, it may be best to at a slack tide, instead of dragging a bait near the bottom as you were doing hours before, is to raise it up to mid to upper water depth, (even 15' out with a 4 oz. or less sinker).

   Also entering into this mix will be water temperature in the area you are fishing (which will change with the tide).  Late summer if the weather has been hot, I have seen water surface temperatures in the rivers at 66 degrees PLUS, while if you travel downstream to the mouth, ocean water temperature can be 52/53 degrees. This can also be a contributing factor of where to find your fish, as Chinook ideal water temperature is between 48 and 55 degrees. You may find a smaller river entering the main river that has a cooler watershed (North River).  If this is the case, even 2 degrees may be a place to look for your fish at the mouth of this cooler smaller river.

   Now here is something that may drastically alter the water temperature downward.  It has been observed that during a hot weather season, if you have a number of deep minus tides (-1.5 plus) that there seems to be a large enough flush of backed up warm river water out to sea, which is then replaced by cooler ocean water.  On 8-9-14 at a high tide after a -1.5 low tide, the water temperature at marker #8 was 57.7 degrees (8-10-14 it was 55.7).  This is cooler than just a few days for a normal low tide that was observed at 64.  During these minus tides, many fish that entered the bay on the incoming tide and were caught from Washaway Beach up to river marker #10.  Even Coho were caught in numbers at Washaway.  I suspect fish were even farther up, but the fishermen were content to stay lower down and catch fish than to chase possible fish farther upriver.

   Another thing, on these deep minus tides (at river marker #2, on the outgoing from mid tide on to about mid incoming the water temp is going to be high, (like 65) AND greatly discolored, which will also effect fish catching. It also seems to scour the bottom of the partly decayed weeds, bringing them back up to possibly being suspended.

   So taking all this into account, it may behoove you to alter you fishing depth, depending on the area, tide and water temperature.  Like during a slack or incoming/outgoing tide fish mid depth with a 4 oz sinker (10-15' down or possibly 25' of line out for a normal with the tide trolling speed).  For a mid tide where the full force of the water is moving, then consider fishing nearer the bottom (heavier sinker, 8 or 10 oz, or even more).

    Some of the fishermen who stay there during the season in RVs, moor their boats do not even leave the dock unless it is near an hour prior to high slack.  However, I like the low tide fishing, as in my book this concentrates the fish more if the water temperature cools down.  If you get there before the low slack, then remember the downstream troll as it puts your lure in their face.  Some of my best bites some years have been about 2 hours after low tide, between river markers #2 and #13.

 

   This Willapa Bay/River system is in reality a small system in relationship to others, so depending on a lot of variables, there are not a lot of Chinook that swim across the bar at any given tide change.  They will move into the system either alone or in small schools and congregate in the mid bay.  So depending on the weather (rain, or lack of it) they may stay there, or move upstream rather quickly if it rains even a slight amount.  This may leave a void in the fish concentration area for a while.  It then may behoove you to run downriver to Washaway to try to intercept new arrivals, then slide upstream with them until the process starts over.

 

   You will almost always do a downstream troll, HOWEVER if the tide/current is moving fast enough that your gear will not stay down, then consider shutting the kicker motor off and just drift with the tide.

 

   And how many of you have been told to fish the bottom for Chinook.  Well that may not be totally valid depending on the tide as mentioned above. 

 

   But when encountering lots of floating weeds, one of the better guides has suggested that instead of trying to jockey your line around these gobs, was to poke your rod tip section down DEEP into the water, (as straight down as possible) as you trolled through them and let these weeds accumulate on the rod.  When you are through them, raise your rod and shake the weeds off.  This works surprisingly well in that the rod runs interference and keeps the weeds off the line.  This saves a lot of time and lost time of your lure in the water fishing. 

 

   Now twice I have had a salmon hit while I had the rod poked into the water.  First time, I just passed it off as unimportant.  But the second time it happened, BINGO, a light came on in my pea brain.  Was I possibly not fishing deep enough at that time, (a depression in the bottom?) or what other reason.  I then realized that by dropping my rod tip deep into the water, with a 8'6" or 9' rod, I have effectively done the same as letting out possibly 25' of line, lowering my lure maybe 6' to 10' depending on my rod-holder preset angle.  This has proved effective if trolling with your rod in a rod-holder and a uneven bottom.

 

   So if you are not getting a bite, you might just try this trick, instead of letting more line out.  Kind of like making a turn  and your rod would be on the inside, going deeper.

 

  Water Temperature Plays a Role Here :   As mentioned above, water temperature will vary with the tide and how far upriver you venture.  Temperatures for the year 2006 taken off the Willapa River marker #13 east of Tokeland varied from 56 degrees at a high tide to 61 degrees at a low tide, but this was on a high runoff tide in early September. Then later with a low runoff, it was 64 /67.  2006 saw a temperature of 61 degrees at high and 63.5 at low tide.  2007 saw a temperature of 59 / 66 degrees.  2009 I saw 56 / 66 degrees to 55 / 62.5 depending on the month.  2010 was 61 / 64.5.   2011 was 61.5 / 66.7 in late August but by mid September it was down to 59.7 / 63.6.  2012 saw temperatures of as low as 59.7 low down at a high tide and up to 66.6 upriver near marker #15 as the tide was running out. The year 2015 being a very warm year, mid August upriver water temperature was 69.1 and 69.2 at a high tide, but 66 at marker #2 and 62 at washaway. 

 

    This variation happens depending on the amount of cooler ocean water is mixed with the warmer lower river/upper bay water.  It also varies with the amount of run-off there is in the tides as in a large outflow, normally cooler ocean water replaces some of the warmer bay water.  It seems that the warmer the water, the less the fish bite.    North River water is normally a degree or two lower than the Willapa, so that may be why the fish seem to concentrate around markers #10 to #13 if the temperature is up. 

 

    Now you have to remember that these water temperatures are of surface water, on an incoming tide the salt water being heavier will be near the bottom, which in the early fall where the surface water is warm, the fish may seek refuge nearer the bottom.

 

    If the water is warm and you can not get any bites, switch your normal bait lure over to spinners, as sometimes this will make a difference.

 

 

   After extensive trial and error here, it has become very apparent that early in the fishing season (early August) if there is little or no rain, the Willapa River water can become rather warm.  Upriver water temperature above Raymond has been recorded in the 67/68 degree range.  Depending on the amount of sunlight and wind on any given day, or cloud /fog cover for the preceding days, the water's surface temperature at low tide at marker #13, (the mouth of North River) can be from 63, to even near 68 degrees depending on the time of the tide. This is rather warm for salmon, which usually ignore it if possible, but if forced into it, they may get lethargic, which may explain why, even though the fish may be there, they may not a willing biter.

 

   But something else has entered the picture cooling the warm water that is a benefit to the recreational fisher.  Numerous deep MINUS tides are good in the fact that they allow a lot of the warm backed up river/bay water to escape and be replaced with cooler ocean water.  This seems to attract the fish and I have seem the temperature change from a low tide temperature at marker #8 of 64 degrees to at a full high tide of 56 degrees.  When this happens, the fish will follow that temperature, so be ready and on the water then.  However also be prepared for a lot more weeds because of the high runoff.

 

   With the incoming tide where cooler ocean water mixes with and backs up the warmer fresh water, this area between west of marker #2 (Tokeland) and upriver to about #19 can cool down slightly.  This in my mind may be one of the major contributors of what triggers the high tide bite from an hour prior and possibly two hours after the published low tide. 

   The Chinook may be there in the upper bay (above marker #13 to #19) in this warm low tide water, (and I have seen them jump and have caught a few) however it is my experience they are not aggressive biters UNLESS you may happen to drag your bait right in front of their noses.  Then if no baitfish are there for some time, maybe they become hungry and their feeding habit changes.

   Now comes deciding just when to be on the water which affords you the fisherman the best CATCHING time?  Here your tide-book is your friend.  The tides for Pacific Beaches is the one to look at, but add about 45 minutes to that for the tides off Toke Point (marker #2) and probably another 15 minutes up to #19.

   The ideal fishing time would be a morning high tide of say 6-7AM.  This would allow you to be there at daylight, fish the prime flood tide and do some crabbing or sightseeing in the afternoon. A high tide up to noonish is also fine, you just don't have to get up as early.  A afternoon high tide is also OK IF it does not go later than 3 PM.  The reason is that USUALLY a wind from the SW will pick up from 1 to 2 PM, which within a couple of hours, it is not uncommon to have wind waves to 2' and 12' apart.  Sometimes it may flatten out a tad bit later nearer evening, but don't count on it.  For a small flatter bottomed open boat this creates for a rough ride and wet fisherman on the return trip to the Tokeland docks.  Unless you launch at South Bend or Smith Creek, which then you do not have to contend with heading into these waves, but can return to your launch going with the wind.

   On this high tide bite, the best fishing tends to be on the south side of the river channel from river marker #2 to #8 and then on to #10.  At #13 you are then on the north side of the channel.  It gets shallow (15') near #17 but drops off  to 25' near #19. 

 

   Start one hour before high tide at west of river marker #2 about 1/3 a mile, head to NEAR #2, (either side), but remember there is a sand bar and oyster beds not far south of it, then toward #8 trying to stay in water from 24' to 32'.  As you get closer to #8, it shallows up, (14'- 16') so cut that corner and angle off toward #10 trying to stay near the 25-30' depth.

 

   In addition to this, Chinook salmon seem to congregate west of there (#13) as there is a deeper channel from the north side of #10 and west past #7 and then toward north of #2 a ways at a depth of about 40+'.  This deeper water seems to be a haven for the fish as given the depth AND that North River's slightly cooler water temperature, mixing with the Willapa River water, this tends to create a pocket of cooler water downstream for a couple of miles in this deeper old shipping channel.  So on a outgoing tide, with this in mind, if you have to fish the outgoing tide, this slot may be one to think about that not many fishermen seem interested in.

   All the above said, I have caught salmon here on the low tide, (usually one hour after low tide) but this was later in the season, like the first week to the middle of September where the fish seem more committed to being closer to the spawning grounds AND more abundant along with being confined in the river channel, otherwise it seems to be more of an isolated fish and not be a "bite" where other boats around you are also catching fish.

   If I were to rate catching times/tides, with 100 being the best, 100 would be for high tide a early morning (daylight), 85 would be mid morning, 75 a afternoon.  For the low tide I would probably assign a 65 early morning, 55 for mid morning, with 45 a afternoon number.

 

    One other thing that can be thrown into the mix is if there is a lot of baitfish in the bay.  If you get where there is a LOT of them (usually anchovy), your odds go down because the salmon are not really hungry, as they will be stuffed.  I have seen the water so full of anchovies that the sonar does not work, thinking you are on a sandbar.  Your only hope then is to move, or fish deeper (below the bait).

 

   These fish move into the bay then basically mill around there (between river marker #2 and upriver to # 15) until the weather changes and we get some rain (lowering the water temperature).   SOON (VERY SOON) after a rain, ANY AMOUNT OF RAIN, they start migrating upstream and if you want to catch them you need to also move and fast.  The first day after a rain, they tend to be up to the town of South Bend or even above.  After that they move a lot farther upstream, and seem to congregate at the upper end of tidewater near the Old Willapa (Wilson Creek) boat launch and the bridge near the Tombstone Willie tavern.  However up here the lure is usually a spinner.  And the river itself gets smaller and with a number of underwater debris to where smaller boats, here 12' - 16' have their benefits.

 

   If the wind gets too bad, (over 20 MPH) then consider moving farther upriver to launch at the Wilson Creek boat launch on the main Willapa River above Raymond about 3 miles, and fish the upper reaches of tidewater LINKED TO HERE.  The one thing you should consider if you do this, is that with any boat in the 18' class, is to probably consider fishing downstream from that launch, because after you read this along with others doing it is a bit wider and also less brushy debris in the main channel and you will have less hang-ups downstream.  Up here the water will be more murky, especially during a high run-off tide, so the lures of choice are generally spinners.

 

  Methods of Fishing - Chinook :  Unlike out in the ocean where the use of downriggers and or divers is common, in the tidewater and estuaries the most common method is using a lead cannonball sinker on a dropper line with a sliding sinker attached, and a leader of 3 to 6 feet to the cut plug herring.  Ahead of your lure you will see most fishermen use a Fish Flash attractor.  You may see a few downriggers in use here, but only in the main or edges of the channel (and those that do, are probably handicapping themselves).   The few fishermen that use downriggers contend that the wire runs interference and collects the weeds before they get to the bait.   So take your pick, it may well work for you, but you more than likely abandon the idea on days or tides/wind that you have lots of suspended grass.

 

   Here in the fall, there are floating weeds, (Ell-grass)  (worse after a high runoff tide and then a lower runoff where the weeds don't get a chance to exit the bay) both on the surface and suspended if there has not been a large outgoing flush tide recently. 

Most of the northern bay does not have any weeds, they come from the southern part.   But there is way more water in the southern part (Nasselle and Nemah areas).   On the large outgoing tide, this southern water flows so fast that there can be a 3' riffle dividing the Willapa outflow.   This is usually just north of the juncture of the north/south bays.   When this happens, the flow is so much that the southern weeds are pushed into the Willapa and get stranded there.  It then takes a while for them to finally find their way out and into the ocean. on a 

 

When the tide gets to running out on a high tidal exchange, on into a low tide is when the weeds seem to get worse.  In other words, extended low runoff tides are the best for fishing if you have a weed problem.   This appears to be because many of these weeds are partly rotted and settle near the bottom.  During a high runoff, this fast moving current brings the decaying weeds up, suspending them.   At a high flood tide when things stand still the weeds seem to be the worst as on a low tide, much of the weeds are flushed out to sea.   If you watch your depthfinder, you will see many suspended weeds in the water column.  Many fishermen mistake these suspended weeds for fish.  When you pull some of these suspended weeds in on your sinker/lure, you will see that most of them are partially decomposed, therefore the suspended situation.

 

   The farther upriver,  near the range markers (marker 29) the flat leaved weeds do not seem to be that prevalent, however you then will start to pick up "Angle Hair" type suspended weeds.

 

   Early on, the bulk of these weeds were the invasive Spartina Alterniflora, a non-native grass that is a perennial that dies at the end of the growing season and forms large rafts of seed-rich stems which float out on the tide.  WDFW has become active in spraying this noxious weed for the past few years and headway seems to being made in eradicating it.  However the Department of Ecology is trying to save/improve the lower bay Ell-grass, where here it seems that no state or governmental agencies ever talk to each other.

 

   For those using a diver here, it can accumulate enough weeds so that the diver may NOT release when the fisherman tries to trip it.   This then can become a problem IF for some miracle a salmon does hit the weedy lure, as you now are fighting a fish AND a large gob of weeds, which will give the fish the advantage and could possibly loose the fish.  This is not to say a diver can not be used, but I would only use one on the few rare days that the wind has pushed the floating weeds out of the area.   More than one rod has been broken when trying to pull a heavy gob of weeds in.

 

   There are at least 2 schools of thought on fishing depth here.  The old school is when trolling herring, it is usually important that you keep your bait within 2 to 3 feet or so of the bottom.   This requires the fisherperson to pay attention to your rod because usually this bay is very shallow with constant possible depth changes when you fish the edges of the channel, as viewed by your depth-finder so you must make sure that you are in that salmon zone at all times.  However as years pass, it seems that there has been more vegetation growing (the fine hairlike stuff) on the bottom, especially above river marker #10, so you may rethink here and shorten your line a bit.

   I know another fisherman who usually only fishes the upper bay and has done well on a low tide.  However he fishes shallow, (like 12 pulls of line out) and with a 4 or 5 oz sinker).  And he only fishes herring or Anchovy.  So maybe the low tide bite is something to look for in the shallow upper bay area.
 

    I also know one lady who catches many fish here, but she uses the spectra type mainline, uses a cut-plug herring for bait, fishes a foot off the bottom, never sets her rod in a holder and has developed the sense of feel that she can tell if any weeds have become attached and can also tell exactly when she has a fish inhale the bait.  She however has an experienced skipper husband so she can concentrate strictly on fishing unlike most of us.

   The other school adheres to the concept of somewhere above that.  Many Chinook are caught near the midsection.  These may be fresh traveling fish as compared to others that have been there a while waiting for rain to cool the water and for them to move upriver.

 

   More than one fisherman says use a 4 oz. kidney sinker, let the line out 15 or 16 pulls, (a pull being 2 feet) no matter what water depth they are in.   They may change to a 6 oz. sinker if fishing during a faster moving tide.  I personally want to have at least one rod set at a 1/2 depth, and depending on the water depth and that total depth will usually be from 10' to 15'.  I have also at high tide, caught Chinook using cut plugged herring only 15' out using 4 oz. of lead.  Using these methods, a line counter reel proves it's worth as once you find your comfort zone, just return to the line counter's number.

   If you have a fast moving tide, any salmon that may be there may tend to be hugging the bottom where the current isn't quite as fast as there are few depressions there.  Also look far any drop-offs or behind piling markers where the fish tend to rest downstream from them.

 

   Then as said above, on a slack tide with no current, these fish seem to become disoriented, and may stage mid water column until the tide starts moving again.  Here would be the time to change to a lighter sinker and fish the mid water column, like with a 4 oz. sinker and 25' out as compared to a 6 or 8 oz. weight, fished 35' out and on the bottom.

 

   For me, I have found that if I use one method of fishing and use at least one constant weight, (like 6 oz.), I do not really need to watch my speed, (it could be from 1.5 to 3.5MPH) but I judge my speed by my line angle of of this rod, which I try to maintain about 30 degrees from the surface.  This way my line angle guarantees I am fishing the same water depth no matter the current/tide/wind.  If I get into deeper water or faster moving tide, I go up even to a 12 oz sinker, or let out more line.   Here, my target line counter number is usually 32', up to 42' in the medium water, up to 65' in deeper or faster moving water.  The above method governs my trolling speed over ground (GPS speed), however remember the more line out the more drag you have so your line angle may lesson a bit.  

 

    At a slack tide or trolling across the bay (North/South) I try to be just under 3 mph, but as the tide starts to run the same motor speed may equate to 4.2 or even down to 1.0 mph depending whether you are trolling with or against the tide/wind.   Here I may even increase the weight up to 10 oz.   If your line angle gets at your desired angle but you are bucking the tide and your speed is say anything under 1 mph, you need to pick up then run back to make another pass of trolling with the tide/wind.

 

 

   Wind here can be somewhat of a problem in trying to control your direction of troll especially if you are trying to head directly into it.  This is especially bad if you have a cabin boat.  For those convertible top/windshield boats, if you open the center window, which allows the wind to pass through the boat, and this helps eliminate the "sail" effect of the top.

 

   This salmon fishery can be frustrating at times, as it can be hot and cold from one day to the other which is possible due to the watershed being a very short as far as drainage and not a large number of fish enter the system at any given time.  You have to be there when the fish are.   The people who seem to do fairly well here are the ones who put their time in daily, year after year from August 10th to about September 15th and learn the few tricks required, like when and where the bulk of the fish are picked up.  I hope I am able to convey a few in this article.

   It seems best to place your rod in the rod-holder so the rod is about even with the gunwale and angling rearward maybe 45 degrees, loosen your drag so that when a fish hits, that they can pull line out somewhat, then put your clicker ON.    Also when letting your line out, leave the clicker on otherwise your line may free-spool off so fast your flasher / lure gets tangled with your line and you drag it around long enough before you check your bait that it is badly tangled.  This predicament gets worse as your sinker weight increases, in that case hand strip the lien out.  I try to have a spare rigged flasher, sinker, lure all ready in cases like this and untangle after your new gear is in the water fishing.

 

  Rods ? : You will see many different combinations and lengths of rod being used here.  There are some who, as seen in the photo below, use rods 10' and over, however in my mind these seem to favor the fish and can be detrimental at netting time.  They do allow an inexperienced fisherperson to maintain tension on a fish when using barbless hooks however.  And for those of you who are convinced you need to use braid line, the longer rod helps by being your shock absorber, where when using Mono, it is the shock absorber and a shorter rod (8' or 9') can be used effectively.  And these long rods do allow the fisherperson to enjoy the fight, BUT if the fish happens to be a wild Chinook that you have to release to aid wild fish conservation, then you may have just signed it's death warrant because you have tired it out, allowing the seals an easy meal. 

 

   Then short 7' rods seem to have their problems also.  I have settled on 8'6" or 9' rods in a medium or medium fast action and recommending a line weight of 15# to 20 or 25#.   I personally use a 25# test monofilament line with a 40# mono leader.

 

  Something to Ponder : You will see most of the boats trolling with the current (upriver/downriver).  These fish will be swimming in THEIR travel lanes which may vary depending on the structure of the bottom and/or the tide.  You will increase your odds if you zig-zag across these travel lanes (usually north/south) rather than try to luck out and stumble on moving fish.  Also a combination of that would be to make numerous circles, where the tide will be pushing you so that your circles overlap.   However this may be impossible at times when there are a lot of boats on the water or there is a wind blowing, but many times, you can find a spot outside these boat travel lanes that you can have all to yourself.

 

   I have also thought about finding a prospective location where you do not interfere with the other fisherpersons and anchor up, using the current to work your lures.  Kind of like a Hog Line in the Columbia River.

 

  Chinook Takedown : When these Chinook do bite, is usually nothing dramatic, you may see the rod tip make 2 or 3 quick dips, but most of the time (if you are not actually watching the rod), you may think that you hung up on a gob of weeds.  Your line could come up in the water column and when you start reeling, the weeds put up more of a resistance than normal, but weeds do not wriggle.  It seems that if you do not detect the initial bite, even with with the reel's drag could be set at a moderate setting, the fish may tend to somewhat swim along with you and the boat.  That is not so if it may be a fish much larger than 20#.  At least the last 12# to 20# fish I had on just seemed to follow for me if I miss the takedown.  Or if you are not paying attention, you may just hear a ZZZT ZZZT ZZT of your clicker.  OR a neighboring boat may yell, "You Have a Fish On".  If you are using monofilament line, then a modest hookset would be appropriate.  If you are running braid line, then a MINIMAL hookset.

  However, when using barbless hooks, and where the hookup is not detected at the takedown, (or soon thereafter) this could be a chance for a lost fish because of the hook not being imbedded into bone where the fish then is not hooked solidly. Here, with barbless hooks, your prime objective is to NEVER give the fish any slack, keep tension on it at all times, which is hard if the fish is not overly large AND wants to come right to the boat before the fishing partner can get the other rods cleared and get the net ready.

It seems that most times these early fish will tend to be hatchery males.

 

  Methods of Fishing - Coho :   The bulk of the Coho do not enter the bay until about mid September and later.   Usually by this time the commercial gill nets really move in and things can become congested.  However a goodly number of these Coho appear to be non-biters for the sports fisherpersons.  But then there are a few fisherpersons that do connect more often than most, you have to have be there with your gear in the water.  In recent years, my experience is by the first week of September about 15% of your catch can be Coho.   Some of those who target Coho will fish different areas of the bay than they do for Chinook.  They can fish shallow water, at the edge of the oyster beds during low tide and in water even to 4' deep.   Coho tend to follow the shoreline way more than Chinook.

 

   If you happen to see a school of Coho jumping and moving upstream at a high incoming tide, they will be near shore.   Move away from them, run upstream, wait, then cast spoons or spinners in front of the school.  However these fish are very spooky, so if you need to move while close to them, use a electric trolling motor instead of an outboard.   Do not let the fact that the ones you can see are on the top of the water column fool you.  The biters will not usually be the jumpers, but beneath them.

 

   The other thing to do when targeting the late Coho, is to move downriver below the jetty and target them from the jaws up to the jetty on the high incoming tide.  There seem to be a couple of different travel lanes for Coho here, one is to fish the deeper water near the center or south side of the entrance.  The other is the Northern shore near the green roofed house that is protected by it's own rock emplacement, up to the jetty.  However this can be awful weedy if you are there on a high run-off of a minus tide.

 

  Area Definition :  The West boundary of Marine Area 2-1 was changed in 2016 from an imaginary line from Cape Shoalwater to Ledbetter point to a GPS coordinate, which is now east of what used to be the old "C" buoy, that everyone was accustomed to using by a few hundred yards.  This westerly boundary is now described as the westerly most landfall on Cape Shoalwater (46-44.66 N  124-5.30 W). 

 

  This can get you in trouble at times depending on what areas are open/closed as compared to the bag limits.  What the regs say (depending on the year) from July 1 to July 31, MA 2-1 uses the same rules as MA 2.  August 1 MA 2-1 can have a more generous limit, so what can happen is if you slide west beyond this now defined boundary AND catch a fish or two, they need to me marked on you Catch Record Card as if caught in MA 2, where as you probably are not aware and mark them as MA 2-1.  WDFW rules usually define an area as where the boat returns to what area is covered by the regs at that point.  The two bag limits can not be mixed.  You can not catch and mark fish caught in MA 2, then slide upriver and catch fish in the same boat in MA 2-1 to finish a MA 2-1 limit for that day.

 

   Or, if after the ocean MA 2 is closed, and you fish beyond this boundary, you are in violation of fishing in a closed area.  

 

   The official Eastern separation between the bay (Marine Area 2-1) and the river is at the South Bend boat launch.  This is where the fresh water is more prevalent than salt water, the use of spinners and lures starts being the predominant lure and most times will out produce all others.  This area upstream to the Camp One bridge over the Willapa near the Wilson Creek launch is fished differently and is covered in a different article.  When salmon hit spinners or lures they seem to be getting out of the feeding mode and into the reaction strike mode this usually coincides with the influence of some fresh water and or a temperature rise.

 

  Sonar :  Sonar/depthfinder will be your best ally here, but not for finding fish as the sonar cone at 15' to 25' is going to be so small that you will have to be right over the fish in order to see any.  It will be used mainly to help keep you focused on the bottom depth contour, and since you will want to be fishing near the bottom, to help you adjust your lure depth.  And there is so much suspended weeds that you may confuse these weeds for fish.

 

   I have seen where a fine tuned sonar shows NUMEROUS LARGE fish arches, where if they were actually fish, you would have to have snagged some of them.  But when you pull in your line, there are gobs of large weeds that did not show on the surface, meaning they were suspended.  All the sonar books say fish arches are where the sonar is seeing air in fish swim bladders.  If that is so, my guess is since these weeds are decomposing and suspended that in the deterioration process, they emit small amounts of methane gas and clinging as small bubbles to the weed's surface, which is what the sonar is actually picking up.

 

    In this shallow water, you will find it best to lower the sensitivity on your sonar unit, as fish can feel this electronic signal on their lateral line and may well shy away if it is too powerful.   So if you are using the same boat that you also use in saltwater where you may be in water 200' to 300' and need to remove "clutter" on your screen by decreasing the sensitivity there, remember to make this simple adjustment downward, otherwise you may be placing yourself in the 90% category who don't catch as many fish.

 

  There is Also a Commercial Gill Net Fishery Here:  So, go to Commercial netting schedule, Willapa or to check with WDFW at the Montesano office as to when the netters are on the river, which is usually shortly after the middle of September.   If you call the WDFW, be prepared for them to give you some dates and commercial areas that mean nothing to the sport fisherperson.  

   Here is the Commercial salmon/sturgeon landings.  For a map of the Willapa commercial areas CLICK HERE.

   For a weekly account of the commercial netting CLICK HERE.

   A number of years ago, when I first started to really fish this area, I tried to run from the South Bend launch downriver and had to weave thru 32 net sets at low tide which was not fun.  If you are really determined to fish this river when the gillnets are in, it may be best to slide up the North River channel and out of the bulk of their way.  Sport fishermen claim that for 3 or 4 days after the nets come out, the sport catch drops off to nothing.  This makes sense in that the number of fish entering the bay on each tide may be minimal.

    Their commercial season usually runs from mid August for a  week, with the possible week-ends off for a couple of weeks and then for about 10 days straight onto the middle of October.  You can try to fish on the 2nd day of the gillnet off days, but I have not been really successful in doing this, (caught 1 small Coho in one day of fishing).    But by then the fish are homeward bound and are not very aggressive biters for the sportsmen anyway.

   Legally a net can not be laid across the complete river, but you may see one netter lay his from the north side to mid river and another netter lay his from the south side to mid river, they tie up to each other for a coffee/BS session in the middle.  A recreational boater then will have to negotiate around the end of the net, usually in 2-3 feet of water if it is a low tide.  The gillnetters can not legally net west of Jacobson Jetty so, when they fill the bay in mid-September, sport fishing inside becomes difficult at best, but anglers brave enough to fish the beach can pick off late-run kings and bright silvers before they reach the nets.

   I have also seen floating dead undersize sturgeon after these netters have pulled out.

  Launches :  There are actually at least 8 launches  that can be used in the Willapa Bay.  These listed below are in sequence from starting at the lowest one on the bay, then up the bay and then the actual Willapa River, finally into the southern part of the bay behind Long Beach.

             (1) Tokeland, Port of Willapa Harbor
            (2)  Smith Creek, WDFW
            (3)  South Bend, City of South Bend
            (4) Raymond City Park  (not recommended for low tides, as it is shallow and MUDDY)
            (5) Old Willapa / Wilson Creek WDFW
            (6) Bay Center  (this appears to be a private launch)
            (7) Palix River, WDFW
            (8) Long Island, Willapa National Wildlife Refuge

   Depending on what part of the bay you plan on fishing, you can consider any of these launches.  For the normal fishery the preferable ones would probably be #1 & 3, they are closer to the action and do not require running thru a narrow channel, or longer distance.

  The Tokeland Launch :  This launch is owned by the Port of Willapa Harbor and a $10.00 fee is charged.  Pay before launching.  The port has a self pay box at the south head of the ramp for lesser used days and during heavy usage will have a port employee parked there in a pickup truck with a sticker on it saying "Harbormaster".   Or you can purchase a yearly launch  pass.  This runs a year from the date of purchase and for us old geezers is $75.  You will see an average of 40 boats launching per day from this ramp during the peak fishing time during the week of the first week of September.  Weekends will be closer to over 100 and at times the launch line extends a considerable distance, however these are not boaters, but fishermen where they have their procedures pretty well perfected, so launching goes fast here.  This number does not count the boats that are moored there.  Moorage has been increased in 2017, so more happy fishers abound.

   The boat preparation area is just south of the ramps, basically on the side of the main road leading in.  The sport dock has moorage and the commercial docks are also available.  There is plenty of parking area in the grass parking lot to the west.   

 

   The old Tokeland Bait and Tackle Store has been demolished and a new larger building has been built in 2021, but not to be occupied until 2022 when the Port is proposing to purchase My Suzie Willapa RV Park when she retires after the 2021 season.   The plans include in this building, the Harbormaster's office, RV space rentals, rest rooms, public showers etc.

 

 

     Also, the RV park is to be totally renovated and owned by the Port.

   This is a busy place during the last of August and September, especially on the week-ends. Come the middle of September when the commercial gill net fleet moves into the northern part of the bay (2T), this place becomes deserted, as it is about impossible to have recreational fisherpersons fish alongside the gill nets.  Remember recreationals need a willing biter as compared to the nets which just take anything that swims.

   One bad ting about launching here is if it is a busy week-end, takeout can become congested, and especially bad for the solo fisherman.  Here the wind will about always be blowing (usually from the west) when you return to the dock.  Observe it and use it to your benefit when recovering the boat on the trailer otherwise, I have seen boats setting crosswise on trailers as the solo operator is trying to fight the wind.  I have found that by tying up to the leeward side of the dock then using a bow AND a stern line, with the trailer backed down slightly deeper than power-loading, you can use the wind in your favor to drift the boat away from your dock and inline with the trailer as you pull on the stern line and guide the bow with the bow line using enough boat momentum, walking the boat onto the trailer to within a foot of being fully loaded.

The upper Willapa Bay section with the South Bend launch just out of sight on the river channel on the right hand edge of this chart

The lower (outer) Willapa Bay section to the ocean

 

   In early 2000 the Port redid the ramp to include a 2-lane corrugated concrete ramp with docks on both sides.  The only drawback is that each lane is a single and the north side you had better be good at backing otherwise your pickup fenders will be hitting the sides of the docks if you have to maneuver a lot to back down. 
 

   The port later dredged the whole boat basin.   Now the concrete ramp extends down to -2.0' with a bumper at the end of the concrete.  The picture on the left below was taken 7-02-04 at a MINUS 2' LOW tide.  The pole farthest out on the right has marks at 1 foot intervals with a floating foam around it, however this has long departed the scene, probably because of careless boaters and the wind at recovery time.

 

   As of 2014 a new harbormaster is usually parked at the ramp in the mornings.  If the tide is much below a -0- tide he will not allow a dual axle trailer to launch until the tide comes in.  Even with a single axle trailer launching may be where your wheels have to go over the bumper at the bottom.  OK for launching, but not for recovering.

 

   Also as you can see in the photo below, usually the north ramp is covered with a lot of slimy mud, so he will close it first.

 

   In 2013 the port has received a grant for rebuilding the boat basin, so possibly things will improve in 2014, no not yet.  2015 saw a new small building being built to contain permanent restrooms on the ground floor and a Harbormaster's office upstairs.  Another building on the southern end of the area is retail sales area of Nelson's Seafood as they have vacated the "Porch".  Mid September saw them demolishing the old fish buying building off the southern outer end of the boat basin.  The rumor was that they were supposed to add 40 more berths here.  Early summer of 2106 saw the old fish buying building, the dilapidated outer disconnected float, replaced, providing more berthing.   

 

    Now for the good and bad about using this launch/facility.  Launching here is great even during a heavy use day, BUT RECOVERY can be the pits on a heavily used week-end.  There is not much of an "on the water staging area" for incoming boats.  The transit dock on the north at the ramp will get congested during the week-end and no one knows who is on 1st or even who is on 2nd.  The main rental mooring dock is totally disconnected south from the launch docks, so if you pull in there to drop someone off there they have to walk all the way around to the parking area and then get the trailer in line.  The trailer line on the road to the south is blocked from view for any of the returning boaters by commercial fish buying buildings.   I have seen 12 to 15 vehicles with trailers lined up and if the first vehicle only wants to recover from a certain one of the two lanes, then things get blocked.  The only way to accomplish a good reload is to nose up to one of the docks, drop off a vehicle driver, let them get the vehicle and trailer in line and have him/her communicate to the boater when they are next for the ramp access.  A solo boater is simply out of luck until the crowd dissipates.   

 

   There was such a long take out line one day, that I even dropped off my fishers (not boaters who would or could not run the boat nor back the trailer down the ramp), so I gave them my vehicle key and had them drive around to the Smith Creek launch for me to recover there.  And by way of water, I actually beat them to that launch.

  Fuel :  There is no fuel anywhere near this dock area for those who may moor here.  The fuel dock upriver at South Bend appears to be private for the commercial crabbers and or other commercial boats.  The closest land based gas station would be to haul fuel from the Shoalwater Indian Reservation "Georgetown Station" on Highway 105, they have built (10-10-2010) a convenience store/ gas/diesel station with the 3 fuel bays high enough to accommodate RVs.  However the store does not open until 6AM  and if the fuel pump tells you to get the receipt inside, you are out of luck.  And during the 2013 season they also constructed another large building, which now houses a restaurant and gift shop.  One thing I like about this gas station, they were one of the first that when you use a credit card to purchase fuel, it asks for your 5 digit zip code.  This pretty well gives the user some security in reference to a stolen credit card as the address is not shown on the cards.

 

  RV Parks :  In the small metropolis of Tokeland, there are a few RV Parks.  One just behind the bait shop and beside the launch parking lot, My Suzie Willapa RV Park,  3230 Front Lane, Tokeland, 360-267-7710, and the fees were $25 a day for full hook up, $150 a week, or $350 a month as of 2013.   This park has full hookups down to tent camping.

 

 

   The other is Bayshore RV Park 2941 Kindred Ave. 1-800-638-2625, which about 1/2 a mile before you get to the launch on the south side of the road across from the old hotel.   Their website is www.bayshoretokeland.com .

 

  The South Bend Launch :  This launch as been rebuilt the summer of 2004, with an extra wide single lane poured corrugated concrete ramp with a spot or two of parking for handicapped.   There is a portable sanitary toilet on the premises.

 

   The City of South Bend has revised it's boat launch and dock ordinance the spring of 2007.   Fish cleaning is NOT ALLOWED on floats, dock, ramp, etc. as this is in violation of the city ordinance.  There is now a $5 maintenance fee for launching at the ramp.  That maintenance fee includes one day's parking in the launch area.  One day is defined as 00:01 to 24:00.  If parking multiple days, a $5 fee is due each calendar day.  Unattended vehicles without trailers are also assessed a $5 fee.  If you have buddies, with their vehicles, it is suggested to have them park downtown and pick them up by boat at the main dock.   Also a $10 tent or RV parking fee is charged.  The tent camping appears to be the small grassy area just west of the upper part of the launch and just south of the upper end of the launch.  The sign for RV parking indicates that this is only allowed west of the sign which is about mid point of the trailer parking.  It is a little wider here, or it appears to be some gravel extended on the west end that may be possibly used for this parking.

 

   A street light was added 2008 at the head of the ramp near the information board, making early launches and late retrievals easier.   Also one can read the info on the board in predawn times.   Previously, a few did not pay claiming the dark or the fog prevented them seeing the launch pay info.

 

   As of 8-2009, the city has been expanded the parking area further south of the old parking area.   But now the DOT then posted signs prohibiting parking on highway shoulder (which previously happened week-ends around late August up thru Labor Day).  

 

   Now to confuse things, there is a Discovery Pass / WDFW Access Pass sign near the parking area.  DO NOT let this sign confuse you boaters.  The sign apparently is for vehicle parking, but to launch, you need to pay the launch fee.  Apparently the ramp is owned by the city, while the rest is owned by the WDFW, the county or who knows.

 

   This launch is located on the main Hiway 101 just West of the town of South Bend.  The main parking lot is just past the launch northwest of the main launch area.  It is a good ramp for boats up into the 20'+ class.  Even the 30' gillnet boats launch here at a high tide.  The ramp is is angled out and downstream with a dock on the downstream side.  A loading/unloading float running parallel with the river as been added early 2007 off the end of the main launching dock.  The concrete ramp goes to just below the end of the dock with heavy gravel below the concrete that is angled down at about twice the ramp angle.  This launch would probably be the best for a minus tide launch of any the launches on the bay area, however you may well be off the concrete.

 

   At minus tides below -1' the slab end is exposed, and you are on the gravel/mud.  A number of boats, 17' to 19' boats do launch at minus tides with trailer off slabs and have no problems.

Retrieving however might depend on vehicle, size of boat, etc.  I personally like a lot of water over the slab when retrieving.

 

   Now be aware that since this ramp and dock is situated in the river which also can have a heavy tide running, where recovery on a outgoing tide it will push your boat tight against the upper side of the dock.  It can be a chore to reload the boat if you park it in the middle of the ramp.  Therefore you may consider backing down normally, then just before your trailer tires get to the water's edge, cramp the trailer so it sharply angles TOWARD the dock.  Now you can powerload (or hand line) by using the dock's edge as a rub guide and angle the bow onto the trailer, then power on (or mostly), doing the final loading by winching.  This beats wading out and trying to pull the bow out in line of the trailer while fighting the current.

 

   Launching from this ramp will put you into the upper fishing area rather soon, as you will be running downriver and can be fishing at the big bend seen to the left in the picture within 1 mile.  The distance by water from this launch to Tokeland is about 8 miles.  However you will be fishing about 3 to 4 miles upriver from Tokeland.  If you are coming in on Highway 6 at Raymond or north on Highway 101, it is a lot faster to run the distance to the fishing area than it is to drive around to the Tokeland launch, and then run back into the same fishing area of the river that you had driven by.

 

   This is especially true late in the season when the fish tend to be higher up in the bay AND if the wind picks up in the afternoon, you can slide upriver to the launch instead of bucking a snotty run back to Tokeland, (especially in a smaller or open boat).

 

 

  Rules Change Depending on Where You Fish:  WDFW rules define Marine Area 2-1 as anything in the bay downstream (west) of the South Bend launch.    IF WDFW allows barbed hooks in the marine area 2-1  BAY, it does not apply to the RIVER above the South Bend launch.    The Willapa River Area  424 is designated as from the South Bend boat launch to highway 6 bridge approximately 2 miles below the mouth of trap Creek.   "August 16-Nov 30  night closure, single point barbless hooks REQUIRED, and stationary gear restriction, except stationary gear restriction not in effect from the mouth, (the South Bend launch) to WDFW access at the mouth of ward Creek/Wilson Creek."  This barbless hooks can be a sleeper to the unknowing and barbless tickets have been written in this upper section by WDFW.

 

   As of 2010 the barbless hooks requirement went into effect for the bay, as is release unclipped Chinook, so both bay and river are now the same to simplify enforcement.

 

   Also for 2014, parts of the bay are closed to both recreational and commercial Chinook retention before October 1 to protect the NATURAL Chinook.   Read you regs.

 

  Definitions of Areas & Background Information:  If you drive the Highway 105 past the Shoalwater Tribe's casino, stop at this rock breakwater (Jacobson's Jetty) during a mid outgoing tide, look off the end of the breakwater, you will notice a rather swift section of water.  Since this breakwater has been installed most of the fishing has shifted upriver after about the last of August.  There are a few "Dip In" fish that enter the outer bay ("Wash-Away") area  from the middle of July up until the 1st of September.  But this depends on the amount of bait available that they follow in.   Dip In fish are defined as ocean fish that follow the baitfish into and out of the bays on a high incoming tide.

 

   My belief is that this breakwater has raised the water speed and or turbulence to the point that the bait does not stay there in the locations/concentrations that it used to.  There will be a tide rip off the end of this breakwater that at times can become nasty for a small boat, depending on the tide, as there is a drop off of 100' there from about 30'.

 

   The fall of 2006 and then again in 2012 saw some rip-rap rocks being placed along the road below this jetty on the banks of Cranberry Creek.

   On a low tide, you as a fisherman will usually be confined to fishing the upper bay from Willapa River marker #2 to #28.   As a definition, the upper Willapa bay is DEFINED FOR THIS ARTICLE is anything east of the entrance to Tokeland Marina and marker #2.   Observing the piling marker numbers, which seem to use a separate system for (1) the outer Willapa bay, (2) the upper Willapa bay, (3) North River, (4) and the southern rivers where each may somewhat duplicate the other.  As a point of interest there is a bay marker #15 and also a Willapa River marker #15.   Remember that the lowest numbers are closer to the mouth of each. 

 

   The south bay would contain any part of the bay behind Ledbetter Point/Long Beach Peninsula leading to Bay Center, south to where the Nemaha and Naselle Rivers branch off.  I am not that currently familiar with the markers for the southern part of the bay. 

 

  Commercial Oyster Harvest :  At low tide it is not uncommon to see employees of the commercial oyster companies on the sand/oyster beds south of piling Willapa River markers #2 to #8 gathering oysters, putting them in large baskets to be picked up by large flat bottomed oyster barges using overhead booms and a winch later during the high tide.  If the tide is going out, you do not realize it and slip south of the piling markers #2 to #8, you may very likely find yourself in very SHALLOW WATER, like being stuck in the mud on the edges of the oyster beds.

 

   There is also another method they use and that is to drag a purse seine.  This seems to work surprisingly well and probably because they have grown the seed oysters and when using this method of harvest are taking all the same size.   They use a bag on each side of the boat attached to booms, drag each for a certain amount of time, hoist it up, swing over the deck and a worker trips the bottom of the purse.  I suspect by using GPS, they can pretty well identify the location and the closeness they have come to overlapping the previous passes.

 

 

  Washaway Beach :  In the summer of 1998, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) with funding assistance from the Federal Highway Administration, constructed a rocky groin and underwater dike adjacent to State Route 105 on the north side of Willapa Bay in the vicinity of North Beach.  The structure was designed to arrest the northward migration of a deep ebb tidal channel that, if continued to move northward, threatened to erode the only transportation link connecting Tokeland and the Shoalwater Indian Reservation with Grayland and Westport.

 

   This rock structure is known locally as Jacobson's Jetty, (named after a old-time landowner in the area) as shown by the black line in a map below, at the upstream section that used to be the fishing area.   Off the end of this breakwater/rock jetty is an underwater diversion dike, so if you are boating here at before a high or low run off tide, be careful of the turbulence.  This jetty has not placed there to stop the erosion of Washaway Beach as most people think, but to protect the highway.  

 

   This jetty was not what was needed to preserve Washaway Beach as the washing away action was not caused by the river, but the southwesterly winter winds pounding the beach at Cape Shoalwater with no north jetty for this river for protection.  But the word was that since Weyerhaeuser no longer used ships to send export logs from this mill, there is now no commercial traffic and the US Army Corp. of Engineers has no authority to maintain a river mouth jetty.

 

   Downstream of the breakwater on the north shore is a riprapped protected house, named after the owner "Bennet".  It originally had this riprap placed just around the outer part of the property, as things worsened, more was added making it very prominate.   Along the washaway shore in usually about 15'-20' feet of water fishermen will troll in the incoming tide, trying to intercept Chinook entering the bay.  This however is a hit-miss situation as these are only traveling fish.  Later in the fall when Coho are moving in, I have found that they seem to be more along the south edge of the channel, in choppier water.

 

   It is a sad sight to walk the beach here at low tide and count the 1 1/2" to 2" metal pipes standing a few feet out of the water in line with the washed out roads.  These are well pipes that are all of what was left of the homes in that area that got washed away over the years.  The summer of 2014 at a deep minus tide, I stood in one place there and counted 41 of these abandoned wells.

 

 

  Fishing Area :  In the map below you will notice the lower buoys, as purple dots, north side marker piling in round green dots, the south side piling markers in red, with the launches in purple.  The piling on North River are in yellow. The piling marker numbers are indicated on this chart.   I am hesitant to give the buoy or marker numbers for the bay unless accompanied by GPS numbers also, or as for the lower bay #13 unless adding "by the cannery", as they may duplicate the river marker numbers which can get confusing.  Also the map below is a satellite photo so you can see the deeper holes or channels along with exposed mud at which appears to pretty much be a high tide photo.

 

 

   The Willapa River channel runs from just south of Toke Point in the bay, east to the upriver Range Point on the bay's eastern shore.  You will see the north side green piling markers #1, 7, 13, 15, and 19 plus the red range markers on this upriver bend.  There is a sandbar south of river marker #1 coming out of Tokeland where it gets real shallow just north of #7 so don't try to drift to much north of these markers from #15 on, as it starts to get shallower where the mud is unforgiving on an outgoing tide. 

 

   The south channel markers will be #2, 8, 10, 22 and 26.  Also do not use one of the previous Fishing and Hunting News illustrated map of about the year 2000 or so.  The shaded area they list as motor mooching is really tide flats at low tide (MUD) north of the green marker line. 

   And at a tide in the lowish end (but not actually there yet), as mentioned previously, do not slip south of river marker #2 to #8 as you will be aground on a sandbar leading to the oyster beds.  Below (west) of river marker #2 is bay marker #16.  There is another sandbar that extends northwest into the river channel that can sneak up on you in the morning if you are running back upriver, looking into the sun glistening off the water (Been There-Done That).   This bay is a area where your sonar needs to be set at a loud 5' low alarm. 

  

   The farther west and downstream in the bay you get, the more sand sharks you will encounter.  

 

   Most of the fishing that currently takes place are in five general locations in this bay.  

 

 (1)  Depending on the weather, some will run out to the outer bay buoy (C Buoy) starting about 2 hours after low tide.  Then troll northerly, being pushed in by the wind and tide.  They usually end up near
Bennett's green roofed house below the jetty.  By doing this they cover more fishable area instead of trolling in with the current.

 

 (2) Starting at just inside the breakers at the mouth, in about 20' of water, along Washaway Beach, to the breakwater jetty.  There seem to be a few fish lay just below this jetty at times , but if weeds are in they will be there also.  But getting there especially on a outgoing tide, it gets rather rough off the end of the jetty on an outgoing tide for a small boat.

 

 (3)  Above the breakwater to the bay piling marker #11 then upriver along the east shore about ¼ mile

 

 (3a)  From near bay marker #13 then west to #15 along the north shore off Nelson's cannery to just outside the Tokeland boat basin entrance.  NOTE that at this entrance the markers change numbers from the bay to river numbers so here you will see #1.

 

 (3b) From the Tokeland boat basin entrance move across the channel to the south side following the red marker pilings from river marker #2 up to river marker #8

 

 (4)  From river marker #8 to  river marker #10, #13 and up to #17 off the mouth of North River.   Marker #13 is at 46-42-012 / 123-54-577 which is just east of the entrance to North River. 

 

 (5)  Then above marker #17 and on up to below the South Bend launch at #26 which usually takes place like most estuary fishing on the incoming, up thru the high flood tide.    Marker #19 to #24 is in the upper of this location that seems to be a preferred location for some, usually on the last part of the high tide or with a south wind blowing.  Then later in the season with more wind, many move farther upriver nearer #26 to #35.

   These areas will change depending on the time of the salmon run timing,  The early fish (Late July to usually mid August) will be Dip-In-Fish.  This means the salmon as they migrate south along the Washington coast are following the anchovy and herring, which slide into the river mouth on the incoming tide.  It is not uncommon to catch a Tule (which are Columbia River fish) in the bay of this early fishery. The salmon feed on the baitfish, moving upriver with the tide and then back out on the outgoing tide.  It has been documented (by commercial fishery counts) that over 50 % of these early fish are really heading for the Columbia River and south.  These early fish will usually only be caught in the lower section, (below Tokeland).  As the time creeps into later August and September the composition changes more to local fish, which then usually congregate farther upriver IF THE TEMPERATURE is conducive to their being there.

 

   The low tide difference from the ocean to this #5 fishing area is about another hour and 15 +- minutes.  The most preferred time seems to be the last one hour of high incoming flood tide and then 2 hours into the start of the outgoing probably.   Others fish the low slack tide, again about an hour before and 2 hours after.  This seems the time when the bites will occur.  So if there are few fish in the bay, this is the time to fish, however if there are fish moving in, then again the best, but you can then pick up fish all day long, only not in any quantity.

 

   It is my experience that a low run-off tide of say 3', (the difference between the low tide and the previous high tide) will not be as good catching, probably because of a lesser flow where the salmon do not move into the bay.  Trolling will normally be best WITH the incoming tide up until about high slack tide, then the troll becomes both directions.   Trolling however may be a problem on being able to go exactly where you want to go because of the wind or a large amount of weeds in a weed-line.  Or if there are a lot of boats fishing, it is kind of hard to not follow the flow unless you move away from them.

   I personally tend to like the low slack tide fishery for the true Willapa fish, better as the fishable water is condensed, also forcing the fish into a more confined location.   Some so called knowledgeable fishermen say this fishery is to not really a time of the day fishery, but a tide fishery.  Well some of my catches do not totally substantiate that.   My experience is possibly there are both a time and tide bite.  And IF you can get the two to coincide, then your chances get better.  By time, it seems the morning along with the evening are the best.  And like most say, 1 hour before and 2 hours after a slack tide seems to be good.  Sure you may catch a fish or so in between, but even a blind squirrel finds an acorn occasionally.

 

    Do not pass up a low tide at daylight where you can get on the water and fish the incoming tide, up thru a high slack.  With the low tide, the bay shrinks considerably.   This can be a benefit in that there is a lot less area for the fish to hide in, but concentrates the floating weeds also.  At this time is best to slide upriver from #13, which tends to have less weeds and also forces the fish into a smaller channel.  But remember that fishing at low tide, the fish will not necessarily be in the same location in the bay as they were at high tide.

 

   Also there can be a very good evening bite if the tide and wind cooperate.

 

   Most of the fisherpersons who set up camp there for a month and appear to be the dedicated ones who seem to catch fish and they seem to fish only the tide changes.   But I guess if I was there for a month, that is a lot of time on the water, that I could get tired of that much fishing.  They usually get out before breakfast, fish then go back in only to come out on the later tide change.

 

   In the photos below these are typical hatchery Willapa Chinook.  You will find fish up into 30# range, but not many.

 

 

  Method :  Probably one of the most common mistake is to get set trolling and not realize the tide has increased in speed and you are not covering much ground.  This may be attributed to a good slack tide troll in either direction, and then as the tide starts to move again the fisherman does not realize just how fast it is going unless he is using a sonar/GPS that has a MPH reading or moves past a piling but will continue to fish in the easiest direction of travel.  This problem can be eliminated if you use my line angle method of governing the speed.   Remember, a GPS reading can also read a speed if you are LOOSING ground. 

 

   If this is the case, it is best to pick up and run into the tide, set down then troll back with the tide.  Sometimes this troll back seems to fly by, and you begin to wonder if it is worth the effort.  One very observant young fisherman said that we are trying to reproduce the action of a wounded baitfish and that he has never seen a wounded fish swim into a current, but rather being carried by it.   Makes sense to me.   Sometimes we just keep doing what everyone else is doing, not really understanding why, kind of like a flock of sheep.  I have also seen upriver on a mid high tide, it being beneficial to drop in right close to the south shore and make a pass on an inside corner.

 

   In my mind, the ideal time would be when the high slack tide would be say about 7 AM and a full moon out.   This gives you time to get out and on the water at daylight, 5:30 AM, fish the prime times and be off the water when the wind picks up in the afternoon.  Again the wind WILL pick up from the west about noon to 1-2 PM.   If it doesn't, consider yourself lucky.  If say at 3PM the outgoing tide is running and you are trying to troll downstream with the current with the wind blowing you back, it is very hard to control the boat. 

 

   Under other conditions or areas, this would be the time to troll in a zig-zag, but here there are usually enough boats nearby that it would be way too much of a hassle.  When the conditions get that bad, you should consider calling it quits for the day instead of fighting the wind and getting nowhere.  On second thought, pick a likely location out of the main channel so the other fishermen are not going to get irritated with you, drop anchor, then simply "Plunk" your lure as if you were a bank fisherman until and if the wind calms down.

 

   The other mistake is to not check your gear often enough to be sure there is no weeds on the lure.  In a lot of weed infestation, pulling it in to check every 10 minutes may not be excessive.

 

 

   One trend of thought here is that the fish at the entrance of the bay will be partially swept in by the incoming tide and maybe a few miles depending on the tideal movement, but early in the season it is probably that they are really just following baitfish.    This moving later in the bay may also relate to those that are committed to their spawning run and they then will stage at the upper location they were at and then be migrating upstream into the out-flowing water.

 

   Now this may vary depending on the amount of run off.  If the flow gets too strong, these Chinook may well slide into a protected area of a depression in the bottom, or duck behind a piling marker that has collected debris in front of it, creating a resting place.  This can well be used to your advantage.  

 

   Then trolling with the current it may well be hard depending on the time of the day and the tide if you have other boats in the area and you have the wind to contend with also.  Not saying you will not catch fish trolling against the tide, but your odds become less.  You will have to adjust your motor speed to keep from just standing still.  This is not a fishery where you get a lot of upstream migrating fish passing under you.  As the tide nears either low or high slack, then there is an hour or so that you can effectively troll either direction.

 

   The wind WILL pick up about 1 to 2 PM, so this also effects fishing.  It may lay down later in the afternoon at times (5:00PM or so if the tide is right), but do not count on it happening.   The worst days of catching for me happened to be with an east wind, maybe this was just coincidental, with no fish were in the bay, BUT?  The worst days of trying to control the boat when trolling is when the wind is coming from the west or south as the bay is exposed more from these directions.  The best is when it occasionally comes from the north.  If it gets so windy that you can not fish near the entrance to the Tokeland Marina entrance near marker #1 and #2, the only thing to do is move upriver which gives you some protection with the hills to the north and south.  It can at times then be fishable from marker #19 upriver.  And there is a slightly deeper slot at #19 which sometimes proves productive as evidenced by the fish in the left hand photo below at the end of the high slack "Bite".

 

 

   I have not been able to locate depressions in the bottom here like other bays, as much of this bay (at least in the fishing areas) is rather flat or slightly sloping.  If you do find a depression or "holes / troughs", these could only be a foot or so deep and would be a prime place to drop your lure into.   If you can mark these, and troll over them  watching your depthfinder closely, as you pass over them, let your line out, or slow the troll down to allow your bait to drop into this hole.   Fish will tend to stop and rest here, and you might just have figured out a way to find them.   If you just follow the others you may occasionally stumble into a fish, but buy using your depthfinder maybe even just a certain water depth on a certain tide time could be where they are at that time of the tide.

 

   It appears that the fish DO NOT necessarily follow the shipping channel which is usually 35' deep, but they seem to migrate on the edges of it, in water depths from 12' to 25' depending on the tide.  This may just be their way of staying in touch with finding their way once they enter the rivers.

 

   In the photo on the left below, dad confides that his daughter really concentrates on fishing.  She does not use a rod holder, but holds onto her rod all day and has developed a sense of being able to tell when a fish is near or even smelling her bait.

 

 

 

  There Are Very Few Experts Here :  Don't just follow the concentration of boats thinking that is the "place to fish", as that may not be the only fishy area in the bay.  Most all the non-locals think the other guy (especially the one with a older boat) is the expert. 

 

   I was fishing there alone (basically trolling back to the South Bend launch), in 2001 near river marker #30, with one other boat, while the whole flotilla was downstream from us a few miles.  The other lone fisherman in a 12' Livingston boat, using a electric trolling motor and the tide was almost all the way out.  His 20hp Mercury outboard motor would not start.  I offered to tow him back up to the South Bend ramp.  He graciously refused saying that he had a spare battery for the electric motor and that when the tide changed, and started coming back in his electric motor would get him back to the ramp.  He then confided in me that his main reason was that for the last 2 days he had pulled his limit of Chinook out of that area while everyone else was downriver, and we were alone in that area then.   A few years later, I have seen fishermen jigging in that area.

 

   Like anywhere else, a good pair of binoculars along with being observant, may help observe the lure, location used and ultimately possibly put fish in your fishbox.  If a fisherman just reeled in to pull weeds off, watch to see how many "pulls" that he lets his gear back out to.  The advent of line-counter reels kind of foils this method of spying however.

 

 

  What Gear to Use & Methods :  The standard practice of trolling near the bottom in estuary fishing is practiced here also.    Since most large "Get There" motors do not troll down slow enough, you will see usage of drags made of 5 gallon buckets, to actual drift socks. 

 

   One suggestion is that since there is usually a wind or tidal movement here, that if you are using a trolling motor, it may at times be hard to control the boat UNLESS you lift the main motor/outdrive up out of the water.  Your trolling motor can not overcome the big rudder if you still have it in the water right next to the smaller prop.  This would be true only if you use your trolling motor using the tiller.  If you connect your trolling motor with a connector to your main motor AND then steer using the steering wheel, then the main motor will have to remain down.

 

   In some estuaries, the water may be slightly murky at times, so a attractant like the Fish Flash that has little drag seems to work best.  In recent years after the patent had expired there have been copies of the Fish Flash appear on the market.  Some are made of metal while others are plastic.  Most of these have a slightly different action than the original Fish Flash.  The Kone Zone for one, has a lesser spin, this can be a benefit if all the other boats are using the faster spin attractor.  Also it is my opinion that in shallower water like 15' or so that the slower rotating flasher may be of a benefit because of less chance of spooking the fish if the water clarity is decent.

 

   The medium size rotating attractor in my opinion is best all around one if you had to pick one, as I believe in this shallower or clearer water the larger size could spook the fish.   In the past, a red or chartreuse flashers have proved excellent.   My thought here is that the size of this attractor needs to match the water depth and clarity, AND if it is that clear you may want to decrease the size of the attractor and increase your leader length a bit to move the attractor farther away from the bait.   For the Willapa, I would use the slower rotating Kone Zone or even use the small or the mini version of the Fish Flash, if the water clarity was good.   For Grays Harbor with a more turbid condition, the large Fish Flash works OK.   That said, when I fished the Willapa in 2010, the water turbidity was up/down to being on par with Grays Harbor but this was probably due to a a number of minus extreme tide exchanges.  You can also adjust your leader length from short (24") in murky waters to 6' in clearer waters as sometimes I think these fish get spooked by the flasher attractors depending on the water clarity.

 

   If you get there and there are a lot of boats concentrated, they will normally be trolling up or downstream, (East or West).  You might move to the side of the fleet and try something different by moving in a zig-zag pattern crosswise of the channel (North-South).  This allows you to cover, conquer the tide/wind better AND cover more potential fishy water during a critical slack tide "hot bite" timeframe.  It also makes a presentation different than your competitors.  This may be impossible at times with a high number of boats, but you can usually move to the side of them a bit and be out of the line of fire.  Also with a lot of traffic on the water, the fish may just be pushed to where you may have a chance to intercept them in an uncrowded area.

 

   It is my humble opinion that the bright fish fresh here from the ocean should take about any salmon lure.  But after they have been there a while they became acclimated while waiting for the right water conditions to move upstream because of lack of rain, these fish need to have a very active lure pulled right in their faces so they strike it as a defense.  This can be a herring, artificial lure or even a large spinner.  For more information on estuary salmon fishing and tackle, CLICK HERE.    This article has a illustrated diagrams of the gear used.

 

   Now if you are not connecting, do not hesitate to change the leader length from the flasher to the lure, even down to 24", which is the length that Al Hazelquist, the inventor of Fish Flash originally started with.

   A few things I have changed from the illustration below, one is my extension between the mainline snap and the Fish Flash.   Initially I was using 50# Dacron, (the same as my sturgeon leaders).  But here, with all the weeds you may encounter at a high run-off tide, the Dacron seemed to attract weeds and allow them to twist around it badly.     Also I was using ball bearing swivels.  I still use it on the mainline, but have now converted over to 6 bead chain swivels on both ends of this 40# monofilament extension.  This allows me to strip the weeds off easier after reeling in and the extra bearings seem to at least allow some to still function as even with the best ball bearing swivel, one weed can stop it's action, twisting your mainline.   I have also found that you may not want a golf tee added at the lower end of this extension as it may be best to allow the weeds to accumulate here, rather than divert them rearward onto the flasher or bait.

 

   In the photo on the right is how the golf Tee (a special one, shorter and just made for fishing) is set up for this type of fishery, along with the sinker slider, beads and ball bearing swivel.  You can use different colors to help differentiate between different rods if you like.

 

   One thing that is VERY IMPORTANT if you use the heavier sinkers (10 & 12 oz.) is you need to use the sinker slider on your mainline, OTHERWISE if you attach your sinker to your main line terminal snap, a Chinook will shake it's head when hooked, this headshake WILL use the heavy sinker to bull the barbless hooks loose and you will not have the fish on for more than a few seconds. 

 

   For a long time, I could not order some gear online because I had to physically see it to determine the size I wanted.  I have now written this down.  Sampo #4 ball bearing swivels and #5 barrel swivels are used.  Also #4 or #5 Duolock snaps and 6mm beads.  The sinker sliders are the large 1 1/2" size.  On all this the larger number means a larger size.

 

   Also on the Fish Flash's rear 6 bead swivel, I am now installing an Oregon Tackle weedguard over the swivel.   Then on the sinker dropper, I add a golf tee on the lower end so it acts as a cap over the sinker eye, which again helps divert some weeds off it.

 

 

   Fishing here if you use the 2nd rod endorsement, it makes sense to have the second rod running different gear, (at least until one proves to out-fish the other).   So I have recently adopted one of the methods used on the Hanford Reach fishery, that being a 11" Pro-Troll E-Chip imbedded flasher behind 24" of a heavy Mono extension and a lure of choice 36" behind that.  Here your lure could be Cut-Plug herring or even the Brad's Super Cut-Plug packed with a different scent that your other lure.  At the end of your mainline use the same sinker slider and dropper as when using a Fish Flash, but I like to run a heavier sinker like 10 or 12oz. and fish it deeper.  This flasher does not rotate, but wobbles from side to side and with 36" or even a couple of more inches in length it gives the lure a slight zigzag movement.

 

  Lessons Learned :   (1)  The NUMBER ONE thing is to have snaps on the bottom end of EVERYTHING of your gear.  This is your mainline, the extension, AND the flasher, so if you get a tangle, you can unsnap multiple items, making it easier to sort things out.  The sinker dropper is a lighter mono line ((12# or so), if it does not want to untangle, or gets hung in the net on a missed netting job, just break it off and replace it with another pre-tied one.

 

 (2)  For this fishery, I have gotten to where I will not allow any rod/reel on my boat that is loaded with braid line.  The reason is most of those who use it do not understand the consequences if a tangle happens.  This line is so limp that when you get a tangle with another line, about the only thing to do is cut one or both instead of wasting time trying to sort things out.  Or you will get it looped over the rod tip guide, if you blink twice.  Even just letting the gear out with a little slack at the wrong time can lead to a tangle.

 

 (3) Do not add any "Top Shot" mono mainline extension, for whatever reason, as again if you encounter weeds, the knot between the two lines can become another place for the weeds to accumulate, becoming so bad at times that you can not reel in your mainline because of all the grass now pulled up to the rod tip.

 

  (4) Do not use a diver if weeds are prevalent because even if you did hook a fish, and the diver had accumulated enough weeds that it could not trip if a fish was on, now you are fighting a big bob of weeds AND the fish, which now has better odds of breaking off.

 

  (5)  When trolling and you encounter FLOATING weeds that you can not avoid, dip your rod tip deep in the water as vertical as possible until you are clear.  Then when you bring the rod out of the water the weeds will be on the rod, shaker it a few times and usually they will shake off.   And in doing this, twice I hooked a fish, telling me that I was fishing too shallow.

 

  How Deep Do I Fish? :   This will probably be the one question that most fishermen will have in the back of their minds.  Most agree that for Chinook, that about 2-3' off the bottom is usually preferred.   However think about it, this may be fine if the tide is running, where the fish tend to hug the bottom to get out of the main current above them.  But what about nearing, or at slack tides?  With no current, the fish really now have no guidance system to upriver.  What do they do?  They will probably suspend at a mid depth.  So the guy who fishes 24' out with a 4 oz. weight may be the one getting the bites until the tide starts flowing again.

 

   I however tend to fish a bit higher from the normal 2' above bottom to maybe up to 10' at these times.  I have found it is best to try different weights when trolling if more than one person is in the boat or you are alone and have the 2nd rod endorsement license.  This will allow you to "search" the area and cover the water column better, where you may get some suspended fish at about 1/2 depth with the lighter weights.   Also you may want to vary trolling speed if you are not catching anything while others are.  Even kick your trolling motor out of gear for 1/2 a minute or so.  The normal fishing locations here has a very forgiving bottom with very few snags.  In all my years of dragging the bottom here I have only lost one set of terminal gear because of them and that could have been on an abandoned crab pot.

 

   Now here is another thought to add to the mix.  I do not run heavy weights (10 to 12oz.) UNLESS there is a tide running and you are fishing deeper water, like Washaway (over 40').  I try to keep a line angle of about 30 degrees, so with a flat or slack tide a 6 oz. seems to work OK, but when the troll speed picks up because of the current, you may need to go to heavier sinkers, or go out with longer line.  Here most of this fishing will be in basically shallow water, (12'-35' deep).   Since you will be trolling, and at times in a confined space, your 2 cycle trolling motor may well create enough noise if you are basically right above the fish you may well spook them also.  All the more reason to buy yourself a new 4 stroke trolling motor.

 

   Therefore you think your motor may be scaring the fish, you may find you get more bites if you use a slightly lighter sinker and troll it a bit farther back behind the boat.   I do not like to set my rods in rod holders mounted so that the rod tip is high in the air.  I cringe when I see a boat with the rods set in a rod holder as if it was a downrigger, pointing to the sky with only with a 4 oz sinker on during a concentration of boats in the bay.  Kind of makes for a lot of scowling looks at them when they cut short in front of you as the line have to be a long way back.   But by having your rod lower and using a lighter weight you have accomplished about the same distance and possibly less chance of a frustrational tangle with other fishermen.  

 

   Most tangles are caused by letting the gear out too fast.  Either strip it off by hand, or keep the clicker on as you let out, which will slow down the gear decent.

 

 

   Again as a reminder, is that most Chinook will be caught near the bottom when the tide is moving, but at a slack tide they seem confused and stage near mid level of the water depth.  This means that when the tide flattens out (either high or low) you should consider fishing shallower and/or with lighter sinkers.

 

    One local fisherman who seems to catch his share confided that he just uses a 6 oz. sinker and pulls out 12 to 15 strips of line, which would put him down about 17'.   Another I know stumbled onto a secret at high slack, by using 4 oz. sinker and 12 strips, which would have put him down about 8-10' depending on his speed.  I have also caught numerous Chinook using a 4 oz. sinker and 15 FEET out (right on top).

 

  Fish On :   If there are other boats near and you see a boat, not moving, or a arched rod near you, try to give them some room if there is any chance the fish is or will be near your boat.  Normally even a large fish will not run far here and can be controlled near the boat.  But if the fisherman is using a light rod AND light line AND/OR is seeking the thrill of a fight, even a small (12#) fish may not be controlled in a reasonable length of time.  If this fish happens to come near you and tangles in your line, your best bet is to kick the reel in to free spool and thumb the spool, letting the fish/fisherman get the fish to his boat.  Your gear can be untangled or lines cut and tackle saved later.

 

   This happened to me in 2014.  We were a reasonable distance away from this other boat that had just passed us going the opposite direction when he hooked a fish.  The fish was running parallel to my boat and the same way I was going.   I thought our lines were clear, but steered away just in case.  I thought that I was out of the way, but his fish changed directions and tangled my line.  We then pulled all our other gear and I free spooled my reel, thumbing it giving line as he fought his fish.  I slowly motored near and broadside of the other boat and he netted the approx 15# Chinook.  With the fish in the net, as he raised the net handle skyward, he reached out and unhooked my trailing hook off his leader and threw my gear over the side for me.

 

  Lure? :   Most bay fishermen here use large (blue label) cut-plugged herring, however you will see many whole herring being fished there.   After seeing so much bait, (Anchovy) in the bay at times, I will use green label which matches more to the Anchovy size.  I have in the past had problems with using cut plugged bait here, in that with the volume of weeds that are here most times, the bait gets battered a lot, changing the cut that you tried so hard to produce.  

 

   To counteract that, one method is to go to the herring bonnets which perform even better than a whole rigged herring here if you are not a proficient cut plug cutter.  The best of these that I have found are Rhys Davis made in Canada.   The regular size is the Anchovy Special, while if you insist on LARGE herring then their Super Herring Special is the one needed.   These utilize a plastic pin, but they get lost, any round toothpick works OK to secure the head of the herring into the bonnet.   I do make one change, in that if I do not like the spin I get, so use the round toothpick and once I get the body shape of the herring I like, inset the toothpick lengthwise down the herring's body at the backbone line, pretty well holding that bent shape.  This gives me more of a better roll instead of having a sharper kink at the head giving a faster spin.   I have found that the Chinook here prefer a spinning rotation of the bait a bit faster than when being used in Puget Sound, but slower than a normal Coho roll, however a Coho roll works very well.   A second choice which is very similar is the Les Davis herring bonnet.

 

   In using the bonnet and the faster spin facilitated by the toothpick up the backbone, my catch ratio increased.   With this all said above, I have recently (2011) become a convert to cut plugging and my catch ratio on the boat has increased dramatically when having guests onboard.   Possibly because the toothpick method is hard to teach someone else to get the proper roll, and the more bait in the water the better chance of getting the fish-box bloody.   OK, I am a bullheaded German/Swiss and it takes me longer to concede (like about 20 years).

 

   Time for a change again in 2012, where I went to the plastic Brads Super Cut Plug, which is made in 2 parts with a hinged lower rear section where you can load it with herring/anchovy or even scent.  This hinged section is held together by a special rubber band.  These plugs come pre-tied with one triple hook, or unrigged with just 2 bodies for about a dollar more than the single rigged one.  I like to tie mine using 40# mono leader with (2) 5/0 Octopus hook on the front and another 5/0 but this one a Matsua Sickle hook as the rear, tied as a solid tie moocher leader.  Both of these hooks are red in color.  I place (5) 6mm beads on the leader above the hooks, but only to space the front hook back just behind the plug.   I also like to have at least 3 of these beads fluorescent red and red hooks which would simulate a wounded, bleeding herring.  My two trailing hooks seem to slow the action down slightly, but it still catches fish, even Coho can't seem to resist it.

 

   This lure has the lower rear part hinged with a sponge to absorb scent.  I pull the sponge out so I can insert a herring/anchovy or canned oil pack tuna as a scent.   If using the real deal for herring or anchovy, put one in a bag and stomp on it with your shoe, then scoop up the mess to but inside this lure, as this produces a lot more scent than just cutting a strip.   If you are going to use the canned tuna, be sure to include a can opener aboard your boat, as I have never seen a can of this with the zip top opener.  It can become frustrating if you get out of bed early, get on the water and forgot your can opener.  Those copies of the old WWII military key chain can openers work quite well for this.   Or recently I have gotten lazy and simply have been squirting Mike's liquid anchovy scent into the cavity without even removing the rubber band. (Just remember to clean the cavity at the end of the day).

 

   I have, when running 2 rods here, run a cut plug herring or a herring in the bonnet on one rod and this plastic lure on the other, at same depths.  I finally quit using the herring after a week as 75 % of my hits were on this plug, however occasionally I still run a cut plug herring as a control.  However I do juice up the Brad's with herring or anchovy scent.  As for colors, Shamrock / Blue Hawaiian / Seahawk / Pirate, Watermelon or Pink Magic, even Wonder-bread seem to produce well.   However in 2012, late in the year I ran a bright orangish one, hoping to target Coho, but caught a small Chinook on it.

 

   In the photos seen below, on the left is this old warrior, but it still catches fish.  However I am kind of reluctant to use it for fear of loosing it and the charm that goes with it.  In the right hand photo below is a newer lure, which was designed off the idea of an Apex plug and adding a plastic squid.  The top green one is a home-made one using part of a broken clip-board, while the bottom one is a factory head.  These can be very effective at times.

 

   Fast Forward -- in 2014, I was introduced to a newer to me and better brine cure, which really makes a difference as far as toughness.  This is "Magic Brine" bought off the internet.   I have a small insulated bait cooler that when using a small a 5 cup size Rubber Maid container for the bait and brine, a 1/2 gallon milk jug of frozen water just fits under the container, keeping it cool.  I use 8 oz. of this brine a 10 pack of green label herring and just enough water to cover the bait (this container being pretty near full). Here I place the iced jug in the bottom of the cooler, then the Rubbermaid bait container resting on top of the ice jug, then this whole unit inside my 58 quart cooler seat.  This method keeps the bait cool all day and at night.  At the end of the day, I simply put the bait container in the refrigerator and the milk jug back in the freezer for the next day.  I even found that by placing the Rubbermaid herring container in the freezer that using this concentration of brine, the brine does not freeze and I have kept bait for more days than I like to admit if I had other business and could not get back to fish soon. 

 

   I became so impressed with this brine when somehow the outside 120 volt receptacle on my travel trailer that I had the small freezer plugged into became defective.  I knew power was off on some of the inside receptacles, but did not even think of the outside one when I left for home.  I had my bait brined down for about 5 days as described above AND in my freezer, but this time did not make it back for 10 days because of other pressing issues.  The freezer being without power, the frozen packaged bait was thawed and the freezer was stinking along with my ice jugs being all thawed.  The only possibility was to use the brined bait that I had now, other than the Brad's lures was this thawed brined herring.  OK, cut plug it and tough it out until the next day.  These baits however looked and felt great, they were tough enough that we drug them all day, replacing them only after 4 hours before the belly blew out, and we did catch a 10# Chinook on one.  Needless to say I am impressed with this  brine.

 

   Some fishermen will dye there herring, and blue seems to be the favored color, however I have not used dye, YET.  I do stuff the cut-plug cavity with Anchovy scent and renew it every time I pull in to clean the weeds off.

 

   If using cut plug herring, tie your leaders so the distance between the hooks will allow the rear hook to hang behind the tail when rigged.  In attaching the bait, pass the rear hook through the short/low side of the belly and out the flank.  The front hook should enter inside the cavity on the low side, pass over the spine and out on the high side of the bait.  The rear hook is then poked into the last 1/2" of flesh and out at the front of the tail, or use a small rubber band to secure the hook to the bait's body just in front of the tail.  If you think your tie is too long, go over the back of the bait and do this poking on the opposite side.  This holds the rear hook close to the body and positions it just behind the tail which helps hook those "Tail Biter".   Or tie the leader with three hooks, placing the middle hook at just behind the dorsal fin and the rear hook hanging about 1/2 way behind the tail.  There are many ways to do this and they all work.

 

 

   There are times that there is so much bait (Anchovy) in the water that you will be lucky to catch a salmon.  I have even seen the seagulls so full they are not interested in the bait showing in the bay.  Your sonar low water alarm will sound off while you know you are in 30 or 40' of water.  This bait is normally anchovies in the size of 6" long.  The fisherman who uses anchovy is probably a step ahead of the rest in that he is "matching the hatch".   However frozen anchovy becomes mushy very fast unless it is soaked in rock salt brine overnight.  Fresh anchovy would be desirable, and you could do that by using a herring jig to catch your own bait here under these circumstances.  It is legal to use the other rod to catch this kind of bait, however you may get stares from other boats until they see you pulling in anchovies instead of a lure so I have resorted to using a small 2' ice jigging rod and an old fly reel as my jigging outfit.

 

   Shown in the photo below is a simple and very effective method of rigging a Anchovy.  Bend the Anchovy (or herring) arching it's spine upward from the middle to the head (NOT SIDEWAYS, BUT UP).  Take a wooden skewer and insert it in the anis (or farther rearward), up and into the head, which maintains this shape.  Cut the skewer off at the body.  Place the top hook of a dual hook mooching leader into the Vee of the throat gill convergence and out the skull behind the eyes.  You may have to place your thumb on the skull so that when the hook exits, that it does not tear the skull when exiting.  Let the rear hook dangle.  If you achieve even more of a bend than shown below, that is better.  You will be amazed at the action this rigging produces.  I have jigged many anchovy, and always had problems rigging these fresh bait, this method works great.

 

 

   When you see a lot of bait on the surface and the whole water column on your sonar is red with bait, it is my advice to move to a different location, as your chances of a salmon picking out YOUR bait out of millions is rather slim.

 

   This water is shallow enough that you will normally NOT be able to "see" many salmon on your depthfinder.

 

   To attach your sinker, a lighter mono sinker dropper of about 10# to 15# mono 12" which is attached to a Slideo or sturgeon slider on the mainline is ahead of the Fish Flash about 16".  This distance is needed to separate the sinker dropper from the flasher and avoid tangles with the flasher.  There appears to not be any logs or brush on the bottom to tangle with here. 

 

    Some successful fishermen will simply troll a mooching set-up.   Sinker weights from 4 to 6 ounces are normally used.   So try what you are comfortable with, however this system is more conducive to ocean fishing than bay fishing, where the bottom changes and by using the dropper method, your lure does not drag the bottom, but slightly above it.

 

   I have at times wondered if it would help if when the wind picks up and it becomes hard to troll into it, especially if the current is running heavy, is to anchor just out of the main fishing area, mooch a herring or plunk fish a Spin-N-Glo or large spinner in the current upriver above Willapa River marker #15 to #19.   Or if you are fishing downriver above the jetty on a incoming tide where the current is really pushing you upriver, then turn around and back-troll.

 

   Or some of the successful local  fishermen will just troll a large #5 or #7 brass spinner behind their small Fish Flash.  However the spinner blade rotations seem to be critical and hard to maintain that speed when you are also trying to fish other lures that need a different speed to operate at optimum performance.

 

   One thing I do at times, that gets many stares, is to troll a large Spin-N-Glo behind the Fish Flash.  And occasionally will put a gob of salmon egg roe on the upper hook.   I use this set up basically as a spare, so if I happen to get tangled gear or lots of weeds, I just unsnap it and replace it with this Spin-N-Glo set-up, get it back in the water, then untangle later.

 

   The advent of the line-counter reels has made life a lot easier to judge how far you are out, as you can be trolling at 20' depth with a 6oz sinker at an average current, when you let out and hit bottom, the current will flow your line back, let it out again till you bump bottom.  Then crank it up a couple of turns, you will be about right.  It doesn't take long for you to tell your water depth in relationship to the current and your blow back, then being able to realize that your line footage out will be near 40' or so in the above depth.   From here on, you can be pretty close by just looking at the depthfinder and adjusting your line in or out.

 

   One thing to consider is do not get caught up in the thought that there is only one way to catch salmon.  Try something different

 

  Cleanliness :  Many times in things pertaining to fishing, Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness.  Therefore, think of anything that you touch, or comes in contact with anything that may impart a offensive odor.  Do you clean your sardine wrapped KwikFish after using them and putting them away?  How about cleaning your spinners that are attached to a lure that you have used salmon roe, tuna oil, shrimp, prawn, or even herring or anchovy scent on?  Then there are your attractant dodgers or flashers that also need to be cleaned.

 

   One very easy method is to purchase a painters 5 quart plastic bucket with a snap on lid.  Fill it with clean fresh water and squirt a small amount of Lemon Joy soap into the water.  Use this to soak your lures and flashers in between usage and afterwards.

 

   Any of these little things that many fishermen overlook, my be a contributing factor that is why your neighboring boat is catching fish when you are not.  Years ago in my commercial salmon trolling years, we used a gallon jug of herring oil, that after we were done pulling gear, all of the spoons, rigged hoochies and flashers were either soaked in or at least dipped in until the next trip.   This did three things, it protected the metal parts from corroding/rusting AND removed any bad smells and imparted a fishy smell on the gear for the next trip.

 

  Kids First Salmon :   In the photos below, on the Labor Day 2007 derby, we were heading in, back up North River when right behind Willapa River marker #13 was this small 14' aluminum boat with dad trying to net son's fish.   Dad was also trying to get a photo or two in between being there if and when the fish got close enough.   The boy was doing all the fighting of the fish on his own, a real fisherman.   From what we could tell, the fish appeared to be about a 15#er.

 

 

   However the distance of the flasher and leader made it rather hard for the boy to bring the fish close enough to the boat for dad to be effective.  Numerous attempts were made, dad even to grabbing the leader below the flasher a few times.  But the wind was rapidly blowing them into the mud flats.   In these photos they were probably unknowingly in 5' of water and getting shallower with the fish not cooperating at all.  We stayed nearby in hopes of getting a picture of the actual netting.  Finally the fish went on the other shallower side of the boat and the netting was unsuccessful.

 

   We pulled alongside, I got the dads e-mail address, the later sent him the pictures that I had taken.  Later when I asked for permission to use a picture for my articles (the one that you are now reading), he said he of course, and he had no idea who I was, and he being from out of the area, (from Alaska, visiting a brother) he had printed off a copy of this article and had it in the boat with him at the time

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  This is Not a Area to Fish if You Are Starving :  Everyone says that you just have to put your time in here.  What they are really telling you to do your own homework and figure it out yourself.  Some fisherpersons who are dumb, fat and happy may show up for a week-end of fishing and stumble onto a perfect combination, but this is an exception.   Here you have to have enough "Willing Biters" for the recreational fleet to do good, and here there are not a lot of fish swimming over the bar in any given tide, so they have to "stack up" to make for good recreational fishing.

 

   Some of the little things may begin to add up after a few years of stumbling around.  The other thing is that the fish enter the bay on their time schedule and this places the fishermen on a disadvantage because the fish may be there one day and gone the next with not many more entering for as day or so.  It is also my belief that since this river system is not really that large, that the number of fish swimming across the bar at any one time may be minimal.  It may take a few days for enough of them to stack up in the holding water in the bay before a slight rain, barometer change, moon change, etc. that triggers them to move on,  and then the process starts over.

 

   This kind of puts the retired fishermen at an advantage if they rent RV space and can be on the water every day from, the first of August until the middle of September. 

 

   This article is designed to try to improve your odds.   I have fished this area for over 20 years and I am still learning every time I go out there.  I think being very observant is more important, watch what the others are using, but more importantly WHERE they are pulling the fish and at what time of the tide.   Talking to some of the locals helps also, especially if you convey to them some of your frustrations.  Don't expect them to give away all their secrets, but even a few tips to a novice is better than stumbling around for years making the same mistakes and maybe only snagging an occasional sleeper fish, but never really knowing what you did right. 

 

   There are many fisherpersons camped at the RV spots near the marina boat trailer parking area.  It may be well worth your while to rent a campsite and get to know a few of the regulars.  Some days there is no bite with only 5% of the fisherpersons bring back a fish, then the next day new fish arrive in the bay or something changes where half of the boats bring in multiple fish.  This is a location that the average fisherperson can NOT expect to limit out even every other day, unless you are VERY GOOD, understand the area and are DARNED LUCKY.   Then after you think you may have it pretty well figured out, think outside the box and ask yourself, why is that guy fishing there? And catching fish?  What time of the tide is going on then? 

 

   This is not a location to fish if you are newbie here, starving and need a fish to eat that day.

   One thing you've got to understand in estuary troll fisheries (B10/WB/GH) is you encounter biters in proportion to their relative abundance in real-time while you are on the water.  Which means the more time you spend on the water, the more of a chance you have of putting a fish in the box, or at least that is how it SHOULD pencil out.  If Chinook predominate the real-time abundance, your biters will be mostly Chinook, and of course they will predominate in your catch.  The same can be said if Coho predominate.  Normally Coho tend to enter the bay in good numbers mid September as the Chinook are already upriver, however in 2015 that did not happen for Coho, were they late or not coming?  NOT COMING WAS WHAT WAS FOUND TO BE TRUE, by approximately 70% less than expected.

 

  Floating & Suspended Weeds:  As mentioned before, this can be a problem at times.  I would recommend having a spare rod all rigged up, plus have some spare sinker droppers tied up.  The reason is that at times there are enough weeds here enough to tangle the gear.    It may be to your advantage to stay on the beach when the big minus tides are prevalent, as the bay can become un-fishable with sea grass broken loose, partly rotted, then suspended in the water from the hard tide exchanges. 

 

   If you have to fish these tides, you will need to pull the gear in every 10 to 15 minutes and clean the weeds off.  If it happens to be tangled, switch rods and then take your spare time undoing the tangles.  If there are a lot of weeds where you are dragging around a lettuce laced herring, you will probably not be getting any bites either.  Every minute you have your lure in the water being fouled, or not in the water, cleaning it is pretty sure you are NOT going to get a strike.

   The worst weeds are the fine green hair like weeds, that seem to be near the bottom and stirred up with high run-off tides.  These plug up your swivels and can lead to twisted line.  The large wide grass shown in the RH photo below are a lot easier to remove.

 

 

   Some bad days, if every fisherperson would place all the weeds they removed from their gear during the day in garbage bags and placed it someplace on the shore later, I am sure that before long the whole bay would be devoid of floating weeds.

 

  Tokeland Bait & Tackle Shop ;  The bait and tackle shop here has a good supply of bait, tackle, munchies and information.   CLICK HERE     SADLEY THIS SHOP CLOSED DOWN IN 2018 BECAUSE OF THE WDFW REDUCTION IN FISH PLANTS

 

  NWMTA Salmon Derby ;   This derby is usually the Saturday closest to Labor Day, so expect it busy that week-end. CLICK HERE     AGAIN, CLOSED

 

  Where to Fish :  We will start this section of the article at the furthest downstream fishery with the old main fishery in outer Willapa Bay itself.  For many years the place to fish was to troll the beach in 15’ to 25' of water along "Washaway Beach",  just inside the main channel mouth on the north shore of the river near North Cove.  This section of the bay is the westernmost section that comes right to the outside ocean breakers.  The name was coined after many acres of land, probably 4 or 5 square miles of land was washed away by winter storms.  Over the years the ocean/river washed away over a mile of beach, including many houses and the old Coast Guard lighthouse. 

 

   Most of the sport fishing upriver will be in or near the Willapa River's old shipping channel.   For some reason not much sport fishing is conducted in the south arm of the bay leading to the Nemah and Naselle Rivers.

 

  Washaway Beach :  This would be part of the outer bay.  You will now (2009) find fishermen plying the waters of Washaway Beach from the middle of July up to the middle of August, during the incoming tide.  It appears they are relearning how to fish this bay.  A couple of hours after the tide starts coming in, they slide upriver to the area just south east of the breakwater in a pocket that forms all the way up to piling channel marker #11 (46-43-103  124-02-279)  in from 25' to 50' of water.

 

   What they are fishing for in these two areas at this time of the year will be ocean Chinook and Coho.  These fish are not actual Willapa fish, but "Dip-Ins".  They are more than likely Columbia River fish that are following large schools of anchovies into the bay on the high incoming tide. 

 

   Here you need to fish for them higher in the water column since they are not yet committed river fish.  Usually the fishing depth, no matter the actual water depth will be about 15 pulls (30') out from the reel.  Medium sized herring or anchovies seem to be the preferred bait.

 

   There is a yellow Can ("D" buoy) about mid stream off the end of the breakwater  GPS#s  46-43-254  124-03-388.

 

 

   In the photo above, the "post" is in reality a woman standing there apparently mesmerized by the wind, rain and waves.  There is probably 8 feet of fast moving turbulence water between her rock and the shore when the wave is out.  There was another 1/2 hour before predicted high tide, but with the wind blowing the waves in, probably add at least another hour to that.  The waves were breaking over the seaward side of the rock and washing very near her feet at times.  Now by the time the tide goes out far enough for her to get ashore it will take AT LEAST another 4 or 5 hours.  She will have had a lot of time to be by herself along with possibly get wet before she gets back to her SUV parked at the old road approach.

 

   After the 2011 winter storms, the dead tree on the island shown below has now been washed away, however one local source said no, that it was someone who needed dry firewood for a beach party and cut it down.

 

 

  Lower (Outer) Willapa Bay:  This area will be upstream from the Washaway area and off the residential area of Tokeland near the Willapa Bay channel marker #15  at 46-42-086  123-59-743.   I would also consider this area outward into the main channel to where the bay splits and the Willapa River runs east where the Nemah and Naselle Rivers branch off and heads south.

 

   I have seen bait (usually anchovies) so thick in the main channel off what used to be Sand Island,  that if you had a long handled net you could have gotten all the bait you would need for the next year.  Usually where there is bait, there are also salmon.  This time there was so much bait that our lures simply got lost in the crowd.  I have also caught fish in the outside the main channel, but crossing the bar can be dangerous for a small boater that does not understand tides/bar crossings.  As just outside the point of land, the channel angles off to the Southwest and somewhat parallels the breakers.  Recent reports are the bar's channel has changed to where at a low tide the depth is less than 15' out for 1/2 a mile.  If you have a wind and tide running, it is best that the small boater remain inside. 

 

    However, if you do decide to sneak OUTSIDE, here is a tip to REMEMBER.  For a small boat, watch the weather AND the tide.  Remember that the wind will almost always pick up about 2 PM.  To cross the bar, you want to do it in the morning about an hour and half AFTER low tide, (the calmest part of the tide).  This means you need a low tide at somewhere between 6AM and 9AM, to give you enough time to fish and then slide back across the bar on the high incoming before the wind picks up.

   Heading out you need to be heading out almost in a due westerly course.  This bar is shallow, at a low tide you may be only in 15' of water, and it does not get any deeper (a gradual slope) until you get to maybe 45', then on slightly faster to 65'.   Farther out it drops off to 90'.  This shelf is where you want to fish.   There is (was) the old Willapa Entrance buoy,  46-41-850 124-10-400 that has now been removed by the USACE.

 

 

   For further information go to  "Ocean Fishing from a Small Boat".

 

   There used to be a "South Channel" to the open ocean, which was a 50-60' deep large area just south of  Sand Island and north of Leadbetter Point.  This area can change yearly.  There at one time a slot thru, but not anywhere near what I would consider using as a ocean access.  It is NOT recommended crossing here to the open ocean.

 

   As of the summer of 2000, sandy Sand Island had pretty much been washed away after the installation of the rock jetty downstream a couple of miles.  This did improve fishing somewhat from the standpoint that there was a colony of seals living on this island that were then displaced.   2002 and 2003 saw some of the island visible at low tide, however, but apparently not enough for the seals to return to in any numbers.   2010 saw the island return and in 2011 multiply considerably, as at low tide it is now rather large.

 

  Upper Section of The Bay:  This is where the bulk of the salmon fishing takes place.  In the end of August 2005 during a local salmon derby, when I was at about Willapa River marker #13, looking upriver and then downriver, I being in about the middle, counted over 120 boats in about a 3 or 4 mile section.  This is about as crowded as I have seen it, but still enough room for everyone, even including the larger boat that wanted to zig-zag thru the parade.  The 2006 derby day saw lots more boats but no real problems.

 

   The one main complaint is that the boat skipper will also usually be fishing and if they happen to be sitting on the stern facing one direction steering the kicker motor, they usually do not look to their back side, then if you get one skipper facing right with the other facing left, (with their backs to each other)  sometimes the other fishermen aboard may have to advise the skipper of a close encounter coming up.  This can really get exaggerated if the skipper is cleaning his gear of weeds with the is wind blowing.

 

   When heading upriver from off Willapa River piling marker #2 (which is about straight south of the Tokeland harbor entrance), to #8 it is rather straight with the river, then from #8 to #10 is a slight northeasterly jog, then straightens out easterly again to about #26.  The channel has shallowed up between #13 and #15 so you may only have 20' here instead of the normal 35' channel.   My thinking here is the current is somewhat slower on the sides of the channel.   Also observed is that the fish tend to cut across the "flats" (15' - 20') at high tide, from south of #10 and blend back into the main channel upstream near #19.

 

   As the season progresses and or the weather (wind) becomes bad, many fishers move upriver even above #19 and on to the bend near the upper range marker and marker #29 and #30, which can also be productive at times as there is a 30' slot near marker #30.  And it is more protected in the afternoon form the wind up there.

 

   If you fish the bays enough late in the season, you may see Coho jumping within 5 feet of shore at low tide in less than 2 feet of water, while everyone is trolling out in deeper water.   There are no piling or protective brush here, but they must may feel more secure than in deeper water that all the boats are crowded into.  Here the fish seem to be moving upstream in small schools.  If you see a school of finning or jumping Coho, they will be moving upstream.  Follow them without spooking them, or run on the other side of the river to avoid them and then go above them hoping to intercept then again.  Cast #4 or #5 spinners to these fish with a spinning outfit.  However the bulk of these Coho seem to have been afflicted with lockjaw.

 

 

 

  North River :    The river itself empties into the bay at the Highway 105 high bridge on the north end of the bay.   The shallow narrow river channel wonders thru the bay terminating just west of marker #13, closer to Tokeland and between Southbend.  This lower section of this river channel itself can be productive IF you happen to find a school of fish in the channel. 

 

   This is a situation where the Smith Creek boat launch can be utilized.  This launch is situated right at milepost #10 on Highway 105.  This launch has the concrete slabs ending at waterline of a 0.0 tide, has crushed gravel below the slabs, but there is about a foot of drop off.   One word of caution on launching at a low tide, this ramp will be muddy AND SLIPPERY.  As you back down be DAMNED SURE that as you approach the lower end of the ramp that your trailer is goings straight, as if it drops over the slabs while still having the boat on, it will pull your vehicle down the ramp no matter how much brakes you apply.  Not enough to be in trouble as you can then unhook the winch line AND safety chain, but if you were not truly aligned with the ramp, you could be pulled into an awkward and possibly a dangerous situation.

 

   However a larger tall boat may not be able to get under the low Smith Creek Highway 105 bridge at a high tide to get the 100 yards needed to enter into North River. 

 

   Early spring of 2013 saw new bridges being built over both the Smith Creek and North River.  These are concrete spans for both the Smith Creek and North River bridges.  Both replacing the old wooden bridges.  The height under the Smith Creek bridge at a high tide of 8.9',  I have hit about 3" of my tall VHF antenna on my North River boat, and it extends 10' above waterline.  With my new radar and the all around light above it, my passengers say that I have about 16" of clearance to my light. 

 

 

   One thing to watch for from this launch, downstream to the first big bend are deadheads.  If you are watchful, they will be obvious at a low tide.  However they do move from year to year.

 

   There is no public launch on North River itself, (however there is a private launch behind a locked gate) but a WDFW launch on Smith Creek just off North River.   Heading out (downriver) from the Smith Creek launch, you go under the Smith Creek bridge, about 100 yards you will enter North River.  Go down-stream (left) heading west staying between the piling markers,  (but in deeper water closer to the LH markers) you will then enter a slight left hand corner with a marker on the right.  This is only one more RH piling below on this corner until you come to another left corner.  All of these markers are set up for a returning boat, so you have to look at the shape from the back side to determine which they are.  The triangle ones are (or should be) red, while the square ones should have been green.  Remember Red Right Returning code for the markers.

 

   There are usually a couple of dead-heads in this channel out to this first big bend, however these change year to year, so be on the lookout for them.  I have only seen one deadhead below this bend but it was there only one year.

 

   The factory installed GPS locations on my Lowrance HDS 5 unit for North River I have found that the markers #19 and #28 are way wrong as they are in the mudflats to the east of their actual locations.  However the river water depth coloration is correct.

 

    From the left big bend you will be heading mostly south, but at a low tide hold wide (more to the center of the channel of this corner piling as there is sanding shallows there.   Stay on the West of these piling (except for a couple on the far west shore after you make the first big bend) watch your depthfinder, this channel is usually about 8' however after the big 2007 flood, it shallows up to 4' at a -.05 tide on the next LH corner as you pop out into the bay.  

 

   The red/green marker signs (or what is left of them) are designed for incoming boats so the colors with the numbers (what is left of them) being hard to distinguish.  This channel however is pretty well marked and deep enough for navigation until you get close to the actual Willapa River channel which can be narrow and SHALLOW for the last 1/4 mile.   There is no actual marker at the entrance of North River.  From the last piling marker in this river, you need to be headed west of Willapa River marker #13 and more toward marker #10 at this point, which is actually across on the south side of the Willapa channel (or toward the most RH point of land in the distance).   This last section near the Willapa markers shallows up slightly just before it drops off into the Willapa River channel, so at a low tide, your target would be west of #13.  My GO TO location here is 46-42-100 / 123-54-670 before you actually enter the Willapa River channel.

 

    It is best to have a GPS/Plotter and follow the river channel.  Be very watchful of the markers, as even the seasoned traveler here (Me) can get distracted (like wiping off the inside of the windshield in a slightly foggy day) and find themselves setting on the mudflat (been there-done that).   Fog will be the worst (which happens this time of the year) then I suggest you do not travel this river unless it is a clear day, or you do have a GPS/Plotter that you have set to record your trails, and depth-finder.

 

   It takes a boat that will plane, only about 12 minutes to get from the Smith Creek launch to Willapa River marker #13, (unless there is fog and/or you are new to this area).

 

   There was a private hatchery program on this river that released a considerable number of Chinook, Coho salmon into this river every year.  However the elderly gentleman doing this passed away possibly sometime near 2005.  The WFDW does not make this information readily available however as they do not plant any fish in this river.  And it is not known to what extent the old man's project has played on current fish stock.

 

   Tidal changes for this Smith Creek launch will be near 2 hours later for a low tide using Pacific Ocean tide book reference.

 

    One bad thing about this launch is that the parking lot is not square with the ramp slabs and to compound things the gravel above the slabs that blends with the parking lot is arced in a manner so that when you are backing the trailer toward the ramp you can not see the slabs and since it is not square, this further compounds seeing where you need to be going.   As of 9-1-09, I had driven a steel fence post on the downstream side of the upper slabs giving some reference point for the slabs, which someone removed.  Otherwise try to have one of your passengers stand at the top downstream top of the slabs to give you some reference, OR I set out a traffic cone.

 

   To compound the launch problem of the ramp not being square with the parking lot, some not so thoughtful boaters, after they launch, don't pull ahead far enough into the lot, park the trailer and vehicle close to the area needed for a subsequent vehicle to pull into to be able to back in straight to the ramp.

 

   In the left hand photo below, you will notice the 4" X 12" planks on the old bridge supports.  They have 6" between them.  You can also see the high water mark on them.

   Also these concrete slabs the lower ones tend to be covered with about 3/4" of slimy goo.  There is a slight amount of gravel off on each side at the lower end.  But climbing into a boat that is not an open bow can be a problem here.  At high tide, you can nose the bow into the grassy bank on either side of the ramp.

 

   My one complaint of this launch site is not the site, but those DUMB INCONSIDERATE PERSONS that do not consider anyone else who may later want to use this launch to either launch or recover their boat AFTER these guys park their towing vehicle and trailer at the head of the ramp or parallel with others before them, effectively blocking everything.   Under these conditions, it is very hard to pull in, then back up being aligned with the ramp that you can not see which is at a slight angle with the parking lot.  You can not see the ramp unless someone stands at the upper edge of the slabs.  I have in the past asked the few offenders that I saw or left notes on windshields to please consider other boaters when parking.   In my old age I am am where I am not really concerned about peer pressure.  It seems that most of the ones that are doing this are driving a new vehicle and have a new fancy boat, kind of like they are better than everyone else and consider this is their own private launch.  OR they appear to have their head up their lower anatomy so far that Oxygen has to be piped to them to keep them alive.

 

 

   Season limits for North River from the Highway 105 bridge to Salmon Creek is open to salmon fishing for 2014 from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30 with a liberal total limit of 6 salmon.  There are numerous houseboats tied to pilings in this lower stretch of river.  There is a good section of boat fishable water above the bridge for about 3 or 4 miles upstream to the end of tidewater at about Float House #29.  At a low, 0.0 tide you may encounter only 3’ of water at this upstream location.

 

   One method of fishing this upper extreme spot is to get there just before low tide change.  Stop in the middle of the river, but do not anchor, and simply cast spinners using a spinning outfit and 15# monofilament mainline.  If the fish are there, they will be jumping or rolling occasionally.  Use a Metric #5 spinner that has a single Siwash hook ahead of it about 20”, place a 3/8 oz. bead-chain keel sinker.  There are plenty of underwater limbs and snags in this area.  This sinker ahead of the spinner helps you cast farther, keeps the lure near the bottom, plus it runs interference for the spinner’s single point hook and lessens possible hang ups.  Keep casting, as the tide turns and comes back in, the fish seem to drift upstream past you.  Just because you see the fish jumping or rolling, do not be duped into thinking they are on the top of the water.  This water is shallow (4'-6') and you need to fish the lure NEAR the bottom.

 

  Southern Section of Willapa Bay :

 

  Bay Center :  The Bay Center boat launch is located in Bay Center boat basin.  After you cross the Palix River bridge, turn right, which will take you NW and into this small community.  You will pass oyster processing businesses and at the boat basin, cross the bridge heading north toward town.  Turn right on the first road after the bridge, which will but you into the boat launch.  This boat basin is at the end of a dredged channel, and be aware that at a LOW tide any boat tied to the shore side of the dock will be setting on mud.

   This is launch would not be a prime recreational fishing location because of all the shallow channels leading out and around the area as the Palix launch listed below is near.

  Palix River :  The Palix River boat launch is right off the Highway 101 just beyond the river bridge and after the road that goes to Bay Center.  This is a single lane concrete pad ramp with a small parking lot.  The ramp and lot are to the east immediately next to the highway.   This is a pretty well protected launch except when you get a wind coming in from anywhere but the east.

 

  Other Things to See & Do :  You owe it to yourself to stop at the Old Tokeland Hotel and Restaurant for a meal.  This is a resurrected building dating back to 1885 that was reopened  in 1990.  This is a large gray structure on the left about as you get into the residential area.   Phone 360-267-7006 www.tokelandhotel.com.  There is even a golf course nearby. 

 

   Nelson Seafoods has a retail store in the area.  You can't miss these as the road ends at the marina just beyond the store.  As of the end of August 2015 a new building was built that that houses  the new Nelson's retail store at the marina area next to the public restrooms.  Then there is a wood carver in the area who specializes in creations from driftwood.

 

   The Shoalwater Bay Indians have a casino with numerous slot machines and a small cafeteria style restaurant at the intersection of Highway 105 and the Tokeland Rd. with cigarette sales nearby.  There is even a fireworks stand open most of the year.  And early in 2011 they have built a new fuel/convenience store which they call Georgetown Center.  In the summer of 2013 this location a "Stop/Go" convieniece /snack store was added and a year later a restaurant and tourist type sales area was added.  And the tribe has also adding a new road at the northerly end of the reservation that leads up on top of the hill which is supposed to lead to a Tsunami refuge.  In 2013 and 2014 part of the bay was dredged and pumped the sand onto the marshy beach area west of the reservation.   Recently they have also purchased the Tradewinds Resort which is just SW of the tribal center.

 

   OH yes, the Indian tribal police do make their presence known near the casino for enforcement of their 35 MPH traffic speed limit on their reservation.  However their current black with white striped Dodge Charger cars do not have enough room on the reservation to even get into high gear, rather impressive machines however.  For a small reservation, (about 1 square mile) they have a total of 3 Dodge Chargers and another regular patrol car plus a van and a motorcycle.  The word is that they will pull you over for 1 MPH over the posted signage.  And some of these patrol cars have almost invisible markings, kind of like holographic and about impossible to read unless in the right situation.

 

   Crabbing can also be an opportunity for the family in the lower sections of this bay IF you put them in a location where there is minimal boat traffic.   However I have not been fortunate enough to catch enough crab here in the bay to make it worthwhile given the amount of weeds that seem to have a magnetic attraction for your pot.  If I were to try it again, I think possibly in the waters off the residential area of Tokeland and west toward bay buoy #13 would be better.   Or Vickie from the bait shop says south of marker #16 is where many go, however this is a lot shallower.

 

  Somethings You May Also See :    If you venture in the bay long enough with your boat, you will in all probably run onto a sandbar.  If your boat is small enough and and flat bottomed, and you were going slow enough, you may be able to power off, OR GET OUT AND PUSH.  Take it from me, the sand here is usually pretty solid.   In the photo below on the left, this boat's radar was no match for a malfunctioning sonar low water alarm OR an inattentive skipper.  There is a channel to the north of this sandbar, but these "out of towners" must have thought the water was like in Puget Sound and no thoughts about shallow narrow channels.

  good low water sonar alarm.  Note the deck chairs on the sandbar to help pass the time until the tide came back in 

 

 

 

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Originated 8-21-01, Last updated 08-18-2023 *
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