Seasons

The Hoodoo Lodge season kicks off in mid-June, with the first waves of king (Chinook) salmon flooding into the river estuary, and pushing their way up into the river.

From the lodge down to saltwater is only about 8 miles of flat water, which the fish move through quickly, arriving to the lower holding pools just above the lodge in a matter of hours; often, the fish you catch one day were swimming in the ocean the day before! From the lodge upstream to the river’s headwater lake is about 25 miles of prime fly fishing water. The best king water tends to be in the lower 12 or so miles upstream of the lodge, as this water is comprised of deeper, moderate speed, gravel-bottomed pools…perfect king holding water. The fish-counting weir is about 8-miles up from the lodge, and in 2008 the fishing for several miles upstream of the weir was equally as good as below. To give you an idea of the size of the run, Fish and Game counters at the weir believe that approximately 50% of the river’s king run never even reaches the weir, as they spawn downriver, both in the main channel and in the major spawning tributary. So it is probably safe to double the average annual weir count of about 2,000-4,000 fish, a remarkable number for such a small river. Consider that 2004 saw over 6,000 kings, counted! Some days last year we would cut the engine and drift as we motored downriver at the end of the day, and were flabbergasted to look down into some of the small pools and see 30-50, twenty- to thirty-pound ghost blue kings scatter beneath us! Never failed to pump up the enthusiasm…

At this same time the river is also full of mint-bright sockeye (red) salmon – they tend to mirror the mid-June to late July king salmon run, though the run size is enormous by comparison. Sockeyes are the real reason the weir exists, as Fish and Game monitors their yearly escapement in an attempt to manage the offshore commercial netters in this region. Weir employees have counted over a quarter of a million sockeyes annually, on average - fish destined to temporarily reside and spawn in the upriver lake. Heavy run years approach half a million fish! This run provides tremendous action and a welcome daily option for anglers wanting to take a temporary break from battling the monsters, and hook some red-hot, dime-bright salmon in the 6-10 pound range. Sockeyes quickly permeate the entire river, though they hold in different water than the kings, typically in deep, slow-moving eddies. It is not unusual to look down into one of these backwater “lakes” and see hundreds of chrome sockeyes, literally stacked like cordwood from top to bottom.

Beginning sometime around the middle of July, and lasting into early August, there is a strong run of chum salmon into the Hoodoo. These aggressive, bull-strong fish are often referred to as “little kings” – though averaging smaller at around 10-15 pounds, they possess the same broad-shouldered power as kings when hooked. And they are eager to a fault when presented with anything purple, or pink, with a large profile. Also in this time frame there is a light return of pink salmon. Though not a highly sought after species, it is the final link in the “Grand Slam of Salmon”, making this an ideal time for the angler attempting to catch all five species of Pacific salmon in a single week. In 2008, we had plenty of guests land all five in a single day! As well, from late July through August, thousands of sea run dollies (as well as some resident char and rainbows) congregate behind spawning kings in the upper river; with a 6 wt rod and a handful of single egg patterns, you can catch these beautiful fish until you drop!

Our guides noted the first push of silver salmon (cohos) into the river near the lodge on August 2nd, in 2008. By about the 15th the river was loaded, and by early September the numbers were mind-numbing. Over the course of the season these fish averaged 10-12 pounds, and it was not at all unusual to land fish in the 14-16 pound class. Guides weighed plenty of 18’s, and even a handful of 20’s…trophy fish in anyone’s book. Even better, many were caught on the surface, popping Foam Top Pink Pollywogs across the tops of slow pools, anglers watching with rapt anticipation as fish waked up behind them, heads porpoising out to engulf the oversized dry. Truly, Hoodoo would seem to be the Holy Grail of silver salmon fly fishing!

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