Buoy 10 fishery bright for chinooks, coho

FISHING — The Buoy 10 fishing season started with a bang over the weekend up from the mouth of the Columbia River for ocean-bright fall chinook and coho.

Checkers found an average of nearly two coho kept per boat. A couple dozen fall chinook were checked each day.

“It was the best Buoy 10 opener since 2001 when anglers averaged nearly 2/3 of a coho per rod,” said Joe Hymer, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife salmon specialist in Vancouver. “It should be noted that 1.1 million coho returned that year.  This year’s preseason forecast is 539,600 fish.”

• See daily sampling summaries .

The daily limit is two fish — one chinook — through Sept. 7 (Labor Day).

Chinook retention is scheduled to be closed Sept. 8–30. A mark-selective fishery may be considered in-season during all or part of the non-retention period.

Beginning Oct. 1, chinook retention will reopen with a two fish/two chinook daily bag limit.

Anglers can improve chances at landing some of the nearly 35,000 chinook and 46,000 coho expected to be caught at Buoy 10 this fall by studying daily and past year’s Washington sport sampling summaries .

Check out the following links for current weather and forecasts plus water temps which may play a large role in angler success this fall.  On the web cams you can see how many others are fishing your “secret spot” (plus see if there are any traffic problems).

• Weather web cams
• NOAA tides and currents
• Astoria-Megler Bridge web cam, Oregon side
• Astoria-Megler Bridge web cam, Washington side

Note Oregon’s sport fishing closure at the mouth of Young’s Bay .