Alsea bay. Mid September.

Been a while since I wrote a post.I'm going to be in waldport for a few days Sept 23-27 with family. Going to carve out a day to drop pots for dinner and troll for chinook while they soak. Never been there so I have a question on the bay depth. Cant find anything. How deep is the bay from inside the bar a ways to say a few hundred yards east of the bridge? Going with only 1 rod,a small selection of spinners, herring, and a few cannon balls.  Any first hand knowledge would be great.

There's a few holes out towards the jaws that divers have told me swallow crab pots that hit 40'. The rest of it your good with 30' of rope. Just don't let your traps soak in the channel east of the jaws for very long on the incoming tide or the shifting sand will bury them.

I like to fish up the bay further. Near the jaws is a salad bar. You'll spend more time cleaning your gear than you do fishing most days.

I think the easiest place to crab is east of the Hwy 101 bridge. It's mostly 10-20 feet deep over there and the current usually isn't ripping like at the Jaws. I see pots there all the time.

As for fishing, there are two "separate" areas to fish. The first one is down at the Jaws, which can be downright treacherous most days. I've trolled into the incoming tide just inside the Jaws in 20-30 FOW, and done alright.

The safer area to fish is where Drift Creek enters the bay, and upstream from there. It's shallow up there (6-12 FOW), so use light leads or a diver with a relatively long setback when you're trolling.

I've always wanted to fish the area around the bridge, but the abundant crab pots usually choke that option.

Thanks guys. My plan was to drop pots east of the bridge then troll east back and forth for a few hrs on both sides of the bridge. What I've read on Ifish is alot of the same as you say,close to the bridge is choked with pots. So I might drop pots and head east. Thanks again.

I was there this weekend for a wedding (but unfortunately no fishing) and got to look over the bay when the fog/smoke cleared enough to see anything.  Could hear the boats running in the bay, but couldn’t see much because the fog was so dense, but Sunday afternoon we could see 3 boats east of the bridge and saw a net wave once during the hour we could see them. I sure wished I had time to crab and fish there on Saturday and Sunday, the weather and tides were really mild.  Happy to give you more information if you wish.

BTW- The air there didn’t smell like smoke and was a lot better to breathe than in the Metro area!

I wasn't there this weekend, but there was a great bite on Saturday followed by a "meh" bite on Sunday. Both the Jaws and up towards Drift Creek are producing. Saturday seemed to be a good day in most of the estuaries.

I'm allergic to crab but if you are talking about salmon, I looked back at my old pictures. I haven't fished there in recent years but late September and early October is when I had some good days in the bay and tidewater.

Talkin' salmon. I picked up this guy on Alsea a couple weeks ago. 29.7 pounds after being bled and dead for a while  .

Talkin' salmon. I picked up this guy on Alsea a couple weeks ago. 29.7 pounds after being bled and dead for a while  .

sweet.

Talkin' salmon. I picked up this guy on Alsea a couple weeks ago. 29.7 pounds after being bled and dead for a while  .

Holy cow clayman, that is a nice fish!

Good one!

Ridiculous. 

I'm thinking it might be time to go.

That's an amazing Nook !!  Thanks for the silvery snapshot

Holy $#1& Clayman!  Nice one!

That's a picture of the month right there!