10/29 Siuslaw coho..

took my kayak for a pedal/float from Mapleton to Florence today (14 miles), last sunny day before, fingers crossed, several days of rain...no herring today, just spinners...getting close to Cushman, fish on (medium pink bell spinner), nice strong fish, first few flashes had me thinking it might be a small king but after some serious tail dancing near the kayak, it was clearly a coho and worth using my last tag space for the river.  it made 2 runs and more jumps as I tried to net it, I kept firm during the acrobatics but still kept expecting the spinner to come loose and hit me in the head... 

then it went under the kayak just for fun but she was all worn out by then and ready for the net...ended up being a nice shiny hen that was almost 29"..cheers, roger

Nice fish! I have always wanted to do the drift from Mapleton to Florence, even just for fun. I hope to get back on the water soon. It's been a month and I am jonesing!

That's a good looking' coho!  Great job!

Better sign up for AOTY  in 2014. You'd be a  contender.

That Sounds like an awesome trip! How long did it take? Im thinking this could be a fun fish n chill gathering for NWKA 

Wes

That Sounds like an awesome trip! How long did it take? Im thinking this could be a fun fish n chill gathering for NWKA 

Wes

I did it on a fairly mild outgoing tide, started at 11am (about 30min after high), out at Florence marina at 5:15pm which was just past low slack tide.  not much rain recently so river current not too strong, most of the way I was getting 1.5mph for free, trolling I was moving 3mph, beating feet at 5.5mph part way, stopped to toss spinners a few times...and spend a while catching/bleeding/tagging the fish....

it is a rather good "high tide to low tide" float, you can shorten it to 8 miles by putting in at Tiernan.  most years in  early to mid-October, you would be passing through some nice concentrations of kings and lots of coho...not many boats out yesterday and no big guide sleds!

Awesome, Roger.   Nice Coho.