Depoe Bay Salmon Reports - 2019

I went back Monday and my lack of ocean salmon fishing experience did not help (Sunday was my first ocean salmon fishing ever).  Misty light rain Monday but still fairly smooth ocean at 6am, felt like a perfect day for salmon to be on the bite.  I start trolling at 60' on my way out towards the bouy, 5 minutes later I'm releasing a wild coho by the kayak (without touching it), I'm guessing 22" fish, and thinking this is going to be a great day.  Plus I see several smallish (like 18"-20") coho jump near me, still about 60' of water.  At this point, I'm thinking of grabbing my spinning rod and working the top water with a spinner.  Then I reconsider, what if it's a bunch of wild fish, nothing good there.  So I keep trolling out to 110' and work the area from there to 130' and there's nothing going on.  2 hours later, I move in to bottom fish the north reef area, released an undersize ling and cabby, kept a 3.5# black, then decide to troll a spinner at 60' and ended up with a 4.5# black rockfish (that I thought sure was a coho until I saw it.)      

wind and waves picked up, great being close to some whales, but just never did find any salmon (or bait balls and the only groups of murres were flying off in search of food).  the guy on a Revo that I entered Depot Bay with about 11am said he caught both his salmon just to the north near Government Pt.

my ocean salmon newbie questions:

-was it a mistake to pass up the salmon I encountered on the way out?

-does it make sense that many of the salmon that were out there last week (and on the bite), have moved north looking for a better food supply?

-is it normally better to focus on the Gov. Pt. area to the north?   

cheers, roger

On Friday, we caught them in about 80- 120 feet of water.  We went out to 160, the temp was almost 61 degrees and we got no bites, so we went back to the cooler water in the 80 to 120 foot zone and caught fish again.  All my fish were caught in sub 60 degree water which was nice because i didn't have to go out past the whistle buoy to find fish.  Also, when you see them jump, troll around in that area.  Several take downs, and fish I actually caught came when I saw someone else hook up and I did a wide loop around them.  Jed and SamM are good guys to circle around.    Don't leave fish to find fish. Isn't that how the saying goes?

Picked up this coho at 135 ft. Released a wild at 165. Fish were scattered. Went out to 200 ft with no more luck. Also played in the shallows with no luck.

Picked up this coho at 135 ft. Released a wild at 165. Fish were scattered. Went out to 200 ft with no more luck. Also played in the shallows with no luck.

nice.  that stringy clear and red/brown jellyfish gunk sure was a pain in the arse...

Yes, the jellyfish were intense.  I have never seen that many.  I saw one that was 2.5 feet across and probably 10ft long.

Yes, the jellyfish were intense.  I have never seen that many.  I saw one that was 2.5 feet across and probably 10ft long.

Yikes! Definitely not a day I'd want to go for a swim out there!

I've been stung a few times by man-o-war and the Hawaiian box jelly. The box jellies are the worst - not nearly as bad as the Aussie box jellies but they still pack quite a punch. The last time I got stung by one of those, I had severe abdominal cramps due to some kind of allergic reaction. My friend ended up driving me to the ER where they had to give me a shot of adrenaline.

After seeing the buoy readings this morning, I took a sick day from work to give Depoe the ol' college try. I was in CA all last week and hadn't been out since ORC, but I'd heard stories of a whole lot of brown and cold water (48-51 degrees). Sure enough, it was brown and cold for about as far as I was willing to travel west. Ran into Nomas OTW, and we worked together to try and find a pattern. Trolled all the way out to 200 feet, then back in and along the 130 contour for a bit. Jellies were thick out past 170. My one and only bite for the day came on the 130 contour, watermelon Brad's cut plug with 50 feet of line out. Luckily for me, it was a decent keeper coho. Nomas released a couple wilds. Marked a couple small bait balls out there, but for the most part, everything seemed real scattered.

If the ocean turns crummy this weekend, I won't be heartbroken over it. We need that chilly brown water to get blown outta here.

After seeing the buoy readings this morning, I took a sick day from work to give Depoe the ol' college try. I was in CA all last week and hadn't been out since ORC, but I'd heard stories of a whole lot of brown and cold water (48-51 degrees). Sure enough, it was brown and cold for about as far as I was willing to travel west. Ran into Nomas OTW, and we worked together to try and find a pattern. Trolled all the way out to 200 feet, then back in and along the 130 contour for a bit. Jellies were thick out past 170. My one and only bite for the day came on the 130 contour, watermelon Brad's cut plug with 50 feet of line out. Luckily for me, it was a decent keeper coho. Nomas released a couple wilds. Marked a couple small bait balls out there, but for the most part, everything seemed real scattered.

If the ocean turns crummy this weekend, I won't be heartbroken over it. We need that chilly brown water to get blown outta here.

This is how it went for Don me and one other that we ran into otw (he told us his name but it’ll take me a couple times before I can remember😑) last weekend. It was very scattered. We went out to 200’ also, and that is where Don and me eventually got one keeper each. We fished hard the rest of the day with a couple scattered bites but no keepers. Don did land a second keeper close to the bouy on the way back in. I hear PC is still doing ok. Could be worth taking a short drive north. Unfortunately I’ll be stuck at a family reunion with the wife’s extended fam this weekend and won’t get to find out. 😢
Congrats on all those Calibut! That must have been a great time once again.

You guys ran into James, he's a hydrologist and we work in the same office. I got him hooked on kayak fishing this year  . I'll probably sit this weekend out. Need to do some kayak mods and yard work. The bite will turn back on soon enough  .

Oh, what I would give to have a solid run of Calibuts in Yaquina Bay! Man those things are fun!

A fresh batch of coho showed up close to port early this week. My friend James found them Sunday afternoon tight to and on top of the reef between the bay and Government Point, 60 to 80 FOW. We took Tuesday off from work to give it a shot before the winds kicked things up again.
   
Was the action as great as it was a month ago? No, but it was good enough. We each had around a dozen take-downs over a few hours. We spotted several fish finning and splashing on the surface, chasing tiny 1-inch long herring. I had bites trolling a Brad’s Cut Plug just about anywhere I put it in the water column, though I generally had the most bites at 10 pulls. Had a hard time connecting on the fish, but I eventually landed two of them. Just so happened that they were both clipped, and I was done by 0930. James picked up a solid 7-8 pound hatchery fish early, but then released four wild coho in a row while trying for his second hatchery. While he continued trolling around the reef, I played around with the rockfish on light spinning gear. Landed probably thirty blacks and a couple handsome kelp greenling on a jigging spoon. The salmon bite died off around 1100.

Weekend forecast looks iffy at best, but if it improves, I may sneak out there again Sunday. Otherwise, I’m eyeing the “anything goes” season that starts at the end of the month. Some of the wild coho James released on Tuesday were chunkers!

Nice work and thanks for the detailed report!

great reports clayman, thanks.