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I have not posted a report on this site since it was WashingtonLakes.com which is too long! My apologies for the late report on salmon season. I broke my ankle back in May and was down and out until late summer. Before the ankle break I made an early trip to Hayden in Idaho and caught around 50 kokanee and also got a halibut trip in out of Westport the weekend before my ankle break (pics included). In late summer, being able to walk and get around again, I made my first trip up to Brewster for a fat skunk. We had a hatchery king to the boat with a missed netting opportunity and got no interest from the sockeye. We did put some kokes in the boat at Alta where we camped so it wasn't a total loss.

The late summer/early fall warmwater fishing was good to us here on the Snake. Did lots of evening fishing after work and managed some good 50-100 smallmouth evenings with jumbo perch, walleye and channel cats mixed into the bag. I lost the biggest bass I have ever hooked out here early on in the bass fishing due to another missed net job. Things were pretty rough for me on the fishing front for a while but really turned around with salmon season.

Salmon season opened at the beginning of September and we started hitting it pretty soon after the opening. I would make a couple of passes trolling but the high action bass fishing would call to me and I would give it up pretty quick. Our first Chinook fell victim to our bait on my new fishing buddy's birthday, September 16th, trolling after some bass fishing. That first fish was about 8 lbs but it sure was hot. It put to test my new Lamiglas CG90DRs with some screaming runs. I really came to appreciate those rods over the season even though they are a bit heavy. From then on my time was pretty much dedicated to catching salmon and I fished nearly every day to make up for lost fishing time.

The bigger fish seemed to come at the beginning of the season at the peak of the run with size diminishing towards the end. Towards the end we were picking up more jacks and the aptly named mini jacks that thrive around the hatchery. You saltwater folks would consider these shakers. The biggest fish we caught were in the 17 to 20 lb range. We caught a mix of wild and hatchery fish, but we did end up catching quite a few clipped fish which was a nice surprise. I personally punched 7 on my card with a couple of jacks included. The jacks cut and ate great and we get some pretty big jacks out here at Lyons Ferry.

Fishing was all done in front of the Lyons Ferry hatchery. We fished downstream of the hatchery to the cliffs and upstream to above the railroad bridge. Fish were not just caught in front of the hatchery outfall where many boats congregate and jig, fish were caught all over this area with many actually coming up stream of the hatchery outfall. The tackle consisted of hotspot and pro troll flashers and a 5 - 6 foot leader to Brad's cut plug superbaits. The superbaits were stuffed with tuna in oil. Just plain tuna accounted for most of the fish this year while last year herring and garlic scents in addition to the tuna were hot. Greens were definitely the hot color for us. Standard 20 foot setbacks with the cable at 10-17 feet were the ticket at trolling speeds of 2.5 to 3.0 mph.

The final tally was somewhere around 30 adults to the boat with no count on jacks or lost fish (which there were plenty of both). The fastest day was probably in 1.5 hours of fishing we had 7 fish on with only 2 to the boat. That was an exciting day but definitely frustrating. The last fish of the season came on my birthday, October 14th, and other demands/hunting put the fishing to an end after that. All said it was a great season and I hope the fall runs keep going strong. It is definitely not the destination that Hanford is, with fish running quite a bit smaller than in the reach, but it is pretty awesome to have this fishery in our back yard.

We are starting to put together some videos as Snake River Life productions. Enjoy our first installment "Lyons Ferry Fall Fishing 2015," and stay tuned for our next video of a trip we took to Roosevelt in mid-December. Good luck to any who come out here and give it a try, give us a shout if you see us, and tight lines to all.

Peter Lorge

2/18/2016 6:28:00 PM

Thanks for sharing. !!

NWFishinguy

2/19/2016 8:40:00 AM

Great post! I appreciate the fact that you actually discuss which baits, depths and speed were getting you hook-ups. I enjoy reading a report that actually may teach me to be a better angler and improve the quality of my time on the water. I don't care for the 10 pic glory posts that don't share anything other then several long paragraphs of descriptive play by play. There's no harm done to your fishing spot by giving other folks some good info that may make the difference between a skunk and a sweet memory.
Nice work on those summer fish.

Ol'Yeller

2/19/2016 9:07:00 AM

Great Report ,Information , and video. Roofed that hatchery 20 years ago never though about fishing there .will start

rusty

2/19/2016 4:54:00 PM

Great video, looks like you had a decent summer despite the broken ankle.

Fishman_Kuzan

2/20/2016 1:03:00 PM

Thanks for the comments guys! Really appreciate it. I am all about the fishing community and trying to help others catch fish as I would hope fellow anglers would do for me. This site has definitely helped me to be successful so I am privileged to contribute. If anyone has questions PM or comment and I'll do my best to respond!

Ol' Yeller- That is awesome! Its a good example that hatcheries provide more for the economy than just fish. The salmon season has only been open for several years, but there is a ton of opportunity for multiple species out here. Let me know if I can help you out at all.

Rusty- Always try to make the best of it, thanks for reading

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