Depoe Bay May 4th

Looking at the ocean forecast, NOAA shows 1 foot wind waves and a 4 foot swell. Hopefully it holds and I will be fishing at my favorite place in the world! Anyone else?

I can't swing Friday, but will definitely make an appearance either Saturday or Sunday.  It's lining up to be the nicest weekend of the year, as long as the forecast holds.

Got a report of a few Chinook taken by a troller south of Newport last week.  Encouraging news!

Fri-Sat looking real smooth down here also, time to sharpen my fillet knife...

I will be at a Wounded Warrior Program fishing event on Saturday in Sweet Home. I think Friday will be the ticket for me.

I will be at a Wounded Warrior Program fishing event on Saturday in Sweet Home. I think Friday will be the ticket for me.

Be a good disciple and preach the gospel of kayak fishing. :-)

I might make Sunday. Have to see how much I’m feeling the drive Saturday evening, and how springer fishing treated me on Friday. No springers and lots of energy, and I’ll be there.

I preach the gospel of kayak fishing A LOT!

My Friday meeting was cancelled, so I may just take tomorrow off to do some fishing  .  I think I'm going to explore the area south of the launch this time.  Haven't been down that way yet.  Lingcod and flatfish will be my main targets, and I'll have salmon gear on hand in case I see any good sign.  I'll have my radio on 69.  Looking forward to some nice seas, finally!

Too hard to pass up. I,ve found these are good sign

I'll have salmon gear on hand in case I see any good sign.

What is a good salmon sign?  Seeing salmon jumping or seeing birds diving on bait?

Dave

Trident found some good ones  .

Seeing salmon busting on the surface is obviously a great sign, but that's not a typical occurrence.  Marking schools of bait is a big one.  Salmon typically follow the bait around, so if I mark any bait balls on the depthfinder that are beyond the rocks, I would want to drop salmon gear around them.  But I've also had success in places where I don't mark bait, such as color breaks and trash lines.  Dark/murky water signifying a plankton bloom will also convince me to get my troll on.

This would be Chinook fishing, which is spotty off the central coast in general and even more so this early in the year.  But sometimes long shots happen.  Intercepting a springer bound for the Siletz or the Umpqua, or stumbling onto some feeder Chinook harassing a bait ball, is not outside the realm of possibility.  And even if the salmon aren't around, I tend to always pick up something cool when rolling a herring near the bottom.  Lings, petrales, sand sole...I'll gladly take any of those  .

Springers didn’t love me today, and the wind up the gorge dies down on sat/sun for walleye. I suppose I’ll head to depoe tomorrow as well. Channel 69 it is.

Nomas, Clayman, what time are you guys planning on heading out? I know Clayman lives close, so he will probably be out early. I have a 2 hour drive and I would rather not be up at a time that starts with 4, this is supposed to be fun...... So maybe more like 730 or 8 for me.

I was just talking to wife about this, she said I have an addiction to fishing??? I replied with "yeah, so.....what's your point?"

I'll probably end up at the ramp around 0630, transit the hole by 0700.  Bee-line to the 1/2 mile buoy, then angle south and explore some new ground.  The forecast is painting a really nice picture wind-wise, I'd expect fishable conditions all day.  The only iffy part of the day would be that minus tide at 0955: the CG will sometimes put up a bar restriction on minus tides even if the swell isn't that big.  So if you show up to launch at 0900, you could end up waiting a few hours until bar restrictions are relaxed.

Looking forward to seeing you guys out there  .

Bummer. 9ish was sounding good to me (also a dang long commute). I’ll try to get there by 7.

Well, dang it, I guess I better hope I can wake up early. I have class until 9, get home around 930. Need to write a paper tonight, so 11. Woohoo, it will work! Hopefully see you around 7. I think I will head off to the north, I got some grid points from a friend I want to try out off the condos.

I am not going to worry about salmon, may try dragging some sound for a flattie, those are tasty.