Nailin' at Nehalem (Caution contains fish-porn)

Last week, I drove out and went to Tillamook Bay and the grass was so miserable, it was like not even fishing most of the time. It amazed me to hook and release a native coho, but the day for the most part was not so fun fishing. Driving home, I figured that would be my last attempt at salmon until the spring. The problem is, when I close my eyes sometimes, this image of a perfect, flashy plug-cut herring perpetually rolling through the water comes into my mind and won't leave. I couldn't fight it anymore and knowing the small tides would mean easy fishing I headed toward Garibaldi.
The Ghost Hole when I drove by was not extraordinarily busy so I parked by the boat ramp and for some reason I can't explain I left and headed up to Nehalem B. Driving north I noticed an unbelievable amount of boats along the jetty and at the jaws in Tillamook Bay. The bite was definitely on there. When I got out on the water out of Brighton and went toward the jetty in Nehalem Bay, there were so few boats working that I just knew there were no fish about and that I should have stayed in Garibaldi. It was really nice to be really wrong about that.
Just getting started, about 5 minutes into my first  pass down-current, I hooked a little clipped jack chinook. I had to laugh to myself seeing this determined little rascal dart around spastically trying to elude the net. The little guy left my herring moderately intact, so I redid the hook and dropped a marginally acceptable bait down for the rest of the pass. Before I got to the end of the jetty, where I abruptly turn around in fear, I hooked a nice big fish on that crappy bait. This fish ran me ragged taking run after run while I tried to keep from becoming a victim of the outgoing tide. It really felt like 15 solid minutes of panic before it got into the net. With a nice 20 pound chinook on deck, I had to smash back against the tide to get it to the cooler in Brighton. Quick turnaround, and retied my leader and such and took the tide back to the jetty. Starting my down-current pass again, I just had to stare at my rod in stupefied amazement when it jerked, buckled and buried just a few minutes in. This 19 pound fish just pounded and pounded me, shooting in and out of the jetty wall, up-current, down-current and toward every single boat in the vicinity at least once. It has never happened to me before on any fish but I had to pull my drive out three times to get the leader untangled. Luckily it was really well hooked and I eventually put the fish on the deck. These October fish are feisty! I'm sure I spent twice as much time fighting fish as I did fishing.
This morning, with just one slot left for wild chinook on my tag, I knew that I was going to get one. Didn't make it out early but when I did, nets were definitely a-flyin! It actually took me about 45 minutes, but my time came early enough, and this time it was a nice little 14 pound fish that still fought like a champ. This time, it was so much more relaxing and fun to fight a fish with the tide coming in. Thought briefly about releasing it for something bigger, but the thought of what a great year it has been and the possibility of beating traffic back to Portland made me reconsider and so I took its precious little life away from it.
Anyway, during the last two days at the bay, no one has said to me "you should have been here last week" or anything like that because most people are busy hooking, netting, filleting and the like. Don't tell anyone but you don't have to rub shoulders with the hoards in Tillamook Bay to find a red-hot bite right now.

Great report.

I couldn't stand the grass at Tillamook either.  I agree, the Nehalem is fishing well.  My first season trying it, mostly as a plan B but it might be plan A in the future.

Caught 3 nooks and a wild Coho last Friday fishing up river from you at Wheeler.

Everyone has been posting such great photos lately.  My posts have been lacking.......so here's a little more Nehalem FP from last Friday.

Wow, nice fish. Last time I was there was with the HOW event. No good then, BUT looks like time to get over there NOW.

Right on snopro! Thanks for posting those pics. It looks like you had a beautiful, bloody day on the water on Friday. I like fishing Wheeler too. Wish there was a campground there.

Nice fish guys!  Sweet! I may test my luck there again soon!

Great looking fish guys!

Great job. Looks like a great day to be out

wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!