Pedaddling Nehalem Bay for Coho.

It has been a while since I published a trip report, so here it goes:

I met up with Sinker and his girlfriend at Nehalem Bay last Friday trying to sneak a fishing trip in during the week.  I figured it doesn't count for fishing if I would have been working had I not been fishing.  Am I right? Well, according to some people, it did count.  Actually, one person in particular thought it counted and I am scared of her so I will not mention my wife's name so she doesn't know I am talking about her if she sees this.

Anyways, about five minutes into this gorgeous Friday morning with coho jumping everywhere, I heard that horrible noise of a spring launching inside of my kayak followed very rapidly by some really loose steering. So loose in fact, that the rudder control handle was freely turning in any direction I wanted it to as I sat staring at it in my hand while not attached to anything.  At least this time I had a paddle.  Last time I had it happen, I had let one of the HOW participants use my paddle.  I am sure it was comical for some to watch me pedal in circles trying to get back to shore.

After not being able to repair it onshore, I just decided to pedaddle my way around the bay and actually caught a few coho while I was at it.  Unfortunately, my GoPro died before I caught the one I got to bring home with me.  Also, I had gutted it before someone at the parking lot offered to take my picture with it.  That is why its head looks a little big for the body.  The best part about this fish is I caught it about 150 yards from the ramp after I decided to quit for the day and was just dragging my spinner through the water back to the shore.

I missed the take down on the first one with the GoPro I forgot to turn it on because I was distracted by Erik's GF who was busy fighting her first one at the same time.

Enjoy my hastily edited video.  Or not.  It is up to you. 

Way to keep the faith & push through those hiccups in your equipment that would have otherwise ended a good day of fishin. Nice fish & great fight!
Hugh

Excellent job of hanging in there and getting in a full day of fishing despite the rudder issues. Those wild fish sure do challenge you...

Very Nice! Looks like this is turning out to be a decent salmon year for you.
BTW - Which one is more aggravating, losing cameras or rudder handles?

Thank you for the great report.  It sounds like you had a great day, despite the equipment challenges. 

I've never fished Nehalem Bay, only upriver.  Would you mind sharing a general idea of where to launch, and some thoughts on where to troll, or is it a simple as follow the powerboats?

Thanks again for sharing.

Thank you for the great report.  It sounds like you had a great day, despite the equipment challenges. 

I've never fished Nehalem Bay, only upriver.  Would you mind sharing a general idea of where to launch, and some thoughts on where to troll, or is it a simple as follow the powerboats?

Thanks again for sharing.

Nehalem Bay State Park has a nice launch and clean bathroom (the latter is always important).  In general, follow the powerboats and troll along the channels which are conveniently marked with red and green channel marker buoys.  That being said, in three trips there this year with a total of 11 fish landed, only four were caught in the channels.  The rest were caught in the flats across the bay from the launch.  Ndogg and Wobbler had already limited out during the HOW trip (9/27/2014) and they saw hundreds jumping over there from the ramp, so they radioed us to head across.  I basically trolled as fast as I could comfortably go into the outgoing tide in 11-12 feet of water with 24 feet of line out and caught 5 fish in about 30 minutes then another about 20 minutes after those, and hooked and lost one a little after that one.  All were wild (not sure about the lost one) and I was tired so I called it a day. Also, I had caught one earlier in the day, so I had some salmon to bring home.

Very Nice! Looks like this is turning out to be a decent salmon year for you.
BTW - Which one is more aggravating, losing cameras or rudder handles?

Cameras cost more and once the card had pictures of the kids on it my wife had not had a chance to download.  That seems to come up every now and then.  I expect it will until the day I die.   Luckily in both cases, I did not loose the rudder handle and I modified it now so I should not have to worry any more.

Here is the brass insert that has the set screw that tightens into a depression in the rudder control shaft (2010 Adventure). It was the weak point and it worked loose. The damage to it was posthumous. In my haste and anger I tried a not so good method of repair which is why it failed the second time.


I drilled the hole all the way through the shaft and made the hole a little bigger on the handle so a stainless steel screw could go through one side of the handle,  the shaft, and then screw into the other side of the handle.






Top view showing screw barely starting to poke though the opposite side. I still need to clean it up a bit.


I know the smart thing to do would have been to order a knew handle, but I thought I was heading to Tillamook Bay the next day, so what was a boy to do? I think it will hold up fine. If not, there is always more pedaddling that can be done.

Thanks for the advice on where to go.  I may be headed that way this weekend.  I haven't checked the regs yet, but I heard that now there are some days when wild coho are ok to harvest, and some days that it's catch and release?

Not sure on that either.  However, you only get one wild per year ( Coho) in Tillamook County.  Unless they changed the regs.   So don't bonk that first wild 22 inch coho unless you are done in Tillamook County for the year. 

Here are the Coastal Regs (Northwestern zone). http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/fishing/docs/2014_coho_fisheries.pdf

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/fishing/docs/2014_Chinook_Fisheries.pdf