• Chinook salmon are the largest species of Pacific salmon.salmon image by Warren Rosenberg from Fotolia.com
  
  Fishing for salmon in Washington is a sport that changes depending on the time of year and location. Water temperatures can send salmon swimming into deeper water or bring them closer to the surface. Lures can also play a factor in whether or not you catch salmon. It's important to pay attention to what kinds of lures you use while fishing for salmon.
  
  

Spring Chinook Fishing

• During the six weeks at the end of March through April, it's possible to start fishing chinook salmon in the Lower Columbia River. When fishing for chinook at this time of year, avoid the deeper water. Chinook usually swim in water that's between 6 and 25 feet in depth. The migration routes they follow change little from year to year, and in order to increase your chances of catching them, avoid fasting moving areas and the outside bends of rivers. It's also a good idea to look beyond simply where people are fishing. As salmon are migratory fish, they do eventually have to travel the whole length of the river so it's just a matter of finding out where in the river they're swimming.
  
  

Fall Chinook Fishing

• Whereas in the spring, chinook salmon swim in shallower water, come fall their depth increases to 40 to 50 feet below the surface. The reason they do this is because the water has been warmed during the summer months so the fish don't need to stick to the surface to find warm water. Using a large spoon-shaped lure that doesn't completely rotate is recommended. To keep your lure from rotating, it may be necessary to bend it in the middle and create a bow shape. Chinook salmon have been known to favor one color of lure over another, so it's wise to have a variety of spoon lures in different colors (blue, red and green). Since fall fishing is best done in deeper water, make sure that your sinker is heavy enough to keep the lure down.
  
  

Buoy 10 Fishing

• During the month of August (the only time the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife allows fishing in the Buoy 10 area), the best time to try for salmon is during the early morning low slack tide. For fishing in this area, the best type of bait to use is natural bait (herring) on a line that's roughly 25 to 40 feet long. This kind of bait is called cut-plug and requires the fisher to sink the hook through the body of a baitfish so that the end of the hooks stick out and the fish doesn't fall apart. Spoon lures are also effective in this area, but most fishers use natural baits.