After the storm

[kwikfisher]

With all the rain, is it expected that the fishing on the Siuslaw below the 101 will be over? Do the fish move in mass at this point to their spawning grounds? I grew up fishing blue and yellow fin tuna, albacore etc. Do not know the habits of salmon and steelhead yet, but I'm totally diggin the learning! I do like the fish right out of the ocean.

 

[Raincatcher]

The best advice I can give you is to send rogerdodger a pm if he doesn't see your question. He practically lives in that water. My opinion would be that the fish will be all over the place, just not so much in the bay/tidewater areas. This rain should push them upstream.

 

[CoastieFlo]

They are still fishing at the dump for them, so id say it aint over till its over. :thumb:

 

[upperroguepirate]

it's great living on the coast for the first time with it's rain. Having lived in WA 3 yrs for the first time it's almost every day life life. It's the reason why everything is green. we got 2.6 inches yesterday and the night before it rained all night at 2.1. nearly 5 inches in 2 days. them fish holding up at the bar have tasted their home waters. gonna try to hit the dump today if that chance of the late morning break in clouds happens.

 

[rogerdodger]

I was expecting the nice surge of chinooks late last week and through the weekend but with this latest big rain I am wondering how much longer we will have lots of fish down low...that said, if I wasn't busy smoking and canning my big ol coho from Siltcoos (freezer is full ), I would probably be out checking for fish along the dunes below 101 bridge and then up at 29/crane/RR bridge..but it would be during a break in the weather, safety first with this heavy weather passing through! cheers, roger

 

[kwikfisher]

So, I will be solo in a sound 16ft Zodiac with a 40 horse OB, and have fished a couple times below the bridge without any issues, even caught a couple fish.
If the weather settles a bit, does it seem "unsafe" given current river conditions to fish Friday AM? I'm green and very cautious, unseasoned, but not stupid.

 

[rogerdodger]

So, I will be solo in a sound 16ft Zodiac with a 40 horse OB, and have fished a couple times below the bridge without any issues, even caught a couple fish.
If the weather settles a bit, does it seem "unsafe" given current river conditions to fish Friday AM? I'm green and very cautious, unseasoned, but not stupid.

assuming you launch in safe conditions (which I assume you would not even launch in the middle of very nasty stuff) you should be fine. Low is at sunrise, 1.7feet, then you have incoming to about 7feet at 1:30pm, wind looks low until very late afternoon. I would be running below the 101 bridge to those red marker wing dams on the W side, trolling from them back to 101 bridge, staying slightly to the dune side of center...nothing going on down there, I would jump to the forest gap just up from the launch (skip the water in front of old town) and troll center of the river up to the 29 marker then left over to the barge/crane and potentially, weather not nasty, on up from there to the RR bridge at Cushman for the high slack tide...all of this never really puts you very far from the launch and biggest weather issue tomorrow would likely be occasional rain squalls that get you wet...if I had some herring in the fridge that needed to be used up, I would basically do the above in my kayak tomorrow...if there are still fish in the lower river, you should pass over them doing this...cheers, roger

 

[kwikfisher]

Thanks for the detailed response! As far the fishing plan, based on the tide, that sounds solid.
I have some brined frozen herring, from a while ago, that I will fillet for belly wraps on you guessed it... Kwikfish!
I'm going to try and target Kings with a big K16, hoping to **** off a larger more aggressive specimen at first light.
I still have a Wild Coho to catch, so pretty quickly, I will get to work on that trolling something a little more universally attractive.
I did catch a nice 32inch Coho 13#? And a 15# Chinook on Kwiks in the last couple weeks, but that was on K15s.
I'm hoping that so late arrivals are still making their way into the river....

 

[upperroguepirate]

fished the dump for a few min. today but wasn't able to stay very long. a lot of water moving down on the outgoing and the silvers were right where I thought they would be. hugging the shore. my 1st few casts landed and released a nice 10 lb wild hen. then 2 casts later wham, another but came off. that fish was hot. these fish hit no more than 6ft from the rocks. I'm not kidding. i'm sure it happens but I was totally surprised.

hate to say it but I've owned some boats in my day but if anyone should feel like giving me an open seat trip, I'll help out with gas etc. I do have some K16's fresh Pautkze fire brine silver eggs. Can buy some bait. I would need to bring my black lab. Really need to get me 2 kings. I could have kept that coho today but heck, let her live and make babies. I had a paid for 18ft lowe roughneck from cabela's with a 50 merc. 2011 model. I made the terrible mistake of getting rid of it to drive someone nicer. i'm so darn lame. I don't think i'll ever be able to find myself with a new boat like that again. sucks not having a boat cause I want to kill ducks and geese for my dog but maybe next year.

 

[kwikfisher]

Was there many boats on the river? Any below the 101?

 

[upperroguepirate]

I saw 2 and a few others heading back. I was there from 4 to 445. no stopping the kings now. They've tasted their home waters with all this rain and would think there are hundreds moving through fast. Troll slow, because they will most likely be moving through quick. I would even try trolling up river on this strong outgoing.

 

[rogerdodger]

dang, you all got my chinook fever up again, plenty of time to get my last few coho out of Siltcoos next week, I am gonna hit the Slaw and roll some stale funky re-frozen herring tomorrow on my friends Smokercraft..so chance of chrome- low..yep, probably going to be a rainy boring day, geez, I might even take a nap out there...

 

[rogerdodger]

ouch, the weather kicked our arses today, we launched at 11am, very safe out there but lots more rain than expected and with no fish interested in our stinky herring, 3 hours of getting soaked was it...paying my dues to the river....

 

[kwikfisher]

I got a late start at 9am, and the was doable until 11. The fishing was fairly slow for most. At 11:30 I had about one more troll up to the bridge in me. Down at #16 I hooked up with a very acrobatic coho, but it came unbuttoned for whatever reason as I tried to net it. I was needless to say disappointed, but I was fishing a coyote spoon behind my big Al's flasher, which was new for me. I like finding different rigs to mix it up. Sometimes nothing beats the herring etc, but artificials have their advantages also. Just for a little while I put out a magnum size krocodile that was probably better suited for strippers. If I had a fish in the box, I would have giving it more time, it looked great next to the boat. Oh well had a good time albeit wet.