The fish are still in Astoria and the Buoy 10 surprises keep on coming! Chinook Retention ends on the 6th but the Coho encore is about to start.
The soft tides have shifted the bite away from the mouth of the river and up towards Tongue Point. That’s where we picked up this beautiful 20lb 8oz (yes I carry a scale) chinook yesterday. I hadn’t even finished showing everyone how to let line out when fishing 360’s. Bobby told me it counts as mooching since I hadn’t put the rod in the holder yet. I disagree since I had the kicker in gear.
Yesterday wasn’t the easiest day. We picked up all three of our Chinook up high, including one on a double. The coho were not wanting to play though. We only found one nice wild coho down low. We released it, and didn’t see any more. The rest of the day wasn’t a wash though.
Our second Buoy 10 surprise of the day was a pod of whales. They were feeding on a massive amount of bait between the entrances to Chinook and Ilwaco. They were probably responsible for taking the Coho off of the bite, but they were fun to watch. We had several flipper waves, and a full breach, leaping out of the water and crashing back down. We also were surrounded at one point by a pod of harbor porpoises. The sea lions were afraid of the whales and bunched up together as tight as they could. This is the first year I had seen that behavior, however they probably didn’t have anything to worry about since
I got to learn a lot about fishing in Idaho from my clients. I hope they enjoy the rest of their vacation in Newport. I’m trying to get them to come back for some fall crab and maybe some Summer ocean fishing next year!
Two days earlier I had the opportunity to take another couple of fun clients out. It was the dad’s birthday. For his birthday he wanted to enjoy a day on the water and have his son catch some fish. Check and check! Our first fish was a nice 12lb Chinook up by the tankers. This one had a surprise in store for us as well. It had a Pro Troll flasher, bumper, and a Brad’s Original Super Bait in “Mountain Doo” hanging from it’s mouth. That flasher was partly responsible for the salmon on the right in the picture above.
We kept the Buoy 10 surprise theme going . While searching out coho, I trolled a little too close to the rocks with a Brad’s Skinny Mini. We thought we might have had a double-hookup for a moment, or even a snag. Instead we hooked up with a nice black Rockfish. I may have to try trolling around the sunken jetty on the south side trying to find a few Rockfish.
I’m looking forward to what the next few weeks bring. The Coho should be pushing in and the crab are just starting to fill out. There will also be opportunities for Chinook and Coho above Puget Island to take advantage of. I hope to see some returning friends and new ones soon!
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