Willamette River Coho 2009

[John B]

With this being a record year for Coho on the Willamette I was wondering if any of you fished for them above the falls ? Although I fished my fair share and caught my fair share in Tillamock Bay I just could not find enough of me to check out this fishrie. Did you fish in the main stem of Willamette or in the mouths of the feeder creeks ? What did you use ? bait,spinners ? What was the best month ? September, October ? Were you plunking from the back of the boat, back bouncing, plunking from the bank ? All indications are they will be back this year.:clap: Happy New Year everyone.

 

[rainman]

All of the above. I tried everything, but couldn't seem to entice them to bite. Fished amongst lots of other guys, never did a single net fly on multiple trips. Always fished the main Willy, above Salem.

 

[OneMore]

I did not fish it last year but plan to this year. I will be trying casted or trolled wiggle warts at the mouths of tribs. Also I would bet eggs under a bobber would work well.

 

[adambomb]

I made a couple of stops along the lower Molalla in late September and into October but never saw anything. Then I decided to check out the upper sections of river in the first week of November and came across this nice buck.

 

[rainman]

I made a couple of stops along the lower Molalla in late September and into October but never saw anything. Then I decided to check out the upper sections of river in the first week of November and came across this nice buck.

Bite me, Adam. LOL

 

[bweb]

I trolled around the mouth of the Tualatin a couple times (along with others) and only saw 2 caught. They were rolling all over the place, but we couldn't get anything to bite.

 

[bigsteel]

nice fish adam!!!!!!!!!!:dance::dance:

 

[adambomb]

nice fish adam!!!!!!!!!!:dance::dance:

Thanks! you can kinda see in the first pic that he hit that TCO spinner with some serious intent. So much so that he hooked his mouth closed!! Despite being as dark as he was, he cut as if he was chrome!!

 

[bigsteel]

Yummy,,,i gotta get me some of those tco spinners....do you know if the rivers blown out by chance.

 

[adambomb]

Yummy,,,i gotta get me some of those tco spinners....do you know if the rivers blown out by chance.

Its at 14.26' now, I fished it once two weeks ago at 13' and it was perfect. Not too high, just a hint of green, and pretty clean. That was pretty low, around Canby, however I did fish it once last weekend, up high, when it was a little above 12' and it was darn near perfect in my opinion. I'd bet that now that most if not all of the leaves have fallen and we have had the first couple high flows, it would be fishable up to 15-16'

 

[Bennicus]

I did some work at the dam in September and that is one really cool place with a bunch of great guys working it. The operator gave us a tour of more or less the whole complex and after seeing the fish counter guys do their thing I knew I had to start fishing above the dam. They were counting fish like mad and having a great time doing it!

I had success at the mouth of the Tualatin trolling wrapped kwikfish. Fish were rolling all over the river but I only seemed to get bites around the mouth, also it was out of the way of other boats racing by. There are some bank opportunites there at Willamette park for fishing the confluence, as well as the boat ramps.

I had no success at the mouth of the Molalla. I only tried for an afternoon, but there were certainly fish there. Probably should have given it another crack but the Tualatin was working for me and quite a bit more convenient.

 

[Kodiak]

If you can avoid the boat traffic is the key. Lots of boats flying by seams to really put the coho down. Thier are a couple of slots I did ding a few in..mostly #3 mini preds, in pink, red, and green.