Green Label & Fillet-O-Fish

My main fishing goal each year is not to catch more fish than my father in-law (that's goal #2) but rather to share the experience of fishing and boating with as many people as possible.  With a variety of people joining me on the water each year, two common questions I get are "What is green label herring" and "Why do you cut your fish that way"

Green label herring doesn't refer to an environmentally friendly form of bait fish - although it is 100% natural and organic.  Rather, the label color simply refers to the size of herring being packaged/used.  So, from the smallest size of around 3.5 inches to the largest at 10 inches - Orange, Red, Green, Blue, and Black label.  The green label we use is between 5 and 6 inches.

When I fillet a salmon, I use the iFish/eyeFish method instead of a traditional, long fillet from head to tail.  I do this for two reasons 1) I can't seem to filleting salmon without butchering it and 2) because the traditional methods leave so much good meat on the bones.

 Demonstrating with a tasty, candy red Buoy10/Estuary Coho Salmon (Silver Salmon).

Cutting from top down following the lateral line and spine

Cutting back sections along the bones

Very little wasted meat

2011 Spring Salmon Season Set!

This week, ODFW finalized the spring Chinook season on the Columbia and Willamette Rivers (finally!!)

The most appealing aspect of this spring, is the run forecast of nearly 105,000 fish on the Willamette which is more than double last year's run.  The much larger Columbia River has a so/so run forecast of around 200,000 fish which is about half of its 2010 run.

• Willamette River - 2 fish a day limit - No close date 
• Columbia River - 1 fish a day limit - Closes April 4th (bummer!)
• (daily maximum is 2 fish if we fish both rivers)

Keep in mind, during the spring my boat is generally fishing the Columbia down below the mouth of the Willamette, so we have an excellent chance of intercepting both salmon runs.

Also note that ODFW watches the salmon escapement over Bonneville very closely and reserve the right to shut down or extend the season as necessary.

As a reminder, here is what we're targeting (2010 pictures)

Early Season 2010 Spring Chinook

J-Law with a fair weather 2010 Springer

Tabasco Todhunter demonstrating what we don't want to catch!

Looking Back, First Salmon!

I've been spending a lot of time lately "looking forward" to the spring salmon season; with a close eye on February 8th when ODFW will set the spring salmon season for the Columbia and Willamette Rivers.  The anticipation has been driving me nuts so I thought I'd take a break from the forward thinking and look back at my first salmon.

This good looking fish was caught using down-riggers and plugs during the summer of 1991 off of Possession Point in Puget Sound, just north of Seattle. Up there, they call these black-mouths, but we call them Chinook down here in Oregon.  I guess I had beginners luck on my first salmon adventure!

1991 Black-mouth (Chinook) - lbs. unknown (but I could make a # up)