2018 Depoe Bay coho reports

Wow!  That's a sweet Abby kinda nook!  Excellent, Clayman!

Freakin Awesome fish!

-Mark-

Wow that’s a beautiful fish! Hooking a chinook in the ocean is hard enough but landing them is another feat in its own. I’d be interested in a discussion of others’ fight strategies to increase land ratio with these very hot fish.
Congrats Chris, looking forward to more of these posts thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the props everyone!  I have another report for today:

Launched a bit after 0600.  Noticed a big mass of diving murrs and seagulls just NW of the bell buoy.  Bee-lined to that area, and came onto a feeding frenzy of birds and herring in 60 FOW.  With a water temp of 55 degrees, surely there had to be some salmon here.  Ten minutes in, I'm hooked up!  Another great battler, and one of those fish that wants to stay just out of net range for eternity.  This one was a little bigger than yesterday's fish.

The frenzy dissipated as the sun rose above the clouds, and so did the bite.  I tooled around for hours, trolling any slicks and trash lines I could find.  Hooked a second fish around 1000, felt like another Chinook, but he came off after a few headshakes.  Trolled all the way out to 140 feet, and the water was 63 degrees!  Saw what I'm pretty sure were big mackerel chasing bait on the surface out there.  Moved back in towards shore, and the temp dropped to 58.  Picked up a shaker Chinook at 1330.  Finally called it a day at 1430.  The ODFW fish checker said it was overall a slow day for most species.  Sure am glad I stuck that Chinook early!  Talked with a couple PBers who said they CnRed a few wild coho earlier in the day.

I think we need some strong north winds to kick in to re-set things and get rid of that warm water.  Looks like that'll happen later this week.

THAT is a SLAB !  What a great photo of the fish across your lap.  Fresh shine!!

I had a feeling we’d be seeing some more chrome from you today.  Congrats!!

 

Amazing! You guys are killing me with all the salmon reports.  Great job!

Fantastic reports.  I can't wait to get back out there.

For weights, are you using cannon balls, banana weights, or divers to get the bait down?   If weight, what's a good range of weight to bring out?  Just looking for some ideas to make sure I'm doing it right.

Thanks.

Thanks for the props folks.  Grilled up the collars, cheeks, and spines last night.  Super fatty and on point!

For weights, are you using cannon balls, banana weights, or divers to get the bait down?   If weight, what's a good range of weight to bring out?  Just looking for some ideas to make sure I'm doing it right.

Thanks.

The last two days, I used a 8 ounce cannon ball on a dropper.  Basically the same kind of rig I'd use for fall Chinook in the estuaries.  It's effective for fishing down to about 40 feet.  If I were to try deeper (and I may do that next time), I'd bring a 12 or even a 16 ounce.

Follow-up on the bait situation: Sunday's fish was packed with market squid.  Yesterday's fish ate both squid and large anchovies.  I'd mistaken yesterday morning's bait ball frenzy for herring due to their size.  Could be worth trolling anchovies...or maybe a squid  .

I marked a lot of small bait schools from 40 to 60 feet.  Fuzzy little balls that didn't look like herring or baitfish on the depthfinder.  Maybe they were squid schools?  Back in May, the commercial boats were netting squid just a few miles off Newport.

i needs to research and get a clue(seriously) on this as i HAVE TO get in on this fishery. omg! thats a nice feesh! i can rig up super baits/spinners with  flasher, but never used a ....cut plug herring for one, its just length of this and that size yadda yadda the fine tuning let alone the basic. diver `s? used once? on a party boat years ago.  also i have no clue on these 'slicks or trash lines" ?  hopefully u tube gots some good vids cuz here i come! and i`ve been doing nothing but bottom fishing outta depoe, now or soon will be both.

i needs to research and get a clue(seriously) on this as i HAVE TO get in on this fishery. omg! thats a nice feesh! i can rig up super baits/spinners with  flasher, but never used a ....cut plug herring for one, its just length of this and that size yadda yadda the fine tuning let alone the basic. diver `s? used once? on a party boat years ago.  also i have no clue on these 'slicks or trash lines" ?  hopefully u tube gots some good vids cuz here i come! and i`ve been doing nothing but bottom fishing outta depoe, now or soon will be both.

Coho fishing was a new thing for me last year too.  The iFish archives are an excellent resource to find tips and tricks for this fishery.  Some people love hoochies, others love Apexes, and others love bait.  Personally, I'm a bait guy.  Cut-plug herring is great, but I also love just trolling a whole herring.  It never blows out and it's quick to rig.  It's all about getting the right spin: a tight little roll as you move along.  Not so much a big helicopter-type roll.  If the bait's not spinning, you're not fishing.  There are plenty of YouTube vids on how to set up a herring to spin properly.  I like herring because it gives you an equally great chance of hooking a Chinook as it does a coho.

I'm sure a Super Bait would work too though.  The coho came in thick in front of Depoe last year in late July, and they seemed willing to grab just about anything.  Buddy of mine even got a couple trolling a Blue Fox spinner with a single Siwash hook.  The hardest part is finding the fish.  Once you've found em, they're pretty easy to get to bite.

aw hell i`ll just follow u around , worked with my biggest ling yet! thx for info...

I’m a bait guy too. My wife really fights me on this subject but I’ll defend this stance and stake my claim in the fridge because good bait will catch anything and at the end of the day it puts dinner on the table.

Coho will hit almost anything, you just have to find them and present it well. I fish bait because it will catch coho and Chinook and......
The problem with coho is that they are scrappy hook spitting magicians and once they hit the bait it may stop spinning & they won’t hit it again. Unless you have something else still attracting them to come back to it, like a spinner blade or hoochie. You’ll go through a lot of good bait just landing one or two that don’t slip the hooks & watch your bait wobble off.
Superbaits work, and you can also rig them with beads & blades for more attractant. Although, you want a very sticky rig that’s hard to spit once they commit.

The problem with coho is that they are scrappy hook spitting magicians and once they hit the bait it may stop spinning & they won’t hit it again.

Ain't that the truth.  It's amazing how you can be trolling along, get a good bite, speed up a bit to see the rod double over with a few headshakes...then nothing. And it really sucks when they just slash at the bait and booger it up.  Last year, I was proud to muster a 50% landing ratio on those coho.

In case I come onto a coho frenzy and they're burning through my bait, I have a couple spoons in my box to try.  At least they can't foul those up  .