There are a lot of great fishing opportunities in the fall here in Central Washington. The Columbia River will soon be crowded with boats chasing Chinook salmon, plus fishing for walleye on the big reservoirs is excellent in the fall.

The counts of fall salmon that are reaching the upper Columbia River are still pretty low, but some anglers are already getting out and catching some fish. Many anglers wait for the fall fish to arrive in the Hanford Reach where they fish from White Bluffs to below Priest Rapids Dam. In the meantime, there are some excellent fishing opportunities on some of the big reservoirs in the region. I recently posted a video on where to fish for walleye on Banks Lake, and my friends landed some whoppers while we were out there. Walleye fishing on Potholes Reservoir is another place where the fishing really picks up in the fall. I will be doing a video on where to fish for walleye on Potholes soon, and I will let everyone know when it is posted on the Dave Graybill YouTube channel. Fall salmon fishing is on my mind, too, and I am starting to work on my free E-Letter that will describe some of the better places to fish for fall salmon and how to catch them. I am already getting requests from folks who want to get the free Fall E-Letter. To get on the list to receive the fall issue go to my website, www. FishingMagician.com and click on the E-Letter logo on the Home Page. This week’s photo is of me with a walleye taken in the fall on Potholes.

Old habits die hard. Every year at this time I eagerly check the steelhead numbers at Bonneville Dam and Priest Rapids. I hope to see the numbers improve from the past several years. In 2021 the lowest count of steelhead since the construction of Bonneville Dam was recorded. The numbers have improved, and I hold out hope to see the steelhead return reach the threshold required to open a season on the upper Columbia. That number is 9,550, and it also requires that 1,300 must be wild. As of the second of September, the total number of steelhead counted at Priest Rapids Dam was 7,881, with 2,444 of them unclipped thus assumed to be wild. I remember the steelhead season opening around the second week of October in the distant past, one year it even opened in late September. Could this be the year that we can anticipate an opening? Only time will tell and maybe I am over optimistic, but you can bet that I will be checking the steelhead counts again every day. There is no fishery I miss more than bobber and jig fishing for steelhead below Chief Joseph Dam and Wells. Man, wouldn’t that be great.

I drove up to Lake Wenatchee the other day to help my friend Rollie Schmitten move his boat off the water. He had a great sockeye season and took a bunch of folks out to experience the best fishing ever on the lake. It was a stellar day. Utterly calm, the lake was like a mirror. After we got his boat parked at his house we decided to drive up the White River valley to a spot where he knows the sockeye like to spawn. We crossed the bridge to reach the shore opposite the main road, and the water was that milky emerald green from the glacier silt that taints the White River. It was a drive of a few miles up to where Rollie likes to observe sockeye in a large wide tailout. We found that quite a few sockeye had reached this area of the river. The fish now have the distinctive green heads and red bodies they develop as they approach spawning. We watched some swish the gravel to create their redds. Rollie said that the fish we saw in this area of the river is a fraction of the numbers that will be here soon.

I wanted to follow up on my earlier report about the changes being made at the Vernita Water Access Site. A large number of anglers use this site and need to plan for the fall salmon fishing season on the Hanford Reach. I contacted Mike Livingston at the regional office responsible for this area. Mike got right back to me and sent me to the WDFW website where all the information about the changes for this season and the next. I was able to find the information, including maps of the affected areas and plans for the future of this popular site. I just went to the WDFW website in the Fishing and Shellfishing page, and at the top of the page just put Vernita in the Search bar. The news release that explains why the changes are being made is “Changes Coming to Vernita Bridge Access Area to Improve Safety and Prevent Habitat Damage”. You will want to scroll through this release and look for the blog “Vernita Bridge: Changes on the Horizon”. Here you find maps that detail the changes. These changes will be in effect for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

I recently attended a memorial for my good friend Dan Davies. Dan managed several salmon and steelhead hatcheries for the National Fish and Wildlife Service and was the manager at the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery when he retired. Dan was in demand to share his expertise with fish managers across the country. His dedication to recovery of salmon and steelhead to our area didn’t end there. Dan served on the ad hoc committee that established the Salmon and Steelhead Endorsement and was appointed to the Board that distributed the funds the Endorsement generated. He was very active in the local Trout Unlimited group and was instrumental in getting a water right that provided the necessary flows to assure the vitality of the Blackbird Island Juvenile Fishing Pond. Dan was also an expert trap shooter, continuing to win the State Championship and other competitions short time prior to his passing. I am honored to have known and worked with Dan on salmon and steelhead recovery in our region. He will be missed, and I want to thank him for all he has done and the good friend he was to so many of us.