Spring/summer chinook and glacial till... How much visibility is needed?

[SilverFly]

I havent tried this but it does jive with my experience, as limited as that is. Fish hold where it is safe and easy to do so. Yes, chinook can find an acceptable blend of those factors in deep heavy water, but I cant touch them with a fly. I could throw 20ft of t20 quartered upstream and still not get down to them.

But I could absolutely swing fat muddlers through the shallow soup. That's gonna get some run

Deep swinging does work for springers. My favorite tactic is a floating line, long leader and weighted fly. Not fun to cast but this is more up close and personal work in pocket water and chutes. Best time (really the only time) is early AM after a rain with the river rising. I hooked a beast in a chute at the head of a deep pool. It charged upriver through whitewater, slalomed my line around a couple boulders and broke the leader. I was lucky to get my line back. Made my 10wt feel like a kids Barbie rod. Based on the immense flash I saw, an easy 25+.

 

[Divad]

Weighted stingers, hook up, preferably on an intermediate head.

Pink/flesh flies or blacks with contrast.

They’ll sit in winter steelhead runs, while also being pool driven. 1-2ft of vis no problem just cut your stepping down to fish smaller slots.

Bloody tuna & Anise if you’re allowed bait and/or mind getting into the dark side and fishing for retention id say. Buy the stickiest option, should barely look viscous.

And don’t gink up your marabou/bunny, keep it on synthetics, the trailer hook or the leader.

 

[Rob Allen]

I've been dark on WFF for about a year and a half now since I've been at school trying to wrap up my Bach. of Sci. or working in the back country doing electrofishing/habitat surveys so when I tried throwing this thread up on WFF I was surprised to see none of the regulars. So I created a new account here when I found out you guys had mostly all switched over.

Anyways, I know chinook don't get quite as much love around here as steelhead but since talk about steelhead on here these days is griping about Kendall Creeks inability to get fish to return or a slew of threads about how to fish the 'Duc' at least thats what it looks like on WFF these days. I've been trying to swing a chinook for a couple years now and have hooked a few that never made it to hand but I also haven't been able to get out much recently till now. I've always been fond of spring and summer chinook due to their unique life history and ability to pull like a Mac truck so as I've improved as a swing fisherman my desire to hook one has also increased. Some rivers I have been interested in fishing for them however, more years than not, are quite silty and even off color by July which is often also the peak migration for the run, thus the reason I was curious enough to make a thread about it.

I've seen some videos from B.C. where guys are catching fish in what looks like only a foot of visibility so that has jogged my curiosity otherwise a few of these rivers I am interested in seem to be unfishable. I plan on using 10ft sections of T11 and T14 paired with a massive upstream mend or two as well as 25lb mono to a semi-sparse marabou two stage intruder in black and purple with a flashy body and beefy dumbbell eyes if that helps. My main thoughts are:
What is the least amount of visibility needed to still have a chance at having my fly seen?
Would I be constrained to overcast summer days or early mornings before the sun has really had an effect on the turbidity?
Do any of you guys have any experience swinging chinook or other salmonids in 1-2' of visibility?

My thought process was that maybe if I had a solid 1' of visibility minimum and I take baby steps down the run (should fish be holding there) then I should have a pretty good chance. I feel like I am pretty good at getting really deep when I need to and a larger but sparse black and purple intruder should show up well and get down quick. Let me know your thoughts if you have any expertise in this sort of fishery, I'd appreciate it.

Cheers everyone.

I think with chinook it's not so much about water conditions as it is population density.

 

[Mossback]

The more fish in the hole the better...
When I fished them in Alaska we found a bunch of fish in one hole made them twitchy, lots of bites, and the fish were more aggresive.
When only a few fish in the holes they were more relaxed and content to ignore the flys.
YMMV

 

[Creatch’r]

Whenever you have a bunch of different opinions like this, it’s a good idea to give it a try for yourself and see what gives you confidence or what works for you. Just go fish, and let the river and fish tell you what to do. Just don’t put scent on your flies. No body needs scent to catch a fish. Scent is basically essential oils for men. You use it until you convince yourself it’s doing something for you that you can’t prove, and before you know it you have a whole closet full of stinky sauces to fix problems you didn’t even know you had. One day you wake up and you don’t even feel like you are fishing unless you have a sloppy, sticky, stinky mess on the end of your leader. Break the cycle guys. Don’t let “Big Scent” scam you.

 

[JACKspASS]

Floating mainline, 50lb leader 12' long with a k14 wrapped with sardine....hang on!

 

[Divad]

Floating mainline, 50lb leader 12' long with a k14 wrapped with sardine....hang on!

Not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not but this would work just fine. A little of a guessing game if you get your floater back on a snag

 

[Rob Allen]

Floating mainline, 50lb leader 12' long with a k14 wrapped with sardine....hang on!

Nah.. 40lb main line, 11 ft Lamiglas Sturgeon Rod. 12 Oz bank sinker 20 lb leader with 3 beads and a huge Spin Glo. Silver with a red cap and mylar wings..

 

[O' Clarkii Stomias]

Whenever you have a bunch of different opinions like this, it’s a good idea to give it a try for yourself and see what gives you confidence or what works for you. Just go fish, and let the river and fish tell you what to do. Just don’t put scent on your flies. No body needs scent to catch a fish. Scent is basically essential oils for men. You use it until you convince yourself it’s doing something for you that you can’t prove, and before you know it you have a whole closet full of stinky sauces to fix problems you didn’t even know you had. One day you wake up and you don’t even feel like you are fishing unless you have a sloppy, sticky, stinky mess on the end of your leader. Break the cycle guys. Don’t let “Big Scent” scam you.

What, do you just expect the oil from my lunch of canned tuna to go to waste?

 

[O' Clarkii Stomias]

Nah.. 40lb main line, 11 ft Lamiglas Sturgeon Rod. 12 Oz bank sinker 20 lb leader with 3 beads and a huge Spin Glo. Silver with a red cap and mylar wings..

Substitute huge red and silver spin and glo with midsized blue, chartreuse, and silver spin and glo. Add a whole rigged brined herring and I'm in!

 

[Rob Allen]

Substitute huge red and silver spin and glo with midsized blue, chartreuse, and silver spin and glo. Add a whole rigged brined herring and I'm in!

Kinda funny. Back around 2000-2003 The Columbia had that 3 or 4 year stretch where spring chinook numbers were insane
So I got the gear together that I mentioned. Except I was using an old glass salmon rod not the sturgeon rod.. I went to a spot where a rocky point made a seam. Cast that spin glo out into that seam. A half hour later I had my first ever spring chinook. I figured luck or some other fluke.. I caught 3 that say in like 2 hours.
The next day I took a buddy out there and we got two. One of those hit on a cast before I could even set the rod down in the rocks.
A week later the river bumped up and I could not get to that spot anymore and subsequent years the river was too high also.
I have caught a couple in other spots. But nothing like that seam.