The Fishin' Magician: Slow salmon

Salmon fishing has been slow that past week on the upper Columbia, and I have very anglers out even trying. It is shocking to see so little traffic at the Brewster Pool and Wells Dam after the hordes of anglers at these locations earlier this summer. I blamed the full moon for slow fishing a week ago, but it is waning now so I can't figure out why the bite has fallen off.

There are still as many as 200 fish a day coming over Wells Dam, and fish that have been in this area and the Brewster Pool should be getting aggressive. We've had a spell of very warm weather over here and maybe that has the fish sulking. If it cools down a bit they may really come on the bite.

I am hearing reports of decent fishing on the Wenatchee River for summer runs. There are a lot of fish in the river, and it's a good time to drive up the Tumwater Canyon to view them in the deeper holes. I stop at a pull out below the Tumwater Bridge, run across the road, and take photos of them jumping and rolling below the guard rail.