Brewster

[Southpole]

Got out there at 4:30 and we had 4 limits by 6:30. I’ve seen pictures of the amount of boats at Brewster but it’s nothing like seeing it live. Before it was all the way light out it looked like Christmas tree lights scattered out there or a person can mistake it for a small city, crazy.

Dang, you must have had the secret sauce. Talked to / overheard several guides say they struggled to get limits. We ended up with 5 for 2 people and were out until 3pm. Probably had double that for takedowns, mostly once we moved up to the mouth and had trouble hooking / keeping them on.

CF was pretty dead today. Saw maybe 3 caught. I'm done sockeye fishing for the year. I want more of this stuff, don't think I'll ever smoke or cook a bright king again. Need to figure out where I'm going to go for them next...and get my Stryker king blanks built out.

I noticed we were some of the last people to show up to fish in the mix and one of the first to leave. We seen people catching fish but not back to back non stop like we were. There was some very subtle signs of them biting our bait and very specific instructions of how to approach how and when to grab and reel, if you didn’t do that you will loose them. There was a pre fishing routine we had to do as well. Our guide was very detail oriented, he also told us how he preped his coon shrimp the night before. There was other details too, add them all up and it’s often a recipe for success. Not saying he doesn’t have slow days (day before it took until 11 a.m. to get 4 limits) but he does pretty good. I would highly recommend him. Me and the husband are going to give it a try on our own boat next week, preferably in the middle of the week.

What guide did you guys use?

Bend Over Guide Service out of Arlington.

[pickardjw]

Rough water at wells? Thats where I wanted to go but not sure if a 14’ job boat can handle it.

[Caseyd]

Rough water at wells? Thats where I wanted to go but not sure if a 14’ job boat can handle it.

No which is why the fishing was slow. King side was calm but moving fast. Sockeye side was calm without rough water at the L turn.

Wells wasn’t moving much water

[pickardjw]

Rough water at wells? Thats where I wanted to go but not sure if a 14’ job boat can handle it.

No which is why the fishing was slow. King side was calm but moving fast. Sockeye side was calm without rough water at the L turn.

Wells wasn’t moving much water

Wellllll shoot, I was going to have a relaxed weekend at home but the rocky reach dam live stream has me reinvigorated to go up and try for kings again. Need to get the nav lights wired back up tomorrow so I can be on the water earlier...gonna wing it on a dispersed campsite near wells. Not sure if the counts really reflect what I'm seeing on the live cam but not sure how much fishing I'll do once hunting seasons are open and hate having my last day be a skunk.

[Southpole]

Did three days at Brewster on our own. The first 2 days we struggled a bit. By the third day we struggled until around noon when I picked up my gear on my livescope and it wasn’t as deep as I thought they were. We got them down where they should have been. Instead of trolling around hitting different schools we decided to just rake over the same school over and over again. We got our last 5 fish in the last 2 hours at the worst part of the day. Knowing what we know now I’m positive we would have done better the first 2 days. We’re anxious to go back and do it again. We had a blast. The launch was kind of a controlled chaos, you definitely need to have your crap together, be efficient, not be shy and be prepared to walk a half a mile to park. Everyone works together for the most part. LOTS of guide boats lining the shore line at the launch and clients wandering around aimlessly with their backpacks, lunch bags and phone to their ears looking for their guide in the dark  , it was quite a scene. It was fun to see the same people everyday and chatting with them. I loved the conversations you hear on the water since you’re fishing so close to everyone. There were a handful of guides that were extremely successful and very fast to get limits, one being the guide we went with a couple of weeks ago. They must have the magic bait because they weren’t doing anything different than anyone else. All in all we had a great time and now we can check the dreaded Brewster Pool off of our unexpected adventure list.

[Machias]

Very cool.  The sockeye numbers this year are just unreal.  Smashed all previous records.  Currently over 755,000 sockeye!!! 

One thing I'm not sure why more people don't launch at Bridgeport or Pateros.  Its really a short boat ride and the launches are MUCH less crowded.

[Southpole]

Very cool.  The sockeye numbers this year are just unreal.  Smashed all previous records.  Currently over 755,000 sockeye!!! 

One thing I'm not sure why more people don't launch at Bridgeport or Pateros.  Its really a short boat ride and the launches are MUCH less crowded.

I think a lot of them do. The guide we went with a couple of weeks ago had us meet him in Bridgeport and the parking lot was to capacity. We went straight to Brewster because it was Monday through Wednesday for us and would be a fraction of the people compared to the weekend. Still busy though.

[Southpole]

How long can you fish for Columbia river salmon and still be in good shape for eating?

[metlhead]

Until your belt snaps or deodorant gives out

[Caseyd]

Until your belt snaps or deodorant gives out

 

Fresh ones still swimming in daily.

[KP-Skagit]

Curious to hear people's experience as to when its best to fish Brewster? Is early August the start of the taper off?

We fished Brewster the last two weekends. The first weekend due to an absolutely ridiculous amount of boat/trailer issues we only got one morning on the water out of the three days we were there. We were very not fishing as effectively as we could be (trolling off the main and way too fast) that said, we hit a lot of fish, should have easily limited but lost way too many.

Last weekend we only had one day to fish. Boat was dialed in but we struggled. Caught everything we hooked but it was slow for us. Seemed like there were fewer boats and the fishing definitely seemed slower. There were of course some folks who were absolutely crushing it, all concentrated in one area. It was virtually impossible to get that troll though, kept getting boxed out.

[Southpole]

We’re going back Monday for several days again. I think we’ll make an effort to fish for kings for a day, haven’t decided where yet. Our plan for Brewster is to stay out of the pool, less boats and I see way more schools on my livescope. Once we get a big school located we just keep raking over the top of them repeatedly, sometimes hardly moving at all. That worked very well for us.

[Southpole]

Well it’s been fun but can’t last forever. Total number we got was 8 with a guide and 29 sockeye on our own. Never thought in all my years I would ever fish for any kind of salmon on my own. Till next year. Over and out.

[C-Money]

Did any of the thunderstorms the last week or two put enough rain down to allow any sockeye to escape to Canada?

[Fishmaker57]

The thermal barrier did drop a little on the 11th, but not enough for passage. It was back up to 78 at Mallott a few days latter. Some Sockeye did make the push early, with about 50k crossing Zosel dam on July 1st, but there hasn’t been any since about the 20th.