Ok, first off I love to fish. I mainly fish tuna, wahoo, dorado and yellowtail off the long range boats down south, not to mention the usual freshwater fishing we all probably do. Moving up to the pacific northwest has opened up a whole now fishery. I was hoping to learn how to fish springers but have been waiting ever so patiently for them to cross the Bonneville dam. I want to fish above the dam as I am still a little wary of taking my boat below, not being experienced with certain ediquettes and anchoring techniques. Are we in for a poor return or is water temp, sea lions and everything else holding up what nature has done for I dont know how many thousands of years. Any help or news would be greatly appreciated.

There's a lot of debate and the answer is that nobody quite knows for sure. As best I can tell (which is just my interpretation of rumors, and various ramblings from a variety of conversations and internet discussion boards) the run is definately late at best and it's very near the point that WDFW and ODFW are going to close or restrict the season. It's too bad, because I still think we're in store for at least a fair late run of spring or early summer fish. The reports below Bonny have been fair, with numerous reports of multi-fish days. I think the big scare is that the run is stalled because of cold water/weather, but that if the stall persists, the fish may just decide to turn around and come back next year. Don't know if there's any science that supports this, but I've read it a couple of times now, and also I've read that years like this are what cause the fluctuations in average fish size from year to year due to a greater number of 4 and 5 year old fish. In other words, if this year's run decides to turn and head back out to sea, next year one might expect a larger run of fish with a disproportionate number of 4 and 5 salt fish (relative to the 3 year olds) because of the number of fish that skipped last year.

I have heard that the worst-case scenario is a closure by April 21st--sorry, but the only piece of info I can direct you to as proof is a thread from another discussion board: www.ifish.net/forum/sh...=&fpart=1. The other thing that many are worrying about is that nobody ever remembers a "reopening" of a closed season if it turns out that the numbers over Bonny climb back up or manage to exceed the averages.

Let's just keep our fingers crossed.

committee is meeting tomorrow 4/19/05 to discuss closing the Columbia river system i will update you as soon as i hear anything on this decision

Hey All,

I took a trip down to Bonneville this weekend and fished a little ways down from the Bonneville dam from the bank. The few people that I encountered there were very bummed out and mentioned that there had been minimal success. I can also attest to the fact that the one or two fish that I did see get hooked never made it too the bank as the Sea Lions picked them off immediately. I spoke to many individuals down there that said the Sea Lion population in the waters has become unbearable. They also beleive that the reason the run is off is because there are about 60 Sea Lions roaming between the Bonneville Dam and the Ocean. There were about 15 Sea Lions at the mouth of the fish ladder and they even had one Sea Lion brave the fish ladder and made it to the top.

I also went to Kalama and fished from the beach there by the trailer park. They were having absolutely no luck also, only 2 fish landed all day and they were only 10 pounds each, both fish also carried scars from Sea Lion attacks. I think they had better figure out a way to control the Sea Lion population in the area or we are going to see a bad decline in the run every year.

RAE