Buoy 10 Chinook Push Keeps Trollers Busy at the Columbia's Mouth

What's biting

What's next

With no fresh buoy or gauge data available for this stretch of the Columbia today, the clearest signal is angler effort itself — and it's pointing at continued salmon activity. Two separate IFish.net Fishing Reports posts this week describe active trolling around Buoy 10 and the mouth of the Lewis River, both classic fall staging points where chinook hold before pushing upriver. Gear-loss reports (a rod down while trolling, a rod and reel lost overboard) are a reliable, if informal, proxy for boat traffic and active hookups — when trollers are working a stretch hard enough to lose gear, it usually means fish are present and biting.

If that pattern holds, expect the Buoy 10 push to keep producing into the coming days, with the lower-river mouths (Lewis, and similar tributary confluences) staying in play as staging water for fish working upstream. A new moon tonight typically means stronger tidal exchange, which can concentrate baitfish and salmon in the tide-influenced lower river — worth planning around slack tide changes if you're trolling near the estuary.

Sturgeon anglers don't have direct reporting to lean on this week, but the fishery is a reliable fall option on the Columbia and pairs well with a salmon trip — many anglers split effort between trolling for chinook during the bite window and soaking bait for sturgeon during slower tide stages. Always check current Oregon and Washington regulations before targeting or retaining sturgeon, since size and retention rules on the Columbia change by reach and season.

Without updated flow or temperature readings, it's hard to call a precise multi-day trend, so treat this as a snapshot: fish are present and being worked hard at the known fall staging points, and that's typically the leading indicator before a push moves upriver. Recheck buoy and gauge data before heading out, and expect weekend traffic at Buoy 10 to be heavy if this week's activity continues — plan for crowded water during peak tide windows and keep an eye out for gear in the water, since at least two anglers reported losing rods overboard in the same general area this week.

Context

The Columbia River's Buoy 10 fishery is one of the best-known fall chinook fisheries on the West Coast, and the activity described in this week's IFish.net Fishing Reports — active trolling near the green line and at tributary mouths like the Lewis River — is typical for early-to-mid September, when the fall chinook run is usually in full swing at the river's mouth before fish push upstream. Nothing in this week's intel suggests the run is running notably early or late; it reads as consistent with a normal seasonal pattern for this stretch of the Columbia.

We don't have comparative buoy or gauge data this week to say how current flow or temperature stacks up against a typical September, so that comparison isn't available right now — worth rechecking once fresh readings come through. Sturgeon fishing wasn't referenced in any of this week's angler intel, so there's no direct signal on how that side of the fishery is trending compared to a typical fall; anglers targeting sturgeon should lean on the latest state regulations and recent local reports rather than this week's snapshot, which is salmon-heavy by virtue of what anglers happened to report.