Is anyone fishing below Wanapum on July 1st or 2nd. Im in Desert Aire and would like to fish there but my boat is not set up too good for fishing in the "bowl" right below the dam.

If you have an open seat and would like some help with expenses, let me know. I have all my own gear.

- If you don't have a boat and are brave I could be talked into putting my boat in at the dam. It's a 20' Fiberglass boat set up with downriggers. It can be a bit tricky if the wind is up and I've never fished it below Wanapum with the downriggers.

Did you give it a try?

I tried fishing on opening day (July 1) below McNary but struck out. We had an aquaview camera that we planted on the bottom and watched all the shad go by. Even though at the time the dam counts had dropped off quite a bit, we probably saw 50+ shad scoot by the narrow field of view in only a couple hours. Also saw a couple nooks, but none were willing to bite -- guess the water was already too warm (over 60 deg). Interestingly even though the sockeye outnumber the chinook 5/6 to 1 at the time, we didn't see any sockeye (maybe they're close enough to the size of the shad that we missed 'em -- it was a bit cloudy)

Anybody having luck with summers? Maybe up north?

I did not find anyone to go out with me under the dam. I heard they had 50 boats out on opening day. That would be CRAZY. The pool is pretty small. Rumor has it the fishing was good. I fished by myself down the river a bit. Several fish on the finder and rolling around by no take downs.

I am just learing how to run my downriggers and trolling motor setup. I have it pretty dialed in now.

I heading there tonight and this weekend to give it another try. Later in July I'm giving Brewster a shot.

SP

I got brave and went out this weekend with the family as my crew. I was not sure how that would go. My kids are 7 & 10. It was tricky but we launched and the lines were wet 15 minutes later. We pulled in a 30# fish in all the craziness. Broke the net and everything! The launch is probably the worst part. It is narrow, steep, & there are uncovered concrete blocks with metal screws hanging around at the bottom of the ramp. If it was windy I owuld not have gone out.

Brewster is my next adventure!

Way to go on the big king! Especially with your kids as crew. You're right, that spot is probably one of the worst I've seen for degree of difficulty in launching and fishing. Great job!

I'm going to head up and try Brewster this weekend. My buddies struggled a bit last weekend but hopefully it'll turn back on by the end of the week.

Good luck. Leave a few for me.
If you don't mind let me know how you do and what worked PM is fine.

I didn't make it up north last weekend... headed west instead because I got an offer of a tuna trip. That didn't work out all the way either because of snotty weather at Newport but I still had a great weekend, steelhead and sturgeon Friday on the CR and then coho and crab Saturday at Garibaldi.