How Does The Moon And The Weather Affect Fishing For Salmon In A River?
I’m fishing in Washington on the West coast in the nisqually river to be exact. I was wondering how the tides affect fishing? what tides I need to fish. Why to fish these tides? Basically I need to learn the low down on these factors or if they even matter. I need as much detail as possible to understand this. I am also fishing for chinooks and cohos (kings and silvers) if that materrs. Thank you in advance.
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The moon phase controls the tides. Usually, a big high tide during the nightime hours (which happens during a full moon) will bring a fresh batch of fish in from the ocean. Fish for these salmon in the first 5 to 6 miles of tidewater the next morning. Early morning always seems to produce the best bites. Troll cut-plug herring on good weather days. Switch to spinners when it rains. An incoming tide is usually better for trolling than an outgoing tide. Many anglers anchor and use a bait-wrapped Kwikfish on the outgoing tides, effective for chinook. At low slack tide, look for chinook to head to the deepest water that is closely available. Find that hole, and drop a herring right to the bottom. Jig it up and down about 18 inches, and sometime during that low slack period you should get bit. For silvers, throw a #3 blue fox spinner in pink, yellow or blue. Have fun and good luck!
I find that several factor usually are in effect. River fishing is during the spawning runs. Temperature, Rain, and time of year are the most noticeable contributing factors that start the process. The fish feed early in the process and stop as they move up the rivers. Then the only reaction is protection of spawning redds.
I always pay attention to the moon phases as I feel they affect all aspects of the fishes behavior, from feeding to spawning to just laying low.
Of course there are hundreds of opinions on the subject, some folks just don’t consider it important, but I’m always watching it along with the changes in barometric pressure, as I believe these are key factors in your success. Here is a good article for you to read…………..
You can get some good ideas from other fishermen and their reports on My-Fishing-Report.com
Keep in mind that these are all ONLY guidelines. You can catch just about any fish, any time if you’re in the right place and there’s the right fish.
Tides are only an issue when the fish are close enough to the mouth of a river to have a true effect on them. They will be less “aggressive” on the outgoing tides that cause them to work harder. Therefore, they are a little less likely to strike and expend energy when they don’t have to. Once they reach that “certain” point in a river system where tides no longer have a significant effect, they are more free with their movement, assertion of territory, and curiosity.
Salmon tend to move up river systems at night through early morning before the sun has had a chance to warm the water too much. When the water temperature rises above a certain point the fish tend to become lethargic. (It’s totally different for each river system because the air temp and average water temp are always different depending on location).
I’ve always had the best luck from legal time (I can’t start before 1 hr before sunrise on my local river) through about 10/11ish. As well as the last hour of daylight.
EDIT – Salmon do not ACTIVELY feed once entering fresh water. Their throats close, and block anything from entering their stomachs. They still attack and bite, but gennerally baits (ie. herring/anchovie/sardine) will work closer to the mixing salt/fresh water where there are still some fish that haven’t siezed yet. Once they have siezed, the benefit of bait on a lure (ie. sardine wrapped KFish/FlatFish etc.) is only to provide a familiar scent for the fish to key in on.