Siltcoos Oct11, no coho.

took my dog and the PA12 over Saturday afternoon for ~4 hours of spin/trolling, caught a trout limit (4 SRC and a big dark rainbow), plus a couple perch, but no sign of coho in the lake yet, no jumps, rolls, or big fish on the sonar...there are coho in the river below the dam so they are coming...heading over today to get more SRC for the freezer...cheers, roger

I fished a couple of hours last Wed with only a couple of perch to show for my efforts. Maybe the rain that's supposed to come will help get some fish into the lake. Coming back from Siltcoos, I couldn't believe the number of boats on the river. The most crowded I've seen this year. Must still be a lot of coho around the bridge!

Hey Dave - I might be interested in giving the Siltcoos a try for salmon if things liven up.  Been looking to get into a salmon from the kayak.  If you don't mind, post up if fishing gets hot or PM me.  Been wanting to check out that river anyway and my wife might want to check it out too.  Good luck when you go -

Alan

ps thanks for riding the roller coaster with me at Sunset Bay AOTD 2014!  That was fun!

I spent Sunday on the lake in quiet solitude with the ducks and loons; saw just a couple other boats in 5 hours!  4 more fish in the kill bag (1SRC, 15" fat rainbow, 2 big perch) but no coho in the lake yet. 

took a pedal down the river to the deadline (101 bridge), I met two ladies that kayaked up the river and crossed the dam, they commented on how many fish there were jumping and rolling below the dam and they did not see a single one above it....so they are stacked up and waiting for the rain...cheers, roger

Alan, the Siuslaw river has been hot for coho and nooks for the last month. Siltcoos lake opened for coho on the 1st, but so far no fish getting past the dam. Hopefully they will open the dam soon so the fish can continue their journey. Journey into my freezer that is!

Hey Dave - I might be interested in giving the Siltcoos a try for salmon if things liven up.  Been looking to get into a salmon from the kayak.  If you don't mind, post up if fishing gets hot or PM me.  Been wanting to check out that river anyway and my wife might want to check it out too.  Good luck when you go -

Alan

ps thanks for riding the roller coaster with me at Sunset Bay AOTD 2014!  That was fun!

Alan-  if you have not been here before, Siltcoos is a fantastic place to coho fish from a kayak or small boat with just a few items to be aware of.

first the good, we catch all our coho near the Lane County West Lake Launch ($4/day or $40 annual pass), from the outlet river to N. end of Booth Island, a half mile or so of shoreline.  you can cast spinners into the shallows (3') and out into the deeper (12') water, or troll near the shoreline, spinners or small plugs...no concerns about wind or waves or weather along the W. side of the lake and never very far from the launch...you can go further, down either side of Booth Island if you want but it isn't necessary to find coho (if they are there...)

the other two locations, where most the coho are actually caught, are top of Maple Creek and Fiddle Creek arms, you can drive around the back of the lake to either of these and avoid a long pedal/paddle across the lake (which can get seriously choppy if the wind comes up).  If coho are there, lots of PB will be trolling around these arms but it never gets too crowded...

now the bad, the coho come into the lake in surges, some days they are all over, others nothing.  it depends on outlet flow, there is a spillway dam W. of 101 bridge with a fish ladder and kayak/canoe portage slide, the coho burps usually come after big rain and especially if they increase the spillway opening (to bring down the lake level).  the coho will trickle in over the ladder but the fun is to be there during a burp, usually means several days of hot fishing.

now the regs.:  there are no hatchery coho in the lake, one from the small Siuslaw STEP program probably wanders in ever 5 years or so....and it is not open for chinook or steelhead, only wild coho, and it is 1 adult and 1 jack per day, plus the normal 5 trout (mostly SRC (10" to 16"), a few big holdover rainbows from June plantings).  there are perch and a few smallmouth bass.  The zone regs. are that you must catch your jack and trout first, once you tag an adult coho, you cannot fish for or retain anymore trout or your jack.  you can continue to fish for perch and bass (the perch are delicious and 7-8").   

so the takeaway is be prepared for your fishing day to end quickly if you tag a nice adult right away.  or if the day looks really hot, lots of coho jumping and rolling, you can release the first few you hook and try for those wonderful 19.5" jacks and then that big adult.  you can run over to the Siuslaw and keep fishing for a Chinook or rare STEP hatchery coho to finish your 2 salmon daily limit but cannot tag a second wild coho on the same day.

the 8 Siltcoos adults my wife and I have tagged the last few years have ranged from 27" (8#) to 31" (13#).   that is the sweet spot of the run, there are some bigger, 16# is not uncommon, that seem to come in later in the run, we try to release anything in the 21" to 25" range which with spinners is usually easy to do in the water....Blue Fox #4 size, Worden's inline 1/2oz PinkPanther has been slaying the SRC (BiMart has them), or our local guys (North Country Lures and Flies) pink or orange bell hootchie, orange, pink, or chartreuse strike master, both in medium size....lots of people troll little plugs in the normal coho colors...

hope to see you out there, cheers, roger

no good news yet, as of noon Oct15, getting lots of rain but water level constant and I observed no sign of fish.

If only we knew someone that works for IP that could tip us off when the dam is opened! I talked to a friend yesterday that lives on the outlet, and she hasn't seen any fish yet. It doesn't look like any are getting over the fish ladder either.

If only we knew someone that works for IP that could tip us off when the dam is opened!

yeah, that would be cool...best I can do is watch the water level at the West Lake Launch, since Oct.1, it has been dead steady, right at some excess cement flashing on the walking ramp that leads to the launch dock.  that tells me the dam setting has not changed since Oct1.  the first day that I see it has dropped by 6" or even better, a foot below that, I will know the dam spillway has been lowered, and soon after that it should be "fish ON!"...roger

Pretty sure I'm ready to listen to Roger on when the Siltcoos is ready for action.  I definitely want to do some kayaking on the Siltcoos or the Siuslaw soon...I'll have to look you up, RogerDodger. 

Pretty sure I'm ready to listen to Roger on when the Siltcoos is ready for action.  I definitely want to do some kayaking on the Siltcoos or the Siuslaw soon...I'll have to look you up, RogerDodger.

I am just heading out on the Siuslaw on a friends PB, I will post an update here tonight on what we find in the water near Florence after all the rain this week...cheers, roger

Rain? You got rain? We had just over a tenth here on the high desert ...

Rain? You got rain? We had just over a tenth here on the high desert ...

yep, we got over an inch of rain here in Florence between Monday night and Wednesday afternoon...need a couple inches more next week...

back to fishing, the Siuslaw is still full of coho and they are easy to catch but the chinook are spread out thin.  They are still here and I found one today, 34" hen that I had to fight a pair of seals for but I won and they lost. 

over at Siltcoos, still zero sign of coho in the lake.  more rain coming early next week, I'll be checking on the water level and such pretty much daily until the fish arrive, then we will be out in our Hobie's catching them!  cheers, roger

Nice nook! looks like a seal pre-bonked it for you!

Wow, that's a beauty of a salmon!  Great Job winning the bounty from the seals.