Bouy 10 to Astoria report for Mon. 17th ..... Run timing parameters?

[Deleted User]

In years past I haven't fished the lower estuary to Bouy 10 after Labor Day. I usually switched over to T-Bay and other areas after that. But I went today (Mon.) with a couple friends and it was the slowest I've ever seen it! We fished the upper half of the tide from about 10:30 to 3:00 in the Warrenton to bouy 20 area and we only hooked one fish on a Coyote spoon, that came off. We saw no others hooked by several boaters in our area. We asked a couple guys that come in from Bouy 10 how it was and they said only about a dozen boats out there and only saw 4 fish caught. Tackle Time was not carrying any fresh herring and said the fishing had been real slow the previous 2 days also. With so many fish predicted this year and the Columbia cooling down a bit I am quite suprised getting skunked out there today. I recall hearing in some years past about good fishing out there thru most of September. What is the normal time parameters of the tail end of the Columbia estuary fall salmon run? When's the small Youngs Bay run near Astoria? And whazzup with this fishery right now? Thanks.

RT

[cureless]

I have the same questions? We went out last Friday and only hooked three fish for half day fishing. Sure looked like its done?

[hound]

i think a good chunk of them are still out in the ocean..i wish i would've gone accross the bar saturday..but being by myself and it being so foggy i decided not to...i did manage to get 3 keepers and released 1 native right around buoy 10 & 12...

come on rains!!!!

[Richter]

RT,

In past years, we have had good success up until around the 10th of October. I'm really suprised it has dropped off so drastically already. I couldn't make it down there last weekend, but a buddy of mine did. If there are fish around he will sniff them out and put the hurt on them. He fished All Day Sunday. Three Rods, Two Bites, One fish in the box. I can't believe we won't see more fish come. Unfortuantely, it may not be until we get a shot of rain and then they might just blast through and the lower river fishing will be over.

Rich

[RIPPLE]

I fished Friday with four others from above the bridge to the church. We hooked five and landed Four. All were nice sized clipped coho. We did'nt get out till about 8:30 a.m. due to fog. It definitly seemed slower to me, I was lucky enough to get a guided trip and we seemed to be doing better than most.
images/icons/grin.gif RIPPLE images/icons/grin.gif

[Stz ll]

There should be still fish to come (I hope). The last real good year for salmon fishing at buoy 10 was about 10 years ago. That year we fished buoy 10 every weekend thru the end of October and limited out every trip til that time. The only reason we stopped was that was when the season closed.

[Stz ll]

The fun part of this was while everyone was at Tillamook Bay chasing that elusive Chinook. We were limiting (3 per person) on silvers averaging about 15 pounds. The catch rate at Tillamook was something like one fish for every 8 or 10 rods.

[fishbait]

In past years this fishery has held up unitl well into Oct. I believe two things are affecting the fishery>

1. Last week some very high numbers of fish moved up the river. This will reduce the number of fish in the estuary.

2. The reason that there is no fresh hearing is the same reason that there are not alot of fish. The bait has moved off shore for awahile and the fish followed. Be patient, they will return

[Eric]

Besides fishing buoy 10 myself, we fish the ocean up here out of westport WA. My neighbor went out of westport yesterday and they limited out on nice silvers 12 miles offshore. I suspect many of those fish are columbia fish though, undoubtedly some are headed for grays harbor.

Don't know if I'd get too bummed yet. You could have just had the misfortune of hitting a lull in the run for a week. I know the week previous we did very well down there.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it pick up again with the next rain.

[wiser]

Tides were pretty flat last week. Not much changfe between high and low means fewer fish coming in. Very little rain has fallen to entice fish into the river. lots of bait above the bridge means the fish have lots to eat. They have been in the river a little longer now, so their urge to eat isn't as strong. A buddy and I each had our sleds down there last week. Tuesday two people caught 7 keepers, Wednesday four of us caught 14 keepers and Thursday two of us caught 6 keepers. Twenty-seven out of a possible 32 wasn't bad. Also released numerous natives and had several long distance releases. I think we are all getting a little spoiled. We fished mostly above the bridge on the Washington side.
I think the bit will improve after a few good tides, especially if we get some rain.

[AngleThis]

I too believe many fish are still out in the ocean. We got a huge early run, with very little rain, predominantly hatchery fish. I would not be at all suprised if the bult of the natives are waiting for rain. You can test my theory by fishing bouy 1. I slaughtered them there three weeks ago and I do not believe that many fish could have gotten half way up the river already wihout rain. If the seas are calm, that is where I will be this weekend.

[Trick]

The fish are certainly heading upstream. I banged a couple nice silvers on one of the side channels. I didn't realize the limit was changed to four above the bridge and I stopped after an hour or two of fishing. Had a few toss the hooks and missed a few light biters. One hen was in the 15lb. range.

Yeah, I think you'll see plenty more pushing in soon.

[CATCH AND EAT]

Ok, Ok, RT forget the river, get out to the ocean first then come in and get your river fish. Fish 4 of us on saturday on the Cindy Lou (my 23' Trophy). Hit the ocean as so as the fog let up a little. Started at bouy 4. No real luck there. As we approached bouy 2 a few hits. then we move south of 2 and started womping on the fishies.

We ended up about 5 miles south of 2 and there were plenty of fish there. Largest of the day around 15#'s smallest 4#'s. Saw mr. blue fin shark again but did not bother our stuff this time.

Oh yeah, Uncle Bob fished with me again. He could only get the big boys for some reason. He had one fish that won a tug of war with him though. Seems the fish took a liking to his rod and reel combo that he was using and wanted it for himself. By by rod and reel into the salty abisse. Oh well he probably only caught about 2 or 300 fish on it. Sorry Bob, had to tell on ya.

It was a little bumpy in the south area but the fish were there. They were also reported thick at the CR bouy.

One thing I was thankful for was my gps, chart plotter and compass. Yeah, I have radar but I did not use it. The fog really set in on us and visability was about a quarter of a mile.

Reports at the dock were not stellar for most boats. A buddy of mine fished only in the river above the A jetty. Two people, five fish. Not bad for just an average year. Heck, I remember when 1 fish was a good day. We did limit our boat with 8 out 8 in (bouy 10 to 14)

Pro-cure herring brine. Mikes herring juice just before dunking in the water. We ran strictly cut plug.

Sorry RT, we did not try any pink worms though. Maybe next time. images/icons/grin.gif

Spooled team will be #1 no doubt about it.

[Deleted User]

Thanks much for the info guys. Ron has his Sea Ray moored at Warrenton thru Sept. and asked me after the skunk if he should move it now up to Garibaldi for the bubble fishery. I told him I would post about this because I've never fished the estuary after Labor Day. He will be glad to hear more fish are on the way. ... BTW >>>

We had 2 seals start following us fairly early on and stayed with us for at least a couple hours! Yelling at them did no good. This tells me they were scratching to find fish in that area too. They are figuring out that following sportfisher boats around out there can make for an easier meal. Well, not behind some doughball's boats images/icons/wink.gif - but they haven't figured who to follow; yet. >>>

Hey Bernie, don't give up on "The Worm" just because the dumb NF fish aren't nuts about them. You would have doubled your catch if you knew how to use them out in the ocean images/icons/grin.gif . BTW, Troy told me he has hired a high security pink worm check point before he will let me near his boat for the F III. images/icons/rolleyes.gif

RT

[ 09-19-2001: Message edited by: RT ]