Nestucca Report Oct 19

After a beautiful, but fruitless late afternoon/evening of fishing in Nehalem Bay, I ventured south to Nestucca Bay this morning and caught the last 2 or 3 hours of incoming tide.  Launched at Fishers Point which is near the guard rail hole.  Headed toward the mouth and immediately got hit right in front of the bankies, but did not stick.  Paddled a little further and it was game on.  Landed and released a nice high teens nook.  It was not dark, but well on its way to spawn.  A little karma never hurts.  Immediately hooked up again, and slid back toward a guide boat that had hooked up right after me.  Not really their fault, but I had to do some maneuvering while fighting the nook to avoid colliding with them.  It got off, but I still felt good about the chances for another fish.

Collected my gear and hooked up again; this time landing a nice wild coho that went 10 lbs on the scale.  Looked so much like another nook I was not sure until I got it in the net that it was a coho.  Luckily the Nestucca allows a coho on Sunday and Monday, and I had not gotten my wild north coast coho yet.  These fish seem like better table fare for the most part.

Went on to fight and lose at the net, my biggest nook to date.  Easily 25+.  After about a 10 minute fight I tried to horse it a bit into the net.  Normally, I would have taken my time, but there was an anchored boat downstream casting spinners that I needed to avoid.

All in all a fantastic morning in the bay.  Lots of fish around.  Definitely fun seeing the guide boat near me watching me hook up again and again wasting all that bait.  The clients were cool and appreciated the kayak effort.  Other than this guide boat there were only one or two other boats so it was a really nice experience.  Especially after having driven down the coast this morning and seeing so many boats at the ghost hole.

Great opportunity for anyone looking for a salmon tomorrow or in the next few days.  Coho is open on Mondays as well.  I used a blue fox spinner for all fish hooked.   20 feet on the line counter, 2oz weight.  Good luck!

Nice fish!  Beautiful filet too.  Gotta start doing more river salmon fishing.  Thanks -

Alan

Wow, that red flesh is burning my retinas.  Nice job on the fillet work!  Congrats on a nice fish.