Siuslaw River, 9/30 and 10/1/2017

I fished the Siuslaw yesterday from a power boat, and today from my kayak.  There are a lot of wild coho in the estuary now, and they keep things entertaining even if you can’t keep them.  We lucked into a couple Chinook in the 12-13 pound range on Saturday on the boat, along with two CnR’ed coho and a couple missed bites.  We saw several boats hook fish in the Cushman area, and heard of a killer bite down by the jaws on both coho and Chinook.

This morning I fished the Cushman area from my kayak, and basically stayed on the Cushman hole all morning trolling against the incoming tide.  The coho were biting with a vengeance from 0700 to 0830: I CnR’ed two coho and had a couple other bites that I’m pretty sure were also coho.  Then at 0900, I got the bite I was looking for.  The rod doubled over in the holder and line peeled off the reel.  This was no coho!  After a killer battle with the fish zipping across the surface like a silver torpedo and pulling me in circles, I landed my PB kayak salmon at 39 inches.  I kept fishing til noon to see if I could fill my limit, but I never got a touch after that fish.  Things seemed very slow for the nearby boats, as I only saw one boat hook up near me all morning.

I caught all my fish both days pulling a cut-plug herring with a helmet, behind a green/pink Short Bus flasher.  I always thought flasher colors were more of a personal preference, but I’m changing my tune now because we fished several other flashers from the PB on Saturday, and five of our six bites that day came on the green+pink Short Bus.  I used the green+pink Short Bus exclusively today, and it produced five bites.

Feels great to finally have some good action on the estuaries this fall.  I figure it can only get better in the coming weeks!

Had to put my shades on!  Great fall chinook.  I love the coast this time of year.  Congratulations on the new PB.
 
How are the weeds down there?  Your set up looks like a great way to minimize fouling up.  Is that a custom rig?

Had to put my shades on!  Great fall chinook.  I love the coast this time of year.  Congratulations on the new PB.
 
How are the weeds down there?  Your set up looks like a great way to minimize fouling up.  Is that a custom rig?

Thanks!  The weeds were minimal today.  I was using a spreader with one of those "scent chambers" where you can add scent inside it.  But I almost never put scent in it.  I just like its bulk because when it is weedy, it'll almost always catch the weeds and keep my bait clean.  I use a dropper weight that's heavy enough to keep my gear almost vertical while I'm trolling (today I used an 8 ounce ball), which gives me better control with my rig and I can know exactly where it is in the water column.  That way I can raise and lower my rig to keep it following the bottom as I troll.  There are a lot of snags out there, so you need to always watch your depthfinder to ensure you don't troll into a downed tree or other obstruction.

excellent, most of the good 'bites' have been down at the mouth this year, nice to hear you got some action in one of the best spots up the river just a bit...cheers, roger

ps-  overall Siuslaw run has been very light this year, still some hope locally for some late surges of nooks but it is getting late for that...

"I use a dropper weight that's heavy enough to keep my gear almost vertical while I'm trolling (today I used an 8 ounce ball), which gives me better control with my rig and I can know exactly where it is in the water column.  That way I can raise and lower my rig to keep it following the bottom as I troll."

Words to troll by . Congrats on your PB Kayak King Chris!

Thanks Roger, Hugh!

ps-  overall Siuslaw run has been very light this year, still some hope locally for some late surges of nooks but it is getting late for that...

I hope they're late like everything else was this year (springers, summer steel, etc), but we'll see.  The forecasts were pretty dismal for this year's returns, but if I can score a few more for the season I'll be satisfied  .