LONG BEACH — Ocean recreational salmon season got off to a blazing start last week, with local charter offices reporting flat seas and aggressive fish as many thousands of returning Chinook and coho gather off the mouth of the Columbia River.
The F/V Coho King, captained by owner Butch Smith, was the first charter to return to the Port of Ilwaco just past noon after customers limited out the morning of Wednesday, June 25.
“We found some Chinook out there and they were biting like crazy,” said Smith, 61, pausing on a bench outside the charter office to reflect on the first day of his 51st season.

Chinook come early

Last year, salmon fishing pressure peaked near the mouth of the Columbia the first two weeks of August, with more than 7,000 participants. However, the highest catch rate for Chinook was in the final week of June, with the coho catch peaking in late July.
“It seems, in the last couple years, the Chinook have shown up a little earlier than they used to,” Smith said. “I was pleasantly surprised — they’re really nice-sized fish, and they were more aggressive than the coho this morning, which doesn’t usually happen.”
Accompanying Smith on opening day were two grandsons — Peyton, 11, and Easton, 7 — who each caught a hefty Chinook. The little brother landed the biggest fish on opening day — a 25-pound whopper.
“They’re the fifth generation,” Smith said. “It’s the highlight of my career watching them reel fish in.”

‘Good run of fish’

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife set a recreational Chinook quota of 53,750 for the 2025 ocean salmon season, with a marked coho quota of 99,720 coastwide. For the Columbia River area, the coho quota this year is 49,890 and 16,600 for Chinook (up from 39,900 and 12,510 in 2024 — 21% and 25% increases, respectively).
“It’s looking like a really good run of fish,” Smith said.
“Our troller brothers [commercial fishermen] have done very well; seem to have found a lot of fish. I think the predictions will be close or under predicting the amount of fish that are out there, which is a good thing, nothing wrong with that.”

‘Snappy bar’

On opening day, charters were greeted with a lively bar but calmer conditions offshore. “The tide had a big ebb [or falling tide] and the bar was snappy, but the ocean had little swell,” Smith said.
“These are really big tides, and when you have really big tides it kind of spreads everything. As the tides ease up, things get back together. It seems there’s a lot of bait out there and a good ocean temperature. It’s lining up to be a really good season, I believe.”
While some sport anglers are keen to try a hot new lure or color of the season, Smith intends to keep his ‘old school’ approach.
“A diver and an anchovy — for me, that’s been the ticket forever,” he summarized.