November means Chum Salmon

by Rich Youngers

In Oregon there are two rivers that provide excellent flyfishing for these hard fighting salmon. The Kilchis and the Miami Rivers, both which drain into Tillamook Bay. The Kilchis is located about five miles north of Tillamook and the Miami is located near the small coastal town of Garibaldi.  The photo on the left was taken on the Kilchis with guide customer Ray Florence.  Ray picked up this nice Chum salmon in November.  There is limited bank access on the Kilchis but with a drift boat you can access a lot of good Chum water. During the month of November, the Kilchis will provide a good chance for big King Salmon as well as winter steelhead.

The Miami offers two good pay to access sections.

Chum Salmon require good equipment, a 9-10 weight fly rod and disc drag reel. For flyfishing on the Kilchis use 325grain-425 grain sink tip flylines or shooting head systems. The Miami River is a smaller more shallower system so a 5-15 ft sink tip line works best. The Miami can also be fished with a floating line and long leader. Remember when using sink tip fly lines, run a 3-6 ft leader only.

Fly selection for Chum is easy, chartreuse tied on a size 4 to 6 heavy wire hook. I would include some pink or purple flies as these often work when the river is being pounded hard. Some of our favorite patterns are Cabelleros, Roe Bugs, Hare Ball Leeches, Krystal Buggers, Salmon Slammers, Kilchis Greens, and Pink Kings. These are hard fighting fish so prepare yourself for tired arms and a couple of bruised knuckles. This is a catch and release fishery and the season ends on Nov 15th.

(Oncorhynchus keta) have the widest distribution of any of the Pacific salmon. They range south to the Sacramento River in California and the island of Kyushu in the Sea of Japan. In the north, they range east in the Arctic Ocean to the Mackenzie River in Canada and west to the Lena River in Siberia. Ocean fresh chum salmon are metallic greenish-blue on the dorsal surface (top) with fine black speckles. They are difficult to distinguish from sockeye and coho salmon without examining their gills or caudal fin scale patterns. Chum have fewer but larger gillrakers than other salmon. After nearing fresh water, however, the chum salmon changes color, particularly noticeable are vertical bars of green and purple, which give them the common name, calico salmon. The males develop the typical hooked snout of Pacific salmon and very large teeth which account for their other name, dog salmon. The females have a dark horizontal band along the lateral line; their green and purple vertical bars are not so obvious.

Chum salmon often spawn in small side channels and other areas of large rivers where upwelling springs provide excellent conditions for egg survival. They spawn in many of the same places as do pink salmon, i.e., small streams and intertidal zones.  Chum salmon spawning is typical of Pacific salmon with the eggs deposited in redds located primarily in upwelling spring areas of streams. Female chum may lay as many as 4,000 eggs, but typically ranges between 2,400 and 3,100 eggs.  Chum do not have a period of freshwater residence after emergence of the fry as do chinook, coho, and sockeye salmon in this respect, except that chum fry do not move out into the ocean in the spring as quickly as pink fry. salmon. Chum fry feed on small insects in the stream and estuary before forming into schools in salt water where their diet usually consists of zooplankton. By fall they move out into the ocean where they spend one or more of the winters of their 3- to 6-year lives. Chum vary in size from 4 to over 30 pounds, but usually range from 7 to 18 pounds, with females usually smaller than males. *

*Excerpt from Lawrence S. Buklis, Alaska Dept of Fish & Game

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