RSSNorthwest Sportsman -- Winds of change for spring chinook
For The Yakima Herald-Republic
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The much-anticipated Yakima River spring salmon fishing season was announced late last week, but as you may have seen or heard, this year's season will be a little different from some in the past.
Yes, the season, which opens on May 1, and runs through May 31, will be for hatchery chinook only, meaning that only fish with a clipped and healed adipose fin may be kept (two per day). But the places that are open for fishing have changed.
More correctly, one section of the river that has been open in the past for fishing for Yakima River springers is the same, but one other area open is different.
As in years past, the portion of the Yakima River between Union Gap (the mouth of Ahtanum Creek) up to 3500 feet below Rosa Dam will again be open for fishing.
But this year the stretch of the river between Union Gap down to the Granger Bridge will be closed.
The new area for fishing for spring chinook on the Yakima will be in the very lowest part of the river, between the I-182 Bridge at river mile 4.6 near Richland to the State Route 224 Bridge in Benton City.
This opens up some 25 miles of river to fishing. The challenge comes in the fact that many anglers have never fished this part of the river before and no one has fished for spring salmon in this stretch of the river in decades.
The lower Yakima River is a great smallmouth bass fishing area and some anglers will fish for catfish there, too, but spring salmon fishing will be a new challenge.
It shouldn't take anglers long, however, to figure out where the best spots to fish will be and what techniques will work.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has maps of the few rough boat launches and public access points on this part of the river. According to the maps, there are five boat launches in the lower 25-mile stretch of the Yakima that will open for salmon on May 1. Most are labeled as primitive, meaning they are gravel and unfinished.
Over the years I have used several of these launches with my drift boat when fishing for bass, and they are quite adequate for the purpose of the putting in and taking out of drift boats or rubber rafts. But the ramps, and frankly, this part of the river are definitely not for other boats, except possibly some river jet sleds.
The WDFW access maps also show several bank fishing locations in this lower portion of the river. Because bank fishing was effective in the middle river section the last few years that it was open, it should be good in the lower river as well.
Fishing with a boat will allow anglers access to certain portions of the river that can't be reached by bank fishing, but it looks like there should be plenty of areas to fish from one side of the river or the other.
And many of the same techniques that have worked upriver should work in this part of the Yakima, too.
Anglers working from a boat have had good luck in the past back-trolling diving plugs like a Magnum Wiggle Wart or a Magnum FatFish. Another good technique is to cast and retrieve one of these lures.
Fishing bait below a bobber has maybe been the most effective technique on the Yakima in the past couple of years it was open. Find a deep slot where the fish may be holding and drop some cured salmon eggs below a bobber into the hole.
Other Yakima springer anglers over the years have had good luck drift-fishing with bait and a small Corky or Spin-N-Glo, while others have hooked fish on spinners and spoons. Just remember, this year's Yakima salmon fishing regulations call for only one single, barbless hook on whatever you are fishing with, and the gap between the shaft and hook point has to be 3/4-inch or less. The regulations are to help with the release of any wild fish that might be hooked.
The final couple of challenges for anglers will be water levels and fish arrival times.
Right now, with the cooler than normal temperatures we have been experiencing, the Yakima would be perfect for fishing. But if we get some warm temperatures, with the huge snow pack in the mountains, the river can get high and muddy very quickly.
And when the Yakima fish arrive in any fishable numbers is another question. But the biologists must think they'll start arriving soon, because the first spring salmon season on the Yakima in four years is about to get under way.
* Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.
