Woahink Lake 6/3/09

It was a beautiful morning here in Florence, and after taking the boys for a run at Woahink park, I decided to go back with the yak and try for some yellow perch. The lake was like glass as I paddled over to my favorite spot. There wasn't much to see on the fish finder, but I anchored anyway, and dropped my worm to the bottom in 50ft of water. About 10 minutes later, I started getting bites, and saw a school of fish near the bottom. Fishing was pretty consistent for the next couple of hours. Caught 10 perch, 3 trout, Cnr'd 2 trout, and lost a nice one at the boat. All in all a great mornings fishing. The best part was I had the lake to myself, not a water skier in site! I also managed to score a few AOTY points with a small Cutthroat. I caught a perch that matched my AOTY entry, but no upgrades.

 Nice catch  Dave, good eaters!

Nice bag o' death. I agree, looks like some good eating!

Z

Dave: Man, I love to catch and eat perch! How long are your guys in the photo?

The biggest trout was 13 inches, and gave great fight. The biggest perch was 10 1/2 inches, but very fat!

So Dave, How's the fishin on Siltcoos, Mercer, Sutton, Munsel, and the Siuslaw estuary?

I have fished all those lakes, but lately, I have been going to Woahink. It has the best perch fishing, and some nice trout. The trick on Woahink is to fish deep. Usually 40 to 70 feet.  Munsel is a good trout producer early in the season. I used to fish Mercer a lot for trout and bass, but haven't been out there much in the yak. I haven't done much yak fishing in the river, as dealing with the current and tides is an issue. I know there are a lot of greenling and perch out near the mouth, as I used to scuba dive there. I would like to try for some coho this fall, but some days there are so many PBers that it looks like Disnyland! I also want to try Siltcoos outlet and some of the back arms of the lake for salmon. There were a lot of nice fish landed there last year.

My college buds and I used to fish the Siuslaw estuary up near Midway for jacks and bluebacks in October, mostly trolling a smallish Doc Shelton and worm. This was back in the 1970s.
Dave: Do you ever get down to Tenmile? Lots of sassy panfish to be had there.

My wife and I spent a week on Tenmile lake back in the eighties. Caught lot's of nice bluegill, and lots of bass up to 16 inches. We rented a boat-in only house for $50 a day. It even had a washer and dryer and dishwasher! The best bass fishing was at dawn and dusk. It was a very memorable vacation, especially all the bats that came out at dusk!