The alarm blared at 3:30 a.m.
Too early for sure. I REALLY wanted to stay in bed, but even after four days of the same early morning wake-up call, I rolled out because I knew what awaited in the hours ahead.
My son Kyle and I fished for five days up near Brewster, on the Columbia River below Chief Joseph Dam. We were fishing for sockeye salmon in the waters near the mouth of the Okanogan River, along with several hundred other anglers.
We, along with most of the others fishing for the smallish salmon, had some outstanding success.
It helps that there are several hundred thousand salmon swimming in the cool waters of the Columbia River near Brewster. At the last count reported by the fish tabulators at Wells Dam, there were over 350,000 sockeyes through the fish ladders early last week. Wells is the last dam the fish need to navigate before heading to the Okanogan.
That’s only about half of the sockeye now in the system. As of Sunday, there were more than 751,000 sockeye salmon over Bonneville, which is a new modern-day record.
The fishing at Brewster, along with other spots on the upper Columbia, has been good from the start of the season, which opened July 1. Anglers reported catching limits of the feisty little salmon on day one.
When we let our lines out into the Columbia in the early morning last Monday, it didn’t take long to get a bite. Friend Joe Lester had joined us and within a couple minutes of trolling he had a bite. Then he had another.
Both fish got off. Over the next twenty minutes we hooked six more sockeyes.
And we lost six more sockeyes. Frustrating for sure.
Finally, Kyle got one to the boat and then Joe landed one, and we were off and running. By 9:30 we had our three-person limit of 12 beautiful sockeyes.
We lost count that morning, but we believe we had at least 28 bites, or fish on, to catch our 12 fish. That is sockeye fishing. The things have an uncanny ability to get off the hook.
The next morning, we had a better hook-to-land ratio but didn’t get near the number of bites.
Every day is different when you fish for sockeyes. We found the fish were deeper than the first day and had to do some adjusting to the amount of weight and the depth at which we were running our gear.
One thing that didn’t change was the fish definitely were in a biting mood early in the mornings. Hence the 3:30 wake up call.
After getting the boat loaded and a short run up the river, we were ready to fish just as soon as there was enough light to see. On three of the days we had fish hit within the first few minutes of having lines in the water.
On a couple of days, we had our limits before six o’clock. When the bite is on, it is fast and furious action, many times with two or three fish on at a time.
It all makes for a frenzied period of time, especially for the person trying to net the fish.
Fishing during the week just seemed to get better. Two other friends jumped in with Kyle and me on Friday, and we had our 16-fish limit in less than two hours.
Understandably, fishing in and around a hundred other boats is not for everyone. But it is pretty big water there at the Brewster pool, with lots of room.
And nothing says you have to be right in the middle of the flotilla of boats. We saw fish being caught farther out into the river, away from the main fleet of boats.
Plus, everyone seems to be pretty neighborly. In five days of fishing, we only got tangled up with one other boat, and that was after a fish we hooked made a mad run away from the boat and picked up another angler’s line as they trolled by ten yards away.
The bigger issue is launching and parking that many boats and trailers. But it all seems to work out.
The town of Brewster is happy to have everyone there for the few weeks the fishing is good, with anglers buying gas, food, ice, tackle and lodging.
Folks come from all over to get in on the action. Last week we saw boats from Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Montana amongst the armada.
And the many fishing guides working the river will tell you they have clients coming in from all over the country to get in on the fun. Most guides will run two trips a day, with some running a third trip in the evening.
It’s a record run of sockeye salmon in the Columbia River this year. If you’ve ever had a notion to catch some of the tasty fish, now is the time, and the upper river near Brewster is the place.
The fishing is good now, and it should run for the next several weeks.
Oh, if you do go, prepare yourself for some obnoxiously early wake-up calls, but they are well worth it to get in on some fantastic sockeye salmon fishing.
Rob Phillips is an award-winning freelance outdoor writer who has written the Northwest Sportsman column for more than 30 years. He can be reached at rob1@spdandg.com.
