Chinook salmon, Coho, estuary fishing, bay fishing, 

Willapa Bay Salmon Fishing  

This fishery season officially, usually opens about the first of July, or when the adjacent ocean waters are open, but the main salmon run does not really enter the bay until the middle of August or so.  There however can be a few "dip ins" into the mouth in the early season with a high incoming tide.  The usual timing with enough fish to begin to be productive would be the last week of August to the middle of September.   This can well change with the weather however.

The Willapa Bay/River above Tokeland can be fished with a smaller boat, even a car-topper, if you watch the weather & stay, within reason, close enough to one of the many launches.  Almost always the wind picks up in the afternoon like most coastal locations making for choppy water conditions.   And it can be foggy here, usually in the mornings, so take a GPS with you & mark some locations off a chart before you go.

There are some nice Chinook & Coho taken each year from these waters.  The salmon runs coming in from the ocean to their spawning grounds in the river can be influenced by many things such as tides, ocean conditions, flows, river levels, water temps, light levels and more.  The biggest factors in some opinions are the temperatures, tides, and water flows.  As the salmon start entering the bays they are still feeding and following the baitfish in and out with the tides.  In these areas the most popular and successful method of fishing for salmon is using herring, anchovies or other food fish that the salmon feed on in the ocean.   The Coho won't normally start showing in any numbers until about the last week of September.  You may also encounter some Chum later on in the season.

Methods of fishing: Unlike out in the ocean where the use of downriggers and or divers is common, in the tidewater and estuaries the most common method is using lead on a dropper line with a three way swivel or sinker slider attached, and a leader of 4 to 6 feet to the herring.  You will see a few downriggers in use here, (and those that do are probably handicapping themselves) but only in the main or edges of the channel.   The few fishermen that use downriggers contend that the wire runs interference & collects the weeds before they get to the bait.   So try your choice, it may well work for you, but you more than likely abandon the idea.

Here in the fall, there are floating weeds, both on the surface & suspended, so even those using a diver, there can accumulate enough weeds so that the diver may well NOT release by the fisherman.   This then can become a problem if a salmon hits the lure, as you now are fighting a fish AND a large gob of weeds, which will give the fish the advantage.  This is not to say a diver can not be used, but I would only use one on the few rare days that the wind has pushed the floating weeds  out of the area.    More than one  rod has been broken when trying to pull a heavy gob of weeds in.

There are 2 schools of thought on fishing here.  The old school is when trolling herring, it is usually important that you keep your bait within a foot of the bottom, this requires paying attention to your rod because usually the bays are very shallow with constant possible depth changes by viewing your depth-finder so you must make sure that you are in that salmon zone at all times.

The other school adheres to the concept of somewhere above that.  Many Chinook are even caught near the top.  More than one fisherman says let the line out 15 pulls, (a pull being 2 feet).  I personally tend to try a 3/4 depth depending on the water depth.  Using this method a line counter reel proves it's worth.

This salmon fishery can be frustrating at times, as it can be hot & cold from one day to the other & this is possible due to the watershed being a very short as far as drainage.  You have to be there when the fish are.   The people who seem to do fairly well here are the ones who put their time in year after year from August 20th to about September 15th. & learn the few tricks required.  I hope I am able to convey a few in this article.

As we move up the bay & into the river above South Bend where the fresh water is more prevalent than salt water, the use of spinners and lures starts being the predominant lure and most times will out produce all others.  When salmon hit spinners or lures they are getting out of the feeding mode and into the reaction strike mode this usually coincides with the influence of some fresh water & or a temperature rise.

There is Also a Commercial Gill Net Fishery Here:  So, go to Commercial netting schedule, Willapa or to check with WDFW at the Montesano office as to when the netters are on the river, which is usually shortly after the middle of September.   If you call the WDFW, be prepared for them to give you some dates & commercial areas that mean nothing to the sport fisherperson.   Just trying to run from the South Bend launch downriver & have had to weave thru 35 net sets at low tide is not fun.  If you are really determined to fish this river when the gillnets are in, it may be best to slide up the North River channel & out of their way.  Sport fishermen claim that for 4 or 5 days after the nets come out, the sport catch drops off to nothing.

Their season usually runs from mid September for a  week, with the week-ends off for a couple of weeks & then for about 10 days straight onto the middle of October.  But by then the fish are homeward bound & are not very aggressive biters for the sportsmen.

Legally a net can not be laid across the complete river, but you may see one netter lay his from the north side to mid river & another netter lay his from the south side to mid river & they tie up to each other for a coffee/BS session in the middle.  A recreational boater then will have to negotiate around the end of the net, usually in 2-3 feet of water if it is a low tide.
I have also seen floating dead undersize sturgeon after these netters have pulled out.

Launches:  There are actually at least 8 launches  that can be used in the Willapa Bay.  These listed below are in sequence from starting at the lowest one on the river & then into the southern part of the bay.

            (1) Tokeland, Port of Willapa Harbor
            (2)  Smith Creek WDFW
            (3)  South Bend, City of South Bend
            (4) Raymond City Park  (not recommended for low tides, as it is shallow & MUDDY)
            (5) Old Willapa / Wilson Creek WDFW
            (6) Bay Center  (this appears to be a private launch)
            (7) Palix, WDFW
            (8) Long Island, Willapa National Wildlife Refuge

Depending on what part of the bay you plan on fishing, you can consider any of these launches.  For the normal fishery the preferable ones would probably be #1 & 3, they are closer to the action & do not require running thru a narrow channel, or longer distance.

The Tokeland Launch:  This launch is owned by the Port of Willapa Harbor and a $5.00 fee is charged.  Pay before launching at the Tokeland Marina bait store next to the launch or at the drop box at the launch.  The preparation area is just south of the ramps, basically on the side of the main road leading in.  The sport dock has moorage and the commercial docks are also available.  There is plenty of grass for parking here.  Bob Cordova runs the Tokeland Marina 360-267-2888 & is the harbormaster also.  They take care of the launch fee, moorage & have frozen bait, ice & rent crab rings.   This is a busy place during the last of August & September, especially on the week-ends.   Bob also likes to fish, so on a week day after all the boats have shoved off, sometimes he & his daughter Vickie may just hang a sign on the door saying GONE FISHING.   For those of you who came in late & had planned on buying your bait there, tough luck.   CLICK HERE   for link to Tokeland Marina page.

In early 2000 the Port redid the ramp to include a 2-lane corrugated concrete ramp with docks on both sides.  The only drawback is that each lane is a single & the north side you had better be good at backing otherwise your pickup fenders will be hitting the sides of the docks if you have to maneuver a lot to back down. 

The port later dredged the whole boat basin.   Now the concrete ramp extends down to -2.0' with a bumper at the end of the concrete.  The picture on the left below was taken 7-02-04 at a MINUS 2' LOW tide.  The pole farthest out on the right has marks at 1 foot intervals. Using this marker system, the foam shown here is about 10' below the top mark.   However I would currently (2006) not recommend you consider trying to launch at any tide near the -1.0',  as it has mudded in a bit since this picture was taken as the dike just beyond the left hand side of this picture has blown a hole that has allowed mud to infiltrate the basin.  Look at the picture on the right for current conditions.  Talk to Bob & if it is that low, depending on the size of your boat, he may be able to re-rout you out under the dock walk down ramp & out past the mudded in area.

Fuel:  There is no fuel anywhere near this dock area for those who may moor here.  The closest would be to haul it in from the the Local Store between Grayland & North Cove or from a service station in Raymond.   Or there is supposed to be a fuel dock at South Bend.

RV Parks:  In the small metropolis of Tokeland, there are 2 RV Parks.  One just behind the bait shop & beside the launch parking lot, My Suzie Willapa RV Park,  3230 Front Lane, Tokeland, 360-267-7710, & the fees are $20 a day for full hook up, $120 a week, or $320 a month. 

The other is Bayshore RV Park 2941 Kindred Ave. 1-800-638-2625, which about 1/2 a mile before you get to the launch on the south side of the road across from the old hotel.   Their website is www.bayshoretokeland.com .

The South Bend Launch:  This launch as been rebuilt  the summer of 2004, with an extra wide single lane poured corrugated concrete ramp with a spot or two of parking for handicapped.  

The City of South Bend has revised it's boat launch and dock ordinance the spring of 2007.  There is now a $5 maintenance fee for launching at the ramp.  That maintenance fee includes one day's parking in the launch area.  One day is defined as 00:01 to 24:00.  If parking multiple days, a $5 fee is due each calendar day.  Unattended vehicles without trailers are also assessed a $5 fee.  If you have buddies, with their vehicles, it is suggested to have them park downtown and pick them up at the main dock. 

The city is also in the process (2007) of expanding the parking area some and a grant request is in process to expand it even more.  Rules and copy of ordinance (1365) are posted at the launch area. 

This launch is located on the main Hiway 101 just West of the town of South Bend.  The main parking lot is just past the launch northwest of the main launch area.

It is a good ramp for boats up into the 20'+ class.  Even the 30' gillnet boats launch here.  The ramp is is angled out & downstream with a dock on the downstream side.  A loading/unloading float as been added early 2007 off the end of the main launching dock.  The concrete ramp goes to just below the end of the dock with heavy gravel below the concrete that is angled down at about twice the ramp angle.   I also like the barber poles at the top of the ramp to guide you back until you can see the ramp itself.

Launching from this ramp will put you into the upper fishing area rather soon, as you will be running downriver & can be fishing at the big bend seen to the left in the picture within 1 mile.  The distance by water from this launch to Tokeland is about 8 miles.  However you will be fishing about 3 to 4 miles upriver from Tokeland.  It is a lot faster to run the distance to the fishing area by water if you are coming in from Hiway 6 at Raymond, than it is to drive around to the Tokeland launch, & then run out into the same fishing area of the river that you had driven by.

In the past during the prime time for fall salmon & on week-ends, the parking lots can fill up, so the improvement to the parking will be helpful.

 Water Temperature: Water temperature will vary with the tide & how far upriver you venture.  Temperatures for the year 2006 taken off marker #13 east of Tokeland varied from 56 degrees at a high tide to 61 degrees at a low tide.  2006 saw a temperature of 61 degrees at high & 63.5 at low tide.  2007 saw a temperature of 59 & 66 degrees.  This variation happens depending on the amount of cooler ocean water is mixed with the warmer river water.

Where to Fish:  We will start with the old main fishery in Willapa Bay itself.  For many years the place to fish was to troll the beach in 10’ to 15' of water along "Washaway Beach",  just inside the main channel mouth on the North shore of the river near North Cove.  Over the years the ocean/river washed away about a mile of beach, including many houses & the old Coast Guard lighthouse. 

In the map below you will notice the lower buoys, as purple dots, north side marker piling in round green dots, the south side piling markers in red, & the launches in purple.  The piling on North River are in yellow. The piling marker numbers are indicated on this chart.   I am hesitant to give the buoy numbers for the bay, as they may duplicate the river marker numbers & can get confusing.  

At low tide you are usually confined to the river itself from marker 10 to 28.   As the tide comes in it disperses the water considerable, but even then the main fishing areas will basically be in & around the main river's shipping channel. 

At low tide it is not uncommon to see employees of the commercial oyster companies on the sand south of piling markers #2 to #8 gathering oysters & putting them in large baskets to be picked up by large flat bottomed oyster barges later on the high tide.

The map below is a satellite photo so you can see the deeper holes & or channels & exposed mud at which appears to pretty much be a high tide.

The fishing area at the mouth of the bay, (on the left edge of the map) the western most 1/2 up to the rock jetty, is the area called "Washaway Beach".   One well known fisherman that frequents this area, recommends fishing this beach in 30' of water from just inside the breakers at the mouth up to the the rock breakwater jetty during the last 3 hours of the incoming tide.  Then after that time slot, move upriver & fish from the entrance of Tokeland from about marker #2 up to marker #8 or 13 of the high flood & on into the outgoing tide.

During the summer of 1998  the Army Corp of Engineers placed a short rock jetty, as shown by the black line in a picture above,  at the upstream section that used to be the fishing area.   Off the end of this rock jetty is an underwater diversion dike, so if you are boating here at before a high or low run off tide, be careful of the turbulence.  This jetty has done somewhat what it was supposed to do, in that the beach has changed in where it is washing away.    But this jetty was not what was needed as the washing away was not  caused by the river, but the southwesterly winter winds pounding the beach at Cape Shoalwater with no north jetty for this river for protection.

It is a sad sight to walk the beach here at low tide & count the 1 1/2" to 2" metal pipes standing a few feet out of the water in line with the washed out roads.  These well pipes are all of what was left of the homes in that area that got washed away.

If you drive the Hiway 105 & stop at this rock jetty during a mid outgoing tide, look off the end of the jetty, you will notice a rather swift section of water.  Since this jetty has been installed most of the fishing has shifted upriver.  As the shallower water near the beach has become deeper.  My belief is that this jetty has raised the water speed  & or turbulence to the point that the bait does not stay there in the concentrations that it used to.  There will be a rip off the end of this breakwater that at times can become nasty for a small boat, depending on the tide.

The fall of 2006 saw some rip-rap being placed along the road below this jetty on the banks of Cranberry Creek.

The Willapa River channel runs from south in the bay from Toke Point, east to the upriver Range Point on the bay's eastern shore.  You will see the left hand piling markers 1, 7, 13, 15, 17, & 19 plus the red range markers on this upriver bend, don't try to drift to much north of these markers from #13 on, as it starts to get shallower & the mud is unforgiving on an outgoing tide.

Also do not use the previous  Fishing & Hunting News illustrated map of about the year 2000 or so.  The shaded area they list as motor mooching is really tide flats at low tide (MUD). 

Most of the fishing that currently takes place is from just outside the Tokeland boat basin following the red marker pilings from #2 up to marker #10 & then up close to #15 or #17.   Marker #13 is at 46-42-012 / 123-54-577 & is just east of the entrance to North River.  There is a secondary fishing section on up to below the South Bend launch at #26 which usually takes place like most estuary fishing on the incoming & up thru the high flood tide.    Marker #19 to #24 is in the upper of this location & seems to be a preferred location for some, usually on the last part of the high tide.

The tide difference from the ocean to this area is about another 45 + minutes.  The most preferred time seems to be the last 2 hours of high incoming flood tide & then another 2 hours into the start of the outgoing probably because the weeds are less prevalent then.  However you will see others fish all the way thru the outgoing & into the low slack.   It is my experience that a low run-off tide (3')  will not be as good catching, & probably because of a lesser flow where new baitfish & therefore salmon do not move into the bay.  Trolling will normally be best WITH the incoming tide up until about high slack tide & then the troll becomes both directions.   Trolling however may be a problem on being able to go exactly where you want to go because of the wind or a large amount of weeds in a weed-line.

The above said, do not forgo a low slack tide fishery.  I personally tend to like this better as the fishable water is condensed, also forcing the fish into a more confined location.   This fishery appears to not really a time of the day fishery, but a tide fishery. 

Probably the most common mistake is to get set trolling & not realize the tide has increased in speed & you are not covering much ground.  This may be attributed to a good slack tide troll in either direction, & then as the tide starts to move again the fisherman does not realize just how fast it is going unless he is using a sonar/GPS that has a MPH reading & will continue to fish in the easiest direction of travel.  It is best to pick up & run into the tide, set down & troll back with the tide.  Sometimes this troll back seems to fly by, & you begin to wonder if it is worth the effort.  One very observant young fisherman said that we are trying to reproduce the action of a wounded baitfish & that he has never seen a wounded fish swim into a current, but rather being carried by it.   Makes sense to me.

Then trolling with the current may well be hard depending on the time of the day & the tide if you have other boats in the area & you have the wind to contend with also.  Not saying you will not catch fish trolling against the tide, but your odds become less.  But you will have to adjust your motor speed to keep from just standing still.  As the tide nears either low or jigh slack, then there is an hour or so that you can effectively troll either direction.

Another not so well used method is to troll in a big zig-zag pattern across the tide.  This can be hard to do if you happen to be in an area where there are a lot of boats.

The wind WILL pick up about 1 to 2 PM, so this effects fishing.  It does seem to lay down later in the afternoon at times, but do not count on it happening.   The worst days of catching for me happened to be with an east wind, maybe this was just coincidental, & no fish were in the bay, BUT?

The ideal situation would be when the high slack tide would be say about 8 AM.   This gives you time to get out & on the water at daylight, "6 AM", fish the prime times & off the water when the wind picks up in the afternoon.  Again the wind WILL pick up from the west about noon to 1 PM.   If it doesn't consider yourself lucky.  If say at 3PM the outgoing tide is running & you are trying to troll downstream with the current & the wind is blowing you back, it is very hard to control the boat.  Under other conditions or areas, this would be the time to troll in a zig-zag, but here there are usually enough boats nearby that it would be way too much of a hassle.  When the conditions get that bad, you should consider calling it quits for the day instead of fighting the wind & getting nowhere.

This bay can be flat calm in the morning & then rather choppy for a small boat in the afternoon.   I have seen 12' Port-a-Boats, 14' Jon boats, &  even a 10' Zodiac, 2 people aboard, with only an electric trolling motor for power there.   Not ideal, but OK if they understand the possible weather conditions.

One trend of thought here is that the fish will be swimming upstream into the out-flowing water, & not being totally swept in by the incoming tide that seems to be the common perception.  Now this may vary depending on the amount of run off.  If the flow gets too strong, these Chinook may well slide into a protected area of a depression in the bottom, or duck behind a piling marker that has collected debris in front of it, creating a resting place.  This can well be used to your advantage.  

Many say the fish come in on a high tide.  My belief is that YES, they may true, but that it is probably that they are only following baitfish.

With the low tide, the bay shrinks considerably.   This can be a benefit in that there is a lot less area for the fish to hide in, but concentrates the floating weeds also.  At this time is best to slide upriver from #13, which tends to have less weeds & also forces the fish into a smaller channel.

I have not been able to locate depressions in the bottom here like other bays, as much of this bay (at least in the fishing areas) is rather flat or slightly sloping.  If you do find a depression or "holes / troughs", these could only be a foot or so deep & would be a prime place to drop your lure into.   If you can mark these, & troll over them  watching your depthfinder closely, as you pass over them, let your line out, or slow the troll down to allow your bait to drop into this hole.   Fish will tend to stop & rest here, & you might just have figured out a way to find them.   If you just follow the others you may occasionally stumble into a fish, but buy using your depthfinder maybe even just a certain water depth on a certain tide time could be where they are then.

It appears that the fish DO NOT necessarily follow the shipping channel which is usually 35' deep, but they seem to migrate on the edges of it, in water depths from 12' to 25' depending on the tide.  This may just be their way of staying in touch with finding their way once they enter the rivers.

When heading upriver from off piling marker #2 (which is about straight south of the Tokeland harbor entrance), to #8 it is rather straight with the river, then from #8 to #10 is a slight jog, then straightens out again to about #26.  The channel has shallowed up between #13 & #15 so you may only have 20' here instead of the normal 35' channel.   My thinking here is the current is somewhat slower on the sides of the channel.   Also observed is the fish tend to cut across the "flats" (15' - 20') from #8 to above #10

Don't just follow the concentration of boats thinking that is the "place to fish", as that may not be the only fishy area in the bay.  Most all the non-locals think the other guy is the expert.  I was fishing there alone (basically trolling back to the South Bend launch), in 2001 near #30, with one other boat, while the whole flotilla was downstream from us a few miles.  The other lone fisherman was using a electric trolling motor and the tide was almost all the way out.  His larger Mercury outboard motor would not start.  I offered to tow him back up to the South Bend ramp.  He graciously refused saying that he had a spare battery for the electric motor & that when the tide changed & started coming back in his electric motor would get him back to the ramp.  But he then confided in me that his main reason was that for the last 2 days he had pulled his limit of Chinook out of that area while everyone else was downriver, and we were alone in that area then. 

Like anywhere else, a good pair of binoculars & you being observant, may help observe the lure & location used & ultimately possibly put fish in your fishbox.  If a fisherman just reeled in to pull weeds off, watch to see how many "pulls" that he lets his gear out.

The one bad thing this time of the year, is you will usually be confronted with floating grass on/in the water.  It appears that at a high tide when things stand still the weeds are not as bad.  When the tide gets to running out on a high tidal exchange, on into a low tide is when the weeds seem to get worse.  Part of this getting worse, is that the weeds are now concentrated in to a smaller area than at a high flood tide.

Crabbing can also be an opportunity for the family in the lower sections of this bay IF you put them in a location where there is minimal boat traffic.  There is a shallow finger just NE of the Tokeland marina that you will see some crab pot set. 

What to use & methods:  The standard practice of fishing near the bottom in estuary fishing is practiced here also.  Most agree that for Chinook, about 2' off the bottom is usually preferred.   However it is best to try different weights when trolling if more than one person is in the boat.  This will allow you to "search" the area & cover the water column better, where you may get some suspended fish at about 1/2 depth with the lighter weights.   The normal fishing locations here has a very forgiving bottom with no snags.

Now here is another thought to add to the mix.  Do not run heavy weights (8 to 12oz.) so as to keep the lure near the boat & away from the other boats.  The reason is that most of this fishing will be in basically shallow water, (12'-30' deep).   Since you will be trolling, & in a confined space, your trolling motor may well create enough noise if you are basically right above the fish you may well spook them also.  Therefore it may be better to use a lighter sinker & troll it farther back behind the boat.   One local fisherman confided that he just uses a 6 oz. sinker & pulls out 15 strips of line, which would put him down about 17'.   

Most bay fishermen here use large herring whole herring, however you will see many that are cut-plugged.   I do not like the cut plug bait here, in that with the volume of weeds that are here most times, & the bait gets battered a lot, changing the cut that you tried so hard to produce.  I tend to go another step & have found that the herring bonnets perform even better than a whole rigged herring here.  The best I have found are Rhys Davis made in Canada.   The regular size is the Anchovy Special, while if you insist on LARGE herring then their Super Herring Special is the one needed.   These utilize a  plastic pin, but they get lost & any round toothpick works OK to secure the head of the herring into the bonnet.   I do make one change, in that if I do not like the spin I get, so use the round toothpick & once I get the body shape of the herring I like, inset the toothpick lengthwise down the herring's  body at the backbone line, holding that shape.  This gives me more of a slow roll instead of having a sharper kink at the head giving a faster spin.

A second choice which is very similar is the Les Davis or a Ryes Davis herring bonnet.

This water is shallow enough that you will normally NOT be able to "see" many fish on your depthfinder.

It is my mumble opinion that the bright fish fresh here from the ocean will take about any salmon lure.  But after they have been there a while they became acclimated  while waiting for the right water conditions to move upstream because of lack of rain, these fish need to have a very active lure pulled right in their faces so they strike it as a defense.  This can be a herring or artificial lure.  For more information on estuary salmon fishing & tackle, CLICK HERE.    This article has a illustrated diagrams of the gear used.

In the photo on the left above, about labor Day 2007, we were heading in, back up North River &  right behind marker #13 was this small boat & dad trying to net son's fish.  Dad was also trying to get a photo or two in between being there if & when the fish got close enough.   The boy was doing all the fighting of the fish on his own, a real fisherman. 

However the distance of the flasher & leader made it rather hard for the boy to bring the fish close enough to the boat for dad to be effective.  Numerous attempts were made.  But the wind was blowing them into the mud flats.   In this picture they were probably in 5' of water & getting shallower & the fish was not happy.  We stayed nearby in hopes of getting a picture of the actual netting.  Finally the fish went on the other shallower side of the boat & the netting was unsuccessful.

I got the dads e-mail address & later sent him the pictures that I had taken.  Later when I asked for permission to use a picture for my articles, he said he had no idea who I was & that he had printed off a copy of this article & had it in the boat with him at the time.

Everyone says that you just have to put your time in here.  What they are really telling you to do your own homework & figure it out yourself.  Some of the little things may begin to add up after a few years of stumbling around.  This article is designed to try to improve your odds.   I have fished this area for as number of years &  I am still learning every time I go out there.  I think being very observant is more important, watch what the others are using, but more importantly WHERE they are pulling the fish & at what time of the tide.   Talking to some of the locals helps also, especially if you convey to them some of your frustrations.  Don't expect them to give away all their secrets, but even a few tips to a novice is better than stumbling around for years making the same mistakes & maybe only snagging an occasional sleeper fish, but never really knowing what you did right. 

There are many fisherpersons camped at the RV spots near the dock.  It may be well worth your while to rent a campsite & get to know a few of the regulars.  Some days there is no bite & only 5% of the fisherpersons bring back a fish, & the next day new fish arrive in the bay or something changes & half of the boats bring in multiple fish.  This is a location that the average fisherperson can NOT expect to limit out even every other day, unless you are VERY GOOD, understand the area & are DARNED LUCKY.   This is not a location to fish if you are newbie here, starving & need a fish to eat that day.

Most trolled herring here will be behind a Fish Flash, however you may occasionally see a Cone Zone.  The length of your leader may change with the tide, as a low tide the turbidity is greater, needing a shorter leader (2-3') for your attractor.  The water here on a high flood tide usually not as turbid as some other estuaries so a longer leader of  5' to 6' long can be used.  A lighter mono sinker dropper of about 12" is attached to a Slideo or sturgeon slider on the mainline is ahead of the Fish Flash about 14".  This distance is needed to separate the sinker dropper from the Fish Flash & avoid tangles.  There appears to not be any logs or brush on the bottom to tangle with here.   With the clearer high tide water, a small Fish Flash works better.   The thinking is that the larger attractors may spook the fish in this shallow water.  

Some successful fishermen will simply troll a mooching set-up.   Or some of the locals will just troll a large brass spinner.   Sinker weights from 4 to 6 ounces are normally used.   So try what you are comfortable with, do not be led to believe to use a heavier weight & try to keep the lure closer to the boat with less chance of tangling if another boat cuts close.  I do not like to set my rods in rod holders mounted so that the rod tip is high in the air.  Sure this increases the distance to where your line enters the water, & if you encounter someone who cuts in close behind you, a tangle may be encountered.  But by having your rod lower & using a lighter weight you have accomplished about the same distance & possibly less chance of a tangle.

Other successful fishermen will run a large spinner behind their small Fish Flash.

One thing I do at times, that gets many stares, is to troll a large Spi-N-Glo behind the Fish Flash.  Even put a gob of salmon egg roe on the upper hook.   I use this set up as a spare, so if I get tangled gear, I just unsnap it & replace it with this, get it back in the water, then untangle later.

Another thing to consider is that if the wind picks up & it becomes hard to troll into it especially if the current is running heavy, is to anchor out of the main fishing area & mooch a herring or plunk fish a Spi-N-Glo or large spinner in the current.

The advent of the line-counter reels has made life a lot easier to judge how far you are out, as you can be trolling at 20' depth & with a 4oz sinker at an average current, when you let out & hit bottom, the current will flow your line back, let it out again till you bump bottom.  Then crank it up a couple of turns, & you will be about right.  It doesn't take long for you to tell your water depth in relationship to the current & your blow back & then being able to realize that your line footage out will be near 40' or so in the above depth.   From here on, you can be pretty close by just looking at the depthfinder & adjusting your line in or out.

Floating Weeds:  I would recommend having a spare rod all rigged up, plus have some spare sinker droppers tied up.  The reason is that at times there are enough weeds here enough to tangle the gear.  Pull the gear in every 10 to 15 minutes & clean the weeds off.  If it happens to be tangled, switch rods & then take your spare time undoing the tangles.  If there are a lot of weeds & you are dragging around a lettuced herring, you will probably not be getting any bites either.  Every minute you have your lure in the water being fouled, or not in the water cleaning it is pretty sure you are NOT going to get a strike.

If every fisherperson would place all the weeds they removed from their gear during the day in garbage bags & placed it someplace on the shore later, I am sure that before long the whole bay would be devoid of floating weeds.

Lower Willapa Bay:  I have seen bait (usually anchovies) so thick in the main channel off  what used to be Deadmans Island,  that if you had a long handled net you could have gotten all the bait you would need for the next year.  Usually where there is bait, there are also salmon.  This time there was so much bait that our lures simply got lost in the crowd.  I have also caught fish in the outside the main channel, but crossing the bar can be dangerous for a small boat.  As just outside the point of land, the channel angles off to the Southwest & somewhat parallels the breakers.  Recent reports are the bar's channel has changed to where at a low tide the depth is less than 20'.  If you have a wind & tide running, it is best that the small boater remain inside. For further information go to "Ocean Fishing from a Small Boat".

"South Channel", which is a 50-60' deep large area just south of  Deadmans Island & north of Leadbetter Point.  This is more protected than the main Willapa channel which can have a severe current at the outgoing tide.  There are no buoys or markers on this "south side".   This channel shallows up considerably as it nears the ocean & breakers will be on the outside.  It is not recommended crossing here to the open ocean.

As of the summer of 2000, Deadmans Island has pretty much been washed away after the installation of the rock jetty downstream a couple of miles.  This may improve fishing somewhat from the standpoint that there was a colony of seals living on this island.   2002 & 2003 saw some of the island visible at low tide, however, but apparently not enough for the seals to return to.

Middle Section of The Bay:  This is where the bulk of the salmon fishing takes place.  In the end of August 2005 during a local salmon derby, when I was at about marker #13 & looking upriver & then downriver, I being in about the middle, counted over 120 boats in about a 3 or 4 mile section.  This is about as crowded as I have seen it, but still enough room for everyone, even including the larger boat that wanted to zig-zag thru the parade.  The 2006 derby day saw lots more boats but no real problems.

The one main complaint is that the boat skipper will also usually be fishing & if they happen to be sitting on the stern facing one direction steering the kicker motor, they usually do not look to their back side & if you get one person facing right & the other facing left, (with their backs to each other)  sometimes the other fishermen aboard may have to advise the skipper of a close encounter coming up.  This can then be exaggerated if the skipper then is cleaning his gear of weeds & the wind blowing.

If you fish the bays enough late in the season, you may see Coho jumping within 5 feet of shore at low tide in less than 2 feet of water, while everyone is trolling out in deeper water.   There are no piling or protective brush here, but they must may feel more secure than in deeper water that everyone is crowded into.  Here the fish seem to be moving upstream in small schools.  If you see a school of finning or jumping Coho, they will be moving upstream.  Follow them without spooking them, or run on the other side of the river to avoid them & then go above them hoping to intercept then again.  Cast #5 spinners to these fish.

North River:  This river empties into the north end of the bay & the river channel wonders thru the bay a& then into he north side of the Willapa channel from marker #10, closer to Tokeland and between Southbend.  The lower section of this river itself from the big bend to the Hiway 105 bridge can be productive if you happen to find a school of fish in the channel.   This is a situation where the Smith Creek launch can be utilized.  This launch has the concrete slabs ending at waterline of a 0.0 tide, & has course crushed gravel below the slabs, so there is no drop off.   However a larger tall boat may not be able to get under the low Smith Creek Hiway 105 bridge at a high tide to get the 100 yards needed to enter into North River.   My guestimate of clearance under this  bridge at a average high tide is 8'.

Heading out (downriver) from the Smith Creek launch, you go under the Smith Creek bridge, & about 100 yards you will enter North River.  Go down-stream (left) heading west staying between the piling markers, you will then enter a left hand corner with a marker on the right.  This is only one more RH piling below on this corner.  All of these markers are set up for a returning boat, so you have to look at the shape from the back side to determine which they are.  The triangle ones are red, while the square ones are the green.  Remember Red Right Returning code for the markers.

There is large dead-head before you get to the western piling to make the southerly turn, it is at 46-44-740 / 123-54-295.

From here you will be heading mostly south, stay on the West of these piling.  This channel is pretty well marked & deep enough for navigation until you get close to the actual Willapa channel which can be narrow & SHALLOW for the last 1/4 mile.   There is no actual marker at the entrance of North River.  From the last piling marker in this river, you need to be headed west of marker #13 & more toward marker #10 at this point, which is actually across on the south side of the Willapa channel (or toward the most RH point of land in the distance).   This last section near the Willapa markers shallows up slightly just before it drops off into the Willapa channel, so at a low tide your target would be west of #13 or about to 45-42-025 / 123-54-833 before you actually enter the Willapa River channel.

It is best to have a GPS/Plotter & follow the river channel.  Be very watchful of the markers, as even the seasoned traveler here can get distracted & find themselves setting on the mudflat.   Fog will be the worst (which happens this time of the year) & I suggest you do not travel this river unless it is clear, or you do have a GPS/Plotter.

It takes a boat that will plane, only about 12 minutes to get from the Smith Creek launch to marker #10 in the Willapa Bay, (unless there is fog & you are new to this area).

There is a private hatchery program on this river that releases a considerable number of Chinook, Coho salmon into this river every year.  The WFDW does not make this information readily available

Season limits for North River from the Hiway 105 bridge to Salmon Creek is open to salmon fishing from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30 with a liberal total limit of 6 salmon.  There are numerous houseboats tied to pilings in this lower stretch of river.  There is a good section of boat fishable water above the bridge for about 3 or 4 miles upstream to the end of tidewater at about Float House #29.  At a low, 0.0 tide you may encounter only 2’ of water at this upstream location.

One method of fishing this upper extreme spot is to get there just before low tide change.  Stop in the middle of the river, but do not anchor, & simply cast spinners using a spinning outfit & 15# monofilament mainline.  If the fish are there, they will be jumping or rolling occasionally.  Use a Metric #5 spinner that has a single Siwash hook & ahead of it about 20”, place a 3/8 oz. beadchain keel sinker.  There are plenty of underwater limbs & snags in this area.  This sinker helps you cast farther & keeps the lure near the bottom, plus it runs interference for the spinner’s single point hook & lessens possible hang ups.  Keep casting, as the tide turns & comes back in, the fish seem to drift upstream past you.  Just because you see the fish jumping or rolling, do not be duped into thinking they are on the top of the water.  This water is shallow & you need to fish the lure NEAR the bottom.

Other Things to See & Do:  You owe it to yourself to stop at the Old Tokeland Hotel & Restaurant for a meal.  This is a resurrected building dating back to 1885 that was reopened  in 1990.  This is a large gray structure on the left about as you get into the residential area.   Phone 360-267-7006 www.tokelandhotel.com.

 

Copyright © 2004-2008 LeeRoy Wisner  All Rights Reserved
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Originated 8-21-01, Last updated 05-04-2008
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