Fishing guide devotes Columbia salmon opener to family as he tunes up for clients

Opening day is a slam-dunk money-maker for any fishing guide. But one Washington outfitter devoted the first day of the upper Columbia River salmon season to his family instead of paying customers.

“I take opening day to fine-tune the boat, get all our gear switched over from the lake fishing we’ve been doing, see where the salmon are and what’s working,” Jerrod Gibbons of Okanogan Valley Guide Service said Wednesday. “That makes me more prepared for the clients I’ll have virtually every day of the season from now on.

“The bonus is a day out with my wife and kids and a bunch of fish for our freezer.”

His father, Tom, joined the fun, fast action and occasional hug as the Gibbons family deckhand.

The Gibbons arrived at the Brewster boat ramp with a dozen other rigs about 3:30 a.m.

“Opening day has always been like Christmas for me,” Gibbons said as he greeted other anglers under the lights on the dock. “It’s great to see people you meet here year after year.

“I think we have everything, Dad,” he said after a couple of trips in the dark from the dock to the pickup and back. “We’re making a list. I’ll be taking fishermen out tomorrow.”

Gibbons answers a call from a fishing-guide friend as the family boards the boat. “You want to make a side bet: First one to 12 (salmon)?”

That was positive thinking. Besides his wife, Mindy, who’s caught plenty of fish over the years, his team in this fishing bet would be his daughters, Mckayla, 10, and Katlynn, 6.

“Katlynn’s already reeled in a 28-pound salmon all by herself,” Gibbons said. “She’s ready.”

Under a full moon, they blasted out into the Brewster Pool of the Columbia downstream from Chief Joseph Dam before switching to the trolling motor, which would purr most of the morning at about 1.2 mph.

Gibbons experimented with his four new downriggers, trying different depths, checking their frequencies, making sure the bottom-tracking mode functioned. Meanwhile, Tom Gibbons was baiting hooks and handing out rods.

“Probably 90 percent of the salmon fishermen in the Brewster Pool use downriggers,” Gibbons said. “It’s an easier way of putting your lures right where the fish are and works better when there’s a crowd.

“If you’re using other gear, you’re guessing a little on where the bait is as your speed, wind, current and tackle change.”

He also had different shrimp baits, lures and scents on each position and kept track of the number of strikes each one got. He phoned regularly to compare success rates with his guiding partner on another boat.

“They’re getting hits on the garlic dip,” he said after a call.

“I was out on the water yesterday, but you can’t actually fish for the salmon and play out your hunches until the season opens. I fish this every year, but the conditions and the run change every year.”

Indeed, unusually early warm water temperatures in the Okanogan River are forming a thermal barrier.

“That means all those salmon that are running up the Columbia to this point will stack up in the Brewster area and wait for the Okanogan to cool,” Gibbons said.

More than 37,000 sockeye had already moved over Wells Dam by opening day.

Jeff Korth, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife regional fisheries manager, said the good fishing prospects are bittersweet.

“This year could be a blood bath in the Brewster Pool,” Korth said.

“The sockeye will not go into the Okanogan when the water temperature is above 72 degrees. They’ll just mill around waiting for their chance to sprint up the Okanogan and into Canada to the north end of Osoyoos Lake, where they hunker in the deep cool water until it’s time to spawn.

“Anglers are going to pound those sockeye until the Okanogan cools, and that probably won’t happen this summer until we get a good prolonged rain.”

Fish managers worry that if the sockeye remain stalled near Brewster and the Columbia continues to warm above 70 degrees, the salmon could start dying before they can run up the Okanogan.

“That could impact the number of fish that get to their spawning grounds,” Korth said.

“It’s going to be a dicey year for managing that stock – but a good year for fishing.”

Gibbons began proving that theory at 4:17 a.m. as Mindy caught the boat’s first sockeye of the season.

“Look at that,” Gibbons said, pointing to his fish finder, which indicated numerous salmon stacked up under the boat.

A chinook jumped two times in a row, 3 feet out of the water, just a couple of rod lengths away.

“If there were only sockeye in the river, I’d probably use 12-pound line, but I rig with 20- to 25-pound test on my sockeye rigs because you have to be able to handle a chinook.”

Before the day was over, the Gibbons family would hook five chinook on sockeye gear, including one keeper, three unmarked wild fish they were required to release without removing from the water, and one that broke Mindy’s line during a fierce battle.

“That fish was a hog,” Jerrod said, reaching under the seat for a new leader and rig.

Each of the girls had caught sockeye and the Gibbons boat was in the groove just before sunrise when the first call for a potty break was made.

“Where’s the pee bucket, Dad?” Gibbons said from the trolling motor in the stern. “Did you leave it in your boat?”

He shook his head, reeling in lines during a good salmon bite.

“This is why we have a shake-down and make lists,” he said, motoring to shore with two little girls in the boat and no pee bucket. “Rookie mistake.”

The family quickly made up for lost time when they returned to the action as Mckayla and Mindy hooked up with sockeye seconds apart.

The kids knew the drill of reeling in the other lines and handing the rods back to grandpa to clear the deck for the netting and boating of fish.

Katlynn became the head fish bonker before taking each salmon to the live well and ripping its gills with her fingers so the fish would bleed out for better table quality. The fish later were put on ice in a cooler.

Gibbons’ phone rang or jingled with text messages several dozen times during the morning. “It’s somebody else asking me how the bite is today,” he said as he prepared to net yet another salmon for his daughter, Mckayla. “I tell people, if I don’t answer there’s a reason.”

Five different people trolling by and seeing the decals on his boat commented that they liked the salmon fishing products Gibbons markets out of Omak in a business he co-owns. “It’s called Making Money Fishing,” he said. “It’s my dream.

“That’s great to hear,” he said after another angler said he was catching fish with the products.

The water behind the guide’s boat must have smelled like a Macy’s perfume counter as Tom Gibbons juiced the lures and Scent Bombs with a wide range of attractants. “We’re always experimenting,” Gibbons said.

“Salmon fishing is a matter of combining a bunch of little elements into success.”

The salmon were all the young girls could handle in some cases, and they lost their share.

“I guarantee you’ll lose another one before the day is over,” Gibbons said to a disappointed Mckayla as her line went limp during a battle with a sockeye. “It’s not because you’re a bad fisherman. It’s sockeye fishing. We’ll all lose more fish.”

But they caught all or a good portion of their six-fish sockeye limits well before the snacks were gone that morning.

Washington Fish and Wildlife staff checked 301 anglers between Brewster and the Okanogan River with 1,094 sockeye, 92 marked hatchery chinook and four chinook jacks.

“More than three salmon per angler is darned good opening-day fishing,” Korth said.

“It’s going to be great season,” Gibbons said. “I’ll get the pee bucket in the boat and we’re ready.”

Contact: Okanogan Valley Guide Service, (509) 429-1714.