Buoy 10 Coho

After having no luck at Tillamook Bay and the Nehalem River on Friday, I awoke at 5:30 from my Barview camping spot this morning to try the big C again.  Launched at the Knappton dirt ramp and risked damaging my mirage drive and rudder on the submerged pilings.  In about an hour I had a fish on, but it came unbuttoned at the sight of the net.  Then went at least two and a half hours with no action at all.  Then the tide started bringing them in and nets started flying, except mine.  It was frustrating watching a PB get doubles twice in 15 minutes and I was only about 50 feet away.  Then I figured out what depth to fish and nailed about one per hour.  Several power boaters were cheering me on because we were talking earlier and they knew I was on the water for nearly four hours without a fish in the boat.  Anyway, it was an amazing day, even though the wind picked up a bit.  Thanks again Spot for that tip several years ago. 

Those are some really bright fish! I think they taste better the harder you work for them...
Congrats!

Way to get it done!

  You got-r-done there Waterman. That is a nice limit pictured.
  Did you hit any of the pilings on your way out ? After you have launched there a few times it isn't a bad launch just stay to the right and follow the obvious channel through until you get to open water. Then you be fishing,
  I have found that fishing there is all about the tides. You have to work them to your advantage or they will beat you up. And be fishing in the bottom 10' of water. I haven't seen any action up top.
  How was the fur-bag competition ? There always seems to be a bunch there everytime I fished there this year. Hope you didn't have too many hovering near by. They can be a real pain in the ass.
  I'm going to guess you got most of your hook-ups as the tide was changing. That seems to be prime time IMHO.
  Anyway--- glad to see that you scored and quite nicely at that. Just curious-- what was the tip from Spot ?

Nice! Well done Kyle!

Mark, I was lucky I didn't hit pilings on my way out, and pulled my drive and rudder coming in.  Yes the fish were caught within an hour of high slack.  There was one small
seal, that stayed out of the way.  Oh, and the tip from Spot can be found in this photo.  This setup got em all.  I've got to leave at least a little bit of mystery in my post.;-)

Great job, Kyle....nice to meet ya today. Sounds like you had the hot boat...had a buddy in a PB in the vicinity...1 fish for 3 people. The fish checker said 3 fish for 25 boats.I  got one 9 lber...I would have done better but there was a rookie in my vicinity flailing about, scaring all the fish away.

Ha!  Hopefully the rookie will chime in here.  Where was that fish checker?   The average near me was much higher.  I probably saw ten fish boated for six PB's near me.

Not sure, think they stayed below bridge. My hot bite was 9 -10 ish..released a couple, lost a couple...then high slack was dead for me. They must have been swimming by on their way to you. The rookie put on a mooching clinic at slack though...glad to see that in action...gonna try it out.

Oh, and the tip from Spot can be found in this photo.

That's a simple killer setup. I think I see three tips from Spot there... The more I fish, the more I realize how much that guy really knows.

Three tips?  OK, Spot told me about the Coyote spoon in the cop car pattern.  I guess the other two tips are just me being as simple as possible, or dumb luck.  I know it's risky tapping the bottom with this, so I go with a dropper in snaggy water.    But the fish were right on the bottom.  Also I usually have a snap swivel between the braid and the weight.

Damn Kyle, you have been putting a hurting on the salmon this fall. 

Kyle, nice job! You're getting a lot if salmon blood on that new Hobie. Are you fishing more now or just catching more fish? Those are beauties!

I lost my coyote cop car spoon to a rather vigorous coho in the ocean earlier this year.  That pattern works, but not as well as bait does (in the ocean at least)

Yeah Lee, I'm sort of trying an experiment this salmon season.  I'd prefer to not deal with bait, but it certainly would be easier now that I have the Hobie.  So far I've put five salmon in the freezer with this rig, including a 20+lb ocean caught chinook, which is better than any other year, so I'm sticking with it for now.  Michael, it's a combination of me learning how to fish for salmon, and the Hobie giving me more focus on the fishing and less on the paddling.  Plus, I have been going a bit more lately.  My wife and kids love salmon, so that helps me get out more.  Thanks for the kudos!