Ocean chinook this spring

Got the ODFW update that falcon to humbug is open 3/15-4/30 for chinook, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a post regarding kayak catching this time of year.

Are they too far offshore, or is it worth some effort?

Thanks to everyone for always being generous with the info and tips.

Two things:

1) Generally speaking, a big reason chinook get within kayak range along the coast in the summer is because the food gets closer to the shore. 
2) The ocean is much less friendly in the spring, so fewer opportunities to get out there and figure out where they are.

But I've never actually put time in on the ocean for the spring chinook season, so I don't really know.  In the past, if I recall correctly, the spring ocean chinook season has been isolated to the area around the outside of Tillamook Bay.  Humbug to Falcon seems like an unusual expansion to me, but I could be wrong.
Go try it out and let us know how it goes!

Edit: I just went and saw the 2018 regs for ocean salmon - it was similar to this last year.

One more thing, I can't seem to find anything on this.  Can you provide a link to anything on it or post the ODFW update?  I get those updates too but I don't see one on it in my inbox.

Thanks rawkfish. I’m taking the trailer down to Beverly this weekend and keeping fingers crossed the conditions improve. If so, I’ll post up anything of interest. If not....just another romantic weekend sightseeing and not salmon fishing. Anything to not springer fish the willamette earlier than April.

I searched the odfw site as well and can’t find it. BUT I got the text and email today saying what I posted above. Does seem a little premature since I’m reading their meetings on the 2019 seasons run through tomorrow.


March 11, 2019 - RECREATIONAL OCEAN SALMON ACTION NOTICE: The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in consultation with the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), the State of Oregon, and the State of California met this evening in Vancouver, Washington and have taken the following in-season management action to the scheduled March and April recreational ocean Chinook salmon openings off Oregon:

ACTION TAKEN:  The planned ocean Chinook salmon (all-salmon-except coho) season will open as scheduled from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mt. from March 15 through April 30, 2019.  The bag limit will be two salmon, except closed to retention of coho, with a minimum size of 24” for Chinook and a minimum size of 20” for steelhead.

RATIONALE:  The recreational ocean fishery off Oregon in March and April typically has very low effort and Chinook catch.  Fishery managers and industry representatives agreed that this opening would not create any difficulty in developing the remainder of the ocean seasons for the 2019 fishing year.   Seasons from May 1, 2019 through April 30, 2020 are currently being developed. Season alternatives will be reviewed and a final season recommendation made at the Pacific Fishery Management Council public meeting April 9-16 in Rohnert Park, California.

I really wanted to try some spring Chinook trolling last year, but the ocean was relatively nasty every time I went out.  I just wanted to get my two lings and head back to port!  I didn't start my salmon trolling last year until late June and the start of hatchery coho season.

That being said, I was out of Depoe one May afternoon last year and came into a stellar-looking color line and bait balls on the depthfinder that just screamed salmon.  Sure enough, a salmon leaped clear out of the water only thirty feet away from me!  Unfortunately, I only had bottomfish gear with me that day.

The water near shore has been super clear lately, which isn't really conducive to attracting salmon.  But it's probably worth stowing a troll rig with you if you go out there, just in case you see some good sign.  I think the market squid showed up nearshore back in April last year, and they brought in Chinook.  Crossing my fingers that the squid show up again.

I really wanted to try some spring Chinook trolling last year, but the ocean was relatively nasty every time I went out.  I just wanted to get my two lings and head back to port!  I didn't start my salmon trolling last year until late June and the start of hatchery coho season.

That being said, I was out of Depoe one May afternoon last year and came into a stellar-looking color line and bait balls on the depthfinder that just screamed salmon.  Sure enough, a salmon leaped clear out of the water only thirty feet away from me!  Unfortunately, I only had bottomfish gear with me that day.

The water near shore has been super clear lately, which isn't really conducive to attracting salmon.  But it's probably worth stowing a troll rig with you if you go out there, just in case you see some good sign.  I think the market squid showed up nearshore back in April last year, and they brought in Chinook.  Crossing my fingers that the squid show up again.

Gah-dayum this got me excited! I had a feeling that there would be coho around, given the strong forecast for them. I'll probably be somewhere out there in April now that ya got me all giddy.

I searched the odfw site as well and can’t find it. BUT I got the text and email today saying what I posted above. Does seem a little premature since I’m reading their meetings on the 2019 seasons run through tomorrow.


March 11, 2019 - RECREATIONAL OCEAN SALMON ACTION NOTICE: The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in consultation with the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), the State of Oregon, and the State of California met this evening in Vancouver, Washington and have taken the following in-season management action to the scheduled March and April recreational ocean Chinook salmon openings off Oregon:

ACTION TAKEN:  The planned ocean Chinook salmon (all-salmon-except coho) season will open as scheduled from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mt. from March 15 through April 30, 2019.  The bag limit will be two salmon, except closed to retention of coho, with a minimum size of 24” for Chinook and a minimum size of 20” for steelhead.

RATIONALE:  The recreational ocean fishery off Oregon in March and April typically has very low effort and Chinook catch.  Fishery managers and industry representatives agreed that this opening would not create any difficulty in developing the remainder of the ocean seasons for the 2019 fishing year.   Seasons from May 1, 2019 through April 30, 2020 are currently being developed. Season alternatives will be reviewed and a final season recommendation made at the Pacific Fishery Management Council public meeting April 9-16 in Rohnert Park, California.

I've never known a time of year to be premature for thinking of chasing salmon on the salt.

That being said, I was out of Depoe one May afternoon last year and came into a stellar-looking color line and bait balls on the depthfinder that just screamed salmon.  Sure enough, a salmon leaped clear out of the water only thirty feet away from me!  Unfortunately, I only had bottomfish gear with me that day.

If you carry the right jigs you can catch salmon on bottomfish gear.  I still remember vividly the first time I hooked up with a salmon while fishing for rockfish.  I was dropping a 1 oz crippled herring to the bottom in 100ft of water.  About 30ft down the line goes slack.  Eleven year old me thought, "WTF I'm nowhere near bottom".  Luckily the Coho didn't spit the jig and sprinted off setting the hook on itself. 

To this day I still love the split second of anticipation between when the line goes slack and the hookset, wondering if it's going to be a swing and a miss or if I'm going to connect.

The situation you describe sounds perfect for salmon jigging.

While I completely agree with you snopro, the bummer is that the legality of it is not so clean, as I bet you're probably aware. Unless, of course, you're bottom fishing gear is all barbless. ( I think the regs on this are cryptic and ridiculous, personally)

Hot dog.  These replies are going to severely limit my time trolling the brown water in the multnomah channel, this spring.

I'm sure you know more about this topic than I do.  What's the grey area?  Do you need all gear on board to be barbless if you are fishing for salmon?  I'm not seeing that in the regs.

Edit:  is this the issue?

Anglers fishing for salmon and all anglers fishing from boats with a salmon on board are limited
to no more than 2 single point barbless hooks per line, and no more than one line per angler

Would this be legal?  For the primo conditions Clayman described, I'd make sure both barbs were pinched on my flat fall jig and go for it.  If I was lucky enough to catch a salmon I'd fish barbless for bottom fish to fill out a limit if needed. 
 

I'm sure you know more about this topic than I do.  What's the grey area?  Do you need all gear on board to be barbless if you are fishing for salmon?  I'm not seeing that in the regs.

Edit:  is this the issue?

Anglers fishing for salmon and all anglers fishing from boats with a salmon on board are limited
to no more than 2 single point barbless hooks per line, and no more than one line per angler

Would this be legal?  For the primo conditions Clayman described, I'd make sure both barbs were pinched on my flat fall jig and go for it.  If I was lucky enough to catch a salmon I'd fish barbless for bottom fish to fill out a limit if needed.

Exactly.
So you start your day fishing for salmon and if you catch something, suddenly ALL of your hooks need to be barbless, even the stuff you plan on using for bottom fish after you bag your salmon. If you start your day fishing for bottom fish and then decide to try for salmon after you see one or find the right conditions, technically all your hooks have to now be barbless whether you catch something or not.

It's a tough situation to figure out how regulate, and I guess I get why they have it regulated the way they do, but it's just frustrating. I can't imagine a world in which all fishermen follow the regs to the letter on this one.

I'm sure you know more about this topic than I do.  What's the grey area?  Do you need all gear on board to be barbless if you are fishing for salmon?  I'm not seeing that in the regs.

Edit:  is this the issue?

Anglers fishing for salmon and all anglers fishing from boats with a salmon on board are limited
to no more than 2 single point barbless hooks per line, and no more than one line per angler

Would this be legal?  For the primo conditions Clayman described, I'd make sure both barbs were pinched on my flat fall jig and go for it.  If I was lucky enough to catch a salmon I'd fish barbless for bottom fish to fill out a limit if needed.

My understanding of the "barbless rule" is that you can have both barbed and barbless gear onboard but if you catch a salmon on barbed gear it has to be released because the barbed hooks are not valid gear for that species.  I guess any greyness occurs once you land and keep a salmon.  I suppose the reasoning is that since a salmon was retained the angler is now salmon fishing so all gear in the water must be barbless.  How does that apply though, if you have reached the limit for salmon and cannot retain anymore.  Does that mean I can return to using barbed hooks for bottom fish? I wouldn't be salmon fishing at that point due to the limit being reached.

I'm sure you know more about this topic than I do.  What's the grey area?  Do you need all gear on board to be barbless if you are fishing for salmon?  I'm not seeing that in the regs.

Edit:  is this the issue?

Anglers fishing for salmon and all anglers fishing from boats with a salmon on board are limited
to no more than 2 single point barbless hooks per line, and no more than one line per angler

Would this be legal?  For the primo conditions Clayman described, I'd make sure both barbs were pinched on my flat fall jig and go for it.  If I was lucky enough to catch a salmon I'd fish barbless for bottom fish to fill out a limit if needed.

yes.

no salmon on board and not using techniques that are obviously "fishing for salmon":  you don't need to follow the 2 single barbless hooks rule but would need to release any salmon hooked using any combination of hooks that violates the salmon rules.   But if you do use just 2 single barbless hooks, you can keep salmon per whatever rules are in place.

any salmon on board:  must follow the 2 single barbless but are free to continue bottom fishing even if you have taken a limit of salmon.