Fishing-Dependent Ilwaco Too Near The End Of The Line

This is one of the few times of the year when the quaint village of Ilwaco looks a little like it did during those nostalgic years of big salmon runs.

With chinook, coho runs and steelhead runs so low that fisheries managers are desperately trying to save what’s left and perhaps to build up the runs again, the tiny town at the mouth of the Columbia River usually doesn’t attract hordes of fishermen any more.

Back in the good, old days, which weren’t so long ago residents will tell you, fishermen had to reserve a room or a spot for an RV months in advance. They also had to reserve a railing on a charter boat, take a chance of getting a mooring slip at the Port of Ilwaco and wait in long lines at restaurants.

Not these days. Only a few charter boats are operating and they’re rarely full. Many boats have been sold; others are rotting on wooden blocks. All of the 900 slips at the Port of Ilwaco almost never are rented. The bars no longer jump with fishermen until 3 each morning. Motel neon lights say “Vacancy” more often than “No Vacancy.”

Sadly, Ilwaco is a dowager that’s seen better days. And few residents believe the salmon and steelhead runs can be saved.

They know that opposition to doing what’s necessary to save the runs is formidable. The loggers want to cut every tree down to stream banks, degrading spawning rivers. Irrigators don’t want water “wasted” to flush juvenile fish through the Columbia River system. Barge operators want continuous, predictable water levels. And so it goes.

Those opposed to save-the-fish plans say they care what happens to salmon and steelhead. But their strategy is to force more studies until all the fish are gone.

When Don Ostlund, Lou Pollak and I arrived at Ilwaco last week to fish the Buoy 10 area, we knew we would have our choice of mooring slips. We signed up for one of the many empty slips and drove to the five-bedroom house we had rented for $70 a day for a few days.

Then we launched Ostlund’s 19-foot boat. No waiting in line. Only six vehicles with trailers were on the huge parking lot.

The following morning, we joined the charter and recreation fleet past the Coast Guard station to where the salmon were moving up the Columbia River. Until that day, fishing had been so slow that only one boat in four had been checked with fish on board. But enough chinooks moved in the day we started that there was fair to good fishing.

We mooched herring in water 25-35 feet deep and caught four big chinooks. Anglers in other boats also hooked some of the salmon destined primarily for the Hanford Reach.

The word spread rapidly. When we arrived a couple of miles west of the Astoria bridge the next morning, we saw at least 400 boats. Only a half dozen were charter boats.

But the fishing wasn’t as good as it had been the previous day. For 9 hours, Ostlund’s boat rocked with the swells in the morning and pounded against white-capped water in the afternoon. We caught two. Many anglers got skunked.

Hoping to increase our chances, we talked with a charter boat captain and a couple of old-timers. Get one of the big, new, colorful divers, they advised. So we each spent $10 for a diver.

The next morning, after switching over to telephone pole-stiff rods and 40-pound-test line, we began trolling the divers ahead of anchovies. Just like everybody else.

The divers, weighted with two ounces of lead, are meant to take the bait down fast and keep it down. That they did, but the divers pull almost as hard as a 15-pound chinook.

We caught one chinook on a diver. We also mooched herring, but didn’t hook a fish.

We trolled herring and anchovies behind divers and mooched herring for another nine hours on our final day and caught one 22-pound chinook on the mooched bait. Finally, tired of trying to stand up and fish as winds churned up the water, we gave up. Few other anglers hooked fish.

Each day we fished, Ostlund cut the salmon in chunks and filleted them while Pollak and I put the fillets in quart plastic bags, pressed out the air and locked them. We had most fillets frozen at a fish processing plant.

The chinook run in the Buoy 10 area will peak this week and next. Although anglers will continue to catch a few fish next month, the big adults will be far up the Columbia.

If the coho run is a good one, Ilwaco will be a popular spot with fishermen for a while longer and businesses in the quirky village, now on life support, will continue to take in a few more fishermen’s dollars.

But the friendly and helpful Ilwaco residents, more tolerant of visitors than those in more dollar-conscious tourist towns, know their fishing-dependent economy needs to diversify. But how? They’re wondering. , DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review