If you were fishing the Columbia River around Warrior Rock over Labor Day weekend, you probably don’t need us to tell you how busy it was.
There were so many boats packed along the deadline between Warrior Rock and the piling dolphin on the Washington side that it felt like you could almost hop from boat to boat across the river.
And for good reason.
The fishing was red hot.
Fish were being caught throughout the day, and the numbers moving upriver were strong. We had days leading into the weekend with more than 15,000 Chinook going over Bonneville Dam and a peak of more than 22,000 fish in a day.
We also had a little shot of rain in the middle of the week before Labor Day, and whether it was coincidence or not, it really seemed to help set the stage for an awesome weekend of Columbia River salmon fishing.
The Current Has Been a Huge Part of the Bite
One thing we’ve really been paying attention to this year is the current.
Fish have been caught all day, but some of our best stretches have consistently come when the downstream current begins to slow, reaches slack water, or even starts pushing slightly upriver with the tide.
That doesn’t mean salmon won’t bite when the water is moving hard. They absolutely will.
It’s just something we’ve noticed from our boat. When the current starts slowing down, the whole fishery seems to change.
Your gear starts settling differently. Your lead stays closer to the boat. Your troll changes. Then somebody hooks a fish.
When several boats around you suddenly start getting bit at the same time, you start paying attention.
Heavy Lead Was the Name of the Game
With that many boats fishing such a small section of river, we wanted to keep everything close and controlled.
Most of the weekend we were trolling 18- and 20-ounce leads.
That kept our gear closer to the boat instead of sweeping way back into somebody else’s troll, and it gave us enough control even when the tide started ripping a little harder.
This is exactly the kind of fishing the new Prolite 360 trolling rods were designed around.
The blank itself was designed and built by Prolite specifically for this style of Columbia River fishing.
We looked at what anglers were already doing successfully, took the characteristics we liked best from different rods, and tried to combine those strengths into one rod.
The result is a rod that handles heavy lead extremely well but still loads properly when a salmon grabs the bait.
It has the power to fish 18 or 20 ounces comfortably, but when a Chinook loads it up, the rod keeps bending and working instead of feeling overly stiff.
And Yes, Those Orange Tips Are On Purpose
One of the coolest parts of the weekend had nothing to do with how many fish we caught.
We had a bunch of people asking:
“Who builds those rods with the orange tips?”
That was pretty awesome to hear.
The orange tip isn’t there just because we thought it looked good. It’s supposed to stand out.
When you’ve got multiple rods fishing, boats everywhere around you, and everyone watching their spread, being able to see the tip easily is useful.
But from the Prolite side of things, there’s another reason too.
We want you to see one across the river and know exactly what it is.
That’s a Prolite rod.
The orange tip is becoming part of the identity of the 360, and seeing people recognize it on the water was probably one of the highlights of the weekend for us.
A Few Changes to Our Terminal Gear
We’ve also been making some small adjustments to our setups as the season progresses.
We recently bumped our leaders up to 40-pound fluorocarbon.
There isn’t anything magic about 40-pound fluorocarbon that suddenly makes salmon bite. The biggest reason for us is durability.
When the fishing gets good and you’re catching multiple fish, we don’t want to be constantly re-tying leaders because they’re nicked up or beat up.
The heavier leader has simply let us keep fishing.
We’ve also been running double size 4 trebles.
With the Columbia sitting around 69 degrees, the water has been a little cooler than some of the late-summer temperatures we’ve gotten used to seeing over the last several years.
We’ve noticed some lighter bites, and the smaller hook size combined with the trailer treble seems to be helping turn some of those short strikes into hookups.
Again, that’s just what has been working for us.
There are a lot of different ways to rig a successful Columbia River salmon setup, and judging by the number of nets flying around the deadline all weekend, plenty of them are working.
Copper Has Been Getting Bit
Another thing we’ve been experimenting with is copper blades.
Copper is something we’d normally associate more with colder-water steelhead fishing, but we’ve been running it lately and the salmon have been eating it.
Is the copper actually making the difference?
Maybe.
Or maybe there are simply enough aggressive Chinook moving through right now that getting your presentation in front of the right fish matters more than the exact finish on the blade.
At the deadline, that’s especially interesting.
You’re fishing fish that are moving upriver through the lower Columbia, and at times they seem extremely aggressive.
It really feels like if you can put a good presentation in front of one of those fish, there’s a pretty good chance it’s going to take a swipe at it.
What We Learned Over Labor Day Weekend
The biggest takeaway from the weekend isn’t that you need an orange rod tip, a copper blade, 20 ounces of lead, or exactly the same leader setup we’re using.
It’s that this fishery is constantly changing.
Watch the river.
Watch your rods.
Pay attention to when the current begins slowing down.
Notice when the boats around you start hooking fish.
Try different presentations.
And when something starts working, don’t be afraid to keep doing it.
There are a lot of fish moving through the Columbia right now, and there are a lot of different ways to catch them.
We’re just sharing what we’ve been seeing from our boat and what has been working for us.
And if you happen to see those orange rod tips bouncing in the middle of the Warrior Rock fleet, now you know who built them.
Prolite Rod Technology