Anglers can look forward to one of the best returns of chinook salmon in several years when the fall fishing season gets under way Aug. 1 on the Columbia River.

Fisheries managers are forecasting a return of 655,000 adult fall chinook this year, which is up from a return of 429,000 chinook last year. If the run materializes as expected, it would be the largest fall chinook return since 2004.

The first booth I stopped at when I walked in the doors to ICAST was one that I returned to at least twice a day for the rest of the show.  Precision-Pak manufactures a variety of fishing gear organization products, and many of those are made just for kayaks and kayak anglers.

The Cape Disappointment Dungie Tournament & Crab feast

Date: July 24th
Location: Waikiki Beach (Cape Disappointment, WA)
Tourney times: 6AM launch 12PM weigh in
12 crab limit with a minimum size limit of 5 3/4" (Dungeness)
Entry fee: $20 per team
Prizes: Folding crab traps and accessories from Promar

Fishing rods are one of my favorite topics.  They're always evolving, and the popularity of kayak fishing has created a new industry segment that manufacturers are still trying to get a solid foothold within.  Some manufacturers like Okuma and Lamiglas have chosen to drop their kayak rod lineup while Tica  is planning on expanding their own.  Some manufacturers currently have kayak rods in prototype.

I've been running to PC whenever the surf is down enough for me to launch. I just love the fishing out there - anyone could really do it...

This time I brought a crab pot with me. I've never tried crabbing out there before, but I usually see one other crab buoy, so I figured I'd give it a go. I just took the one pot (oregon limits 3 pots/person) just so I didn't have to worry about all the extra gear for nothing.

The Oregon Rockfish Classic was born as a fishing trip.

In Pacific City, Oregon, less than a dozen kayak anglers met up on Sept 20th, 2008.  From throughout Oregon and Washington, they came to fish what some called the Oregon Coast Derby.  Others called it the Pacific City Kayak Fishing Classic.  There were a couple prizes to be had, but fishing was the main call.  Pacific City is one of the easiest surf launches because it is fairly well protected.  That's not to say there weren't some spills though.

Sorry it's taken so long for this report to come through.  Life's been crazy busy, but I've been on the water regularly.  So, how about some updates!

Weather had calmed down and allowed for a couple weeks of good saltwater fishing - just enough for everyone to get a hit, and now wanting more. If you could get out far enough, halibut was doing very well, so that was most up for the charter boat guys.  Those of us in kayaks found greenling (sea trout), rockfish, and lingcod all very active and hitting all sorts of baits.  There's a great single day fishing report in the forums.

If there's one thing I learned while fishing the Georgia Kayak Tournament Trail at Lake Harding this month, it's this:

It's hard to fish muddy water.

Slowly but surely the Spring Chinook season is picking up.  This is the first week in several that I've not been able to get on the water, and I'm dieing to be in the mix now.

Until monday, most anglers have been targetting the Willamette River because permanant regulations allow for salmon fishing 7 days a week.  Angler efforts have picked up daily.  One day I was out in my kayak trolling along with 8 other boats, the next day it was 12 other boats.  A week later I saw 24 boats.  Some trolling, some on the hook.

As we here at YakAngler discuss every month who we would like to interview next for our YakAngler Spotlight, we decided that there was no better candidate than our very own Isaac Miller aka "The Nothing".