Northwest Fishing Reports

what can you experienced guys share about this relationship between fish and rain. why does everyone get excited when it rains? is it because the rivers start to fill back up from running low during the summer? does the rain wash down scent from the breeding grounds? extra water flow makes the water less visible and they feel safer? inquiring minds want to know.

Fish in the river will get stale and uncooperative during low water. When the rivers come up, those fish will move, get active, and start biting again. And it brings new fish into the river that are also more likely to bite. Silvers are notorious for being poor biters during low water.

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My understanding is The low water leaves less cover & makes em spooky, it is also warmer. The warm water turns off the bite, the rain cools the water creates deeper water & more cover and can trigger a more willing fish. The fish come no matter what the water level so biting or not they are running.
But I also think we just need a reason we aren't getting bit and lack of rain is an easy target (with the other side being "because the river is blown")

Cliff Notes:
The migration of North Pacific Salmon from the Ocean to their freshwater spawning habitat is one of the most extreme migrations in the animal kingdom. The life cycle of a salmon begins in a freshwater stream or river that dumps into the ocean.[2] After spending four or five years in the ocean and reaching sexual maturity, many salmon return to the same streams they were born in to spawn.
There are several hypotheses on how salmon are able to do this.One hypothesis is that they use both chemical and geomagnetic cues that allow them to return to their birthplace. The Earth's magnetic field may help the fish navigate the ocean to find the spawning region. From there, the animal locates where the river dumps into the sea with the chemical cues unique to the fish's natal stream.[3]

Other hypotheses rely on the fact that salmon have an extremely strong sense of smell. One hypothesis states that salmon retain an imprint of the odor of their natal stream as they are migrating downstream. Using this memory of the odor, they are able to return to the same stream years later. Another smell-related hypothesis states that the young salmon release a pheromone as they migrate downstream, and are able to return the same stream years later by smelling the pheromone they released.

thanks for the answers guys.