2018 Depoe Bay coho reports

In a word: sloooow.  I never had a touch today.  Trolled all the way out to 170 feet, then back to 80, then back to 160, etc.  Just couldn't find any good rips, and the bait was almost nonexistent.  By the time I left at 1400, the parking lot was still full of trailers and the cleaning station was empty, giving me the impression that the bite sucked for everyone today.

Buddy of mine picked up a few fish out of Newport at the 160 foot contour.  I may just hop on a boat and do that tomorrow.  Give my legs a break after all that trolling!

Went from Fogarty Creek almost to the Siletz with a herring down deep looking for a blackmouth. Then pulled a hoochie back. Got one hit in 130 as I was reeling up for a bait check. I got spooked and jerked it right out of his mouth. Was not marking many fish.

I'm headed up to the casino golf course bar in LC and watch the UFC ppv, nurse a beer and contemplate a new plan for tomorrow. This card is sick, I can't wait. Alvarez vs Poirer 2, Aldo vs Stephens, and Joanna vs The Tiny Tornado. I'll be in the back by the pool tables if anyone wants to come talk story.

Edit: Heard my neighbor lost a nice one up the Siletz today. Maybe that's  tomorrow's ticket. Instead of pounding the ocean, let them come to me?

PC has been consistently productive I just wish I could make it out more this year. My buddy released a few native coho early yesterday, then trolled a grass line south of the rock and picked up a 20+lb hatchery nook. There are fish out there.

There were fish at depoe today. Went 5 for 7 with two keepers - all coho - between 7 a.m. and noon. 3 more drivebys, as well.

130-150 fow, 10 oz lead, 62 ft of line out (braid), triangle flasher with brads cut plug.....haha like that'll ever work this well again.

After that I pedaled 5 miles NW to a spot navionics thought had good structure. Pretty anticlimactic - not much structure and only caught sharks....oh, and exercise.

Fish checker saw quite a few coho come in, but no chinook. Pics are on my go pro, so I'll post em when I'm home tomorrow.

Was depoe fogged in? PC was bad until around 10:30/11.

It was pretty foggy, lifted occasionally before the wind started. 
Makes for some weird optics. 
Props to nomas for trying to dial me in on the coho.

Fog sat back down after sorta half lifting for maybe an hour middle of the day. I headed in around 4:30 and it was back down to a couple hundred yards visibility.

I got one bite on Saturday but failed to get it to the boat. At the fish checking station they were being caught at 200ft the farthest we went was 160 and about 3 miles off shore. Hoping they are a tad closer the next time I head out.

First off: BIG props to Nomas for yesterday's report, and for showing me "the zone" this morning out of Depoe.  I was almost gonna throw in the towel altogether after a weekend of sucking, but your report made me rally.

There was a sweet trash and color line straight out from the hole at about the 130 foot contour.  We trolled up and down the line with Brads Cut Plugs @ 30 pulls.  Kinda deep for coho, but I couldn't get a touch any shallower.  Anyway, I saw Nomas land and release three wild coho over the course of the morning.  While we fished together, I went 1 for 2, releasing a wild coho.  At 1100, right as Nomas was leaving, I hooked up on a hatchery coho.  Thirty minutes later, I had a HUGE takedown.  The big headshakes told me this was a Chinook.  Great battler with a lot of dives and runs.  So in the end, I went 3 for 4 before noon.  Great day.  Thanks again Nomas!

Nice!  Glad you finally hit paydirt.  You sure put in the time for it this weekend.

That's terrific, Clayman! I'm stoked to hear about the chinook - that's a hell of a fish, and I appreciated the company. My legs were pretty worn-out, so it kept me fishing.

Pic from yesterday:

Dang, check out the belly on that coho!  It's amazing to see the difference in condition of this year's coho versus the 2017 cohort.  A lot of fat, big fish that'll only grow bigger as the summer progresses.

What did your fish have in its belly?  My coho was full of crab larvae.  The Chinook was full of squid.  Interesting, given that they were both hanging in the same color/trash line yet they were eating completely different food items.

After pedaling all those miles out to see if the navionics map was right about some potential halibut structure, I was wrecked by the time I got to the cleaning station. Didn’t end up looking, but I definitely didn’t see any squid.

Nomas and I gave it the old college try yesterday.  It was one of those "grinding" types of days, with scattered bait and some poorly defined slicks and trash lines.  Early in the morning, the water right in front of the reef looked good: 55 degrees, brown, lots of bait.  A few boats worked the area with me, but I only saw one net fly.  Later in the day, we fished as far west as the 140 foot contour, but the water was 58+ degrees and relatively clear--in other words, a desert for salmon.  The best water seemed to be around the 80-100 foot contour.

After a few drive-bys in the morning, my rod finally doubled over just before noon as I trolled a Brad's Cut Plug @30 pulls.  Big fish that lit me up with some great runs.  The hook fell out of her mouth just as I scooped her with the net.  A 19 pound Chinook is a helluva by-catch when looking for coho!  Fish checker at the ramp said it was the only Chinook he'd seen yesterday.

Thanks for fishing with me Nomas, it can be tough to keep up the grind on days like yesterday if you're out there solo.  This season's been a weird one so far, with a hot bite one day followed by a scratchy one the next.  Conditions look great today, hope some folks are out there capitalizing on it!

Fished from about 0630 to 1100 today.  It was what I'd call "Backwards Day": conditions were the opposite of the summer norm, with a stiff south wind and a strong south-to-north current.  However, the water temps were in the low 50s all morning and there was a decent amount of bait on the sonar.  I trolled from in front of the reef out to about the 120 contour.  There was a fleet of boats out around the 150-160 contour, but I didn't see many nets fly and they eventually scattered across the horizon looking for fish.

As for my success: picked up a wild coho on the Brad's cut plug @ 80 contour, a hatchery coho @ the 90 contour, and a beefy 10+ pound wild coho at the 80 contour again.  First two fish were at 20 pulls, third was at 15.  The south wind kicked up a lot of chop later in the morning, and while I could've stuck it out, I was fine with not pushing things too hard this morning.  Saw a few kayaks out bottomfishing.  ODFW checker said the bite was generally slow for most, except for one guide sled that scored eight hatchery coho for five clients (pretty sure I saw that sled out fishing around the 140, NW of port).

Long-range forecast ain't looking great right now, so I may chase fall Chinook in one of the bays next weekend instead.

Nice one. Fished out of Hammond for the afternoon high tide. One takedown then nada. Only saw 3 fish caught for who knows how many boats....lots of boats.