Depoe Bay, 2025 - Coho be Chewin' (running thread)

Coho were chewing pretty good out of Depoe today. 80-100 ft contour was the zone. 10 oz weight, 10 ft on the line counter. I released a wild and bonked my two hatchery keepers by 7:20am. The other guys were hooking up as well, mix of hatchery and wild. On my way north to my reef waypoints, the surface was alive with bait and swirling coho.

Bottomfishing was okay. I worked a couple favorite waypoints for a while and picked up a half-dozen lings and a big yelloweye. Kept a pair of 34 inchers. Then sifted through a ton of deacons and some blacks to fill out my limit.

If folks go out soon, spend some time working that 80-100 ft contour straight out front. There was a fleet of boats and charters working the 180-190 ft contour early on, but they eventually all moved in to where the kayakers were catching.

It was pretty solid action with the coho. Hooked 10, landed 8. 5 BIG wild fish, a hatchery, another wild and a second hatchery. Also, a bunch of drive-bys.  Got a limit of rockfish, nothing huge. Struggled for Lings and ended up with just one small one. All in all, a decent freezer restocking.

Congratulations,  looks nice out there.

Decent day out of Depoe today. Lil bumpy, lil windy, but very manageable. Keith, Daniel n I only yaks I saw out there.
Got into salmon straight out, in 115-120 FOW. Bout a 1/4 mile north of whistle buoy. 360s, mini cut plugs, 12-20' back.

Lost my first fish halfway to the boat, then Daniel got a nice hatchery fish. Got a vicious drive-by, picked up the rod to check my gear, n got slammed, 26.25" hatchery. Daniel lost a couple right at the boat, and Keith got a drive-by. Then I got slammed again, a 28" hatchery, my biggest ocean coho ever. Also my first ocean coho limit in 3 yrs+.

Had long thought barbless hooks didn't make that much difference, but they were killing me today. Had close to a dozen solid fish on, either cabs or lings, but lost em all. Only one I saw was a ling close to 30" that came off at the boat. Only bottom fish I managed to land was an underling that hit on my light tackle while trying for greenling, great fight!

So brought home nothing but coho, but I'm not disappointed.

Heavy fog rolled in about 1, and water got choppier, so we called it early. Whales everywhere.

That's a heck of a fish. Fine job.

All

Monday and Tuesday looks promising.  I would like to fish both days. Anybody game? Later in the week the 31st and Saturday are showing good conditions.

Got a hatchery coho after about 10 mins of trolling, right by 1st buoy, 35' feet of line out. About 20 mins later, marked a big bait ball at 50', dropped to it and got a wild. Daniel got 2 keepers in the next hour.

Got 8 lings, all but 1 legal, none huge, 5 blacks including a 20"er, and that was it. Tried hard for cabs n greenling, but no luck. Was flat n glassy, almost too hot. Jellyfish were getting annoying, lots of whales.

nice report! how bout those flies! when it`s calm and flat out like it was the flies sure come out.
 

Was up at PC on the 28th and 29th.  Unbelievable number of jellyfish in the water.  Hit one on nearly every drop.  Whales were also very active.
Lots of rockfish, a few ling and no salmon for me.  Lot of good sized blue rockfish in the mix, hadn't seen that many good sized ones before

Transited the Hole around 0600. Water was much colder and clear compared to last week. Didn't mark any bait on the sonar til I reached about 160'. Trolled out to and followed the 180' contour for a bit because that was the "hot spot" yesterday. Nothing happening at 180', so I worked NE over to 160', where I was marking the most bait. The bait was down in the 20-30' depth, so I put on a 12 oz weight and 40' of line out to get a bit deeper. Finally had my first bite at 0830: really nice wild coho. Two more bites right after that, both hatchery coho. So three bites in twenty minutes. Hit up a waypoint for rockfish, easy limit of blacks. Headed back into port right as the swells and wind were picking up.

The bigger coho had what I think is a juvenile sablefish in her stomach. The other one was stuffed with krill.