Springer season: a rollercoaster of ups, downs, and plenty of humbling moments. I love chasing spring chinook salmon to shake of the winter blues, enjoy those nice weather spring days, and taking friends out to chase some hard-fighting chinook. Spring chinook season can be challenging, but utilizing these early season tips, you will be in position for more takedowns and more chinook salmon on the deck.Cover ground. Springer season can be all about covering lots of water, finding those pockets where the salmon are swimming during high water levels, and searching for salmon before they head over the dams. If you take the search and destroy mentality, you will find a springer or two.
Watch the water temperature. The start of spring chinook season you will see water temps in the low 40s, and as the water temperature increases over the season, the baits and way springers bite will change. Early season will be about spinners, cut-plug herring, and later in the season can be about eggs, sand shrimp and other baits. Watch the water and make adjustments day after day.Go shallow. The spring season will bring high-water events, the rivers rising frequently, so don’t be afraid to fish shallow, and even plunk from the bank in less than 10 feet of water. Springers will want to get out of the heavy flow, find breaks in the current, and that will mean you should go shallow.
Stay Humble. Spring chinook fishing will make you a hero or a zero very quickly. Day over day the fishing changes, so stay humble on those 0 bite days. The fishing can turn on quickly. More often than not, you will have 0-1 bite days, so be patient, stay humble, and be willing to grind out hours on the water for that one big bite!