Columbia summer Chinook and smallmouth on the move in late June

What's biting

What's next

The First Quarter moon phase through the week ahead typically supports moderate low-light bite windows on Pacific Northwest rivers, with morning and evening activity windows tending to outperform the midday heat. On the Columbia mainstem, anglers targeting summer Chinook should focus efforts during those cooler bookend hours; fish that are actively migrating often stage in the last hour before sunrise and become more accessible before boat traffic peaks.

For mainstem Columbia salmon work, the tailrace water below major dams historically concentrates fish taking a rest from the upstream push. Anchor trolling or back-trolling plugs at depth has long been the go-to approach in this corridor. If the run is on its typical schedule, fish numbers should build into July, making the next few weeks a reasonable time to find leading-edge fish before the peak-season crowd arrives.

In Puget Sound-area rivers, summer steelhead are beginning to trickle in, but peak numbers in most Puget Sound drainages don't typically arrive until July and August. Early fish tend to hold in the deepest available slots and below holding boulders. Fly anglers swinging wet flies or intruders through likely seams at dawn could encounter a fresh chrome fish, though encounter rates will be limited until run numbers build.

Smallmouth bass in the lower Columbia Gorge reach should be fully active now. These fish transition out of post-spawn recovery in mid-June and feed aggressively through summer. Crayfish-pattern soft plastics worked slowly along rocky ledges and drop-offs, or topwater presentations at first and last light, are consistent producers in this stretch.

Weekend anglers should plan for elevated launch-ramp competition on popular Columbia access points. WA Sea Grant flagged that the boating season is now fully active across Washington waters, meaning crowds will be heavier Saturday and Sunday. An early start, well before 7 a.m., is advisable at high-traffic sites to secure a ramp and get lines in the water before mid-morning.

Context

Late June sits at a transitional inflection point for Washington's freshwater river systems. On the Columbia, summer Chinook have historically been a defining feature of this period: fish enter the river from the Pacific and stage progressively upstream through summer, with the run typically building through July before peaking and tapering in August. The Bonneville-to-McNary mainstem reach is one of the state's premier summer Chinook corridors, and late June often marks the beginning of consistent angler opportunity before the main-run pressure arrives.

For Puget Sound-area river systems, the summer steelhead calendar runs slightly later. Rivers in the Puget Sound basin tend to produce the first reliable summer fish by mid-July, making late June an exploratory window rather than a peak opportunity. Anglers targeting these rivers now are often searching for the occasional early fish ahead of the main push, and expectations should be set accordingly.

One background note from WA Sea Grant worth tracking: invasive European green crab were detected on Orcas Island for the first time in May 2026, and a Salish Sea-wide Molt Blitz is scheduled for June 26 to document the spread. While green crab is primarily a saltwater and estuarine concern, the broader pattern of invasive species pressure on Washington aquatic systems is a long-term factor that fishery managers are watching closely.

No comparative run-timing data or angler catch-per-unit-effort figures were available in this reporting cycle to assess whether the 2026 season is running early, late, or on pace relative to historical baselines. Cascade snowmelt contributions to late June flows vary considerably year to year and can materially affect fish staging and holding behavior. Consulting current USGS stream flow data alongside WDFW creel reports before each trip remains the most reliable way to stay current on actual conditions.