Chris Nordling's Fishing Guide Service

09/02/2026

I took great joy as you can see, and throwing back yet another Salmon for the moderately famous in a general sort of way. Kenny. We were having a pretty good morning before my motor decided it was not going to work as designed. So we had to call it quits early, but not before landing several fish and losing a few more.

I was able to repair the trolling motor with the help of my friends, and we are back on the water. Taking tomorrow and Thursday off to stay away from the storm. Then back at it this weekend and beyond.

In addition to crabbing and coho trips here in Astoria, I will be running some drift boat trips closer to home, for Coho salmon. That fishing is all Hands-On and a good time in the raft or drift boat.

Today also starts a non-select fishery in the ocean, south of Astoria. I don't anticipate that season lasting long, but being able to land and then harvest anything that bites is a good thing. There are also Bay fishing trips and bobber fishing trips to look forward to this fall. It's a great time to live here and be in the outdoors.

If you would like to I'm just a phone call, text, or Facebook message away from setting up your next adventure.

Chris
503-866-0971

09/01/2026

Looking to fill a couple of last minute seats tomorrow in Astoria. It's the final day of King retention for me (storm moving in Wednesday), and the moderately sorta kinda famous Kenny is coming out of hiatus for one last trip this summer. Come join me in taking joy in throwing back his fish with too many fins.Also, I'm confident he may potentially take home a fish or two as well😁

Call msg or text. I'm up late, and the boat is ready to fish!

Chris
503 866 0971

08/29/2026

Open boat tomorrow, after taking today off. Who wants to come experience Astoria on the last weekend open for Chinook retention here?

The weather should be very pleasant and the fish should be snappy. One thing I know is you can't catch them from the couch. So stop wishing and let's go fishing.

Give me a call/text or FB msg to set it up.

Also booking crab combo trips in Astoria, as well as fall Chinook dates in nearby bays and rivers. Also, a "keep any coho" season opens up for the ocean and coastal areas very soon. Just something to thing about when planning your next adventure.

Chris
503 866 0971

08/26/2026

Andrew and Lucia jumped on board today, and filled a couple of my open seats. They had plenty of action and took home a nice load of fresh salmon for the freezer.We encountered some really nice Kings today!

I do have a one seat available (to make a total of 4 anglers) tomorrow. I'm still ironing out the details, but I know for sure I should have a day this weekend with seat(s).

Also available are the last two days of Chinook retention here in Astoria available, which is Monday and Tuesday.

I'm feeling my freezer with high quality salmon. Who wants to join me?

503 866 0971

Chris

08/26/2026

Kenny and Jeff teamed up to rip some lips today. Wasn't out of control crazy action, but steady and entertaining. Probably could have been done in one pass, but I think someone was trying to milk out their last trip of the season, just to try and rip their faces off with the hook set. For those wondering, that is probably the #1 way to lose a fish here, the "Power hook set".

At any rate, these two are always fabulous guests, and easy to fish with. You should join them sometime. It's a hoot.

Seats available tomorrow and one On Thursday. Saturday is being worked on to fill, but I do have open dates soon after. Also, crabbing kicks in next month with salmon fishing.

If you are itching to get out and play with your food, now is an excellent time to do so.

Message, text or call me to set a date. It's that easy....

Chris
503 866 0971

08/24/2026

Pretty famous in a general sorta way Kenny laid the wood to them today. Excellent hook to land ratio, resulting in more fish for his freezer. My freezer too actually, thanks Kenny for the net job.

Seats available some days this week. Starting tomorrow I believe, with Jeff Hayes and the moderately famous one. It's Kenny's supposed last trip of the year. We will see what he says next week when he's missing out on the action.

Also, my group for next Saturday is going thru some personal situations. They would love it if someone could take their reservation, and fill my boat, so that I can still work. They reserved this date months ago, and generally do very well on this particular Saturday.

Would love to get you out fishing! Shoot me a message, a text or pick up the phone and let's chat.

Chris
503 866 0971

08/21/2026

Well, we expected it to happen. Just received the email from ODFW. Buoy 10 will remain open to Chinook harvest, continuing with a mark select fishery (hatchery only). Honestly, it could have been much worse.

That said, I do have seats here and there thru the week, and a few open boats starting next weekend.

So you know, the limit is 2 hatchery fish, and only one can be a King (Chinook).

But fishing is so good right now, and will only get better, much better for Coho in the coming weeks.

Bring on the September madness at the 10 can!

Chris
503 866 0971

Watch today for a reg tweak that some of the daily Buoy 10 updates have been hinting about this week – Chinook will stay open but will not switch to hatchery or wild fish for Aug. 25-Sept. 2 as had planned. It will stay open for hatchery only.

The idea is to keep the fall fishery at the mouth of the Columbia open within allowable impacts to various Chinook stocks. Managers say the tweak is due to high early season king catches.

08/20/2026

Kenny and John teamed up again today to wrestle some big and mean salmon. The bite was good, then quit. We ran (figuratively) a long ways, and instantly started catching them again. Then we went almost all the way back to where we started, and mayhem erupted from the dark depths below. A couple of doubles, a single and a near triple later, we finally found enough keepers to call it a day. Kenny even laughed a little as I had to throw one that I caught back. I do take my joy in throwing his back, so that's fair.

Wide open boat tomorrow. If you or anyone you know wants to go and try to catch salmon, call me. I never guarantee anything other than a good time, but man, fishing is really good right now 😉

Chris
503 866 0971

08/20/2026

We didn't take a dock picture today. Kenny kept his two fish (dandy chunky silvers), and I kept one. He got to play with fish pretty much all day long.That's the benefit of being on board with just the captain. So if you debated on calling and joining us today, you missed out.

Check out this tanker he landed this morning. What a brute. It was released quickly and safely after the 10 seconds of pictures. Can't wait till next week when we can keep those again.

The bite this morning was pretty good, if not amazing.

I do have 2 seats tomorrow, and a wide open boat on Friday. Also 2 seats Sunday.

Come out and go fishing. I promise you will have a great time.

Chris
(503) 866-0971

08/18/2026

What a day! So many released fish, it's almost unspeakable. So many lost fish, it's forgettable. So many landed fish we lost count. But in the end we kept 5 really nice coho for these guys and me.

I don't know who the masked man is. Maybe when you're this famous, you have to dress in disguise, so not even the fish can recognize their most feared adversary.

Great day, and it should continue thru the week. I cannot recommend enough to take me up on the open seats or the open boat this week. It will be a great time!

Maybe you'll sit next to the masked man.....

Chris
503 866 0971