View Full Version : Florence Area Lakes reports?
Billfisher
10-30-2009, 05:58 PM
Any recent reports from Siltcoos, Takenitch, Mercer?
Fish_N_Russ
10-31-2009, 08:00 AM
Theres silvers in both Tak and Siltcoos from the recent heavy rains over here, most people are probably concentrating on those now :)
Any recent reports from Siltcoos, Takenitch, Mercer?
You're posting on the bass and panfish page so I'm assuming you're looking for info on bass and panfish! We spent three weeks mid September through the first week of October at Siltcoos. Siltcoos is gone as a perch and bass lake for now, it still has a fair number of trout though and most likely, IMO, will come back in a few years.
Talking to the folks at Mercer Lake lodge the trouting is fine, perch are real small and bass are hard to catch/fool for the avearge/below average basser, as usual in the clear water.
Woahink, we figured, this year would have been the BOMB, with last years decent sized perch being even BIGGER! We were way wrong, we caught very few jumbos and alot of too small to keep(ers). When they come up from 50' thier stomachs are in thier mouths making them a tough release. We bagged fishing there after three trys.
Tahkenitch seemed to be carpeted with perch! Every where we fished there were perch. Sometimes they were too small and we needed to move around to find larger. Sometimes we only needed to stay in place for awhile and the larger perch would come in. If fishing in the deeper(19'-22') water wouldn't pay, fishing over the weeds, or weed edges, would bring in some better fish. We kept perch at 9" and "jumbos" there were only 12", however there were alot of smaller fish released, maybe 50% of our catch. Our arms were getting tired from "Jerking"! We caught a dozen or two small crappie 5"-7" that I consider too small to mess with, perch are easier to fillet for me. We caught quite few incedental cats to 16"(Good Eats) and some smaller ones I'd always turn loose. Some people claimed you could fish of the South launches dock at night with a lantern and do well on the cats, never tried it. We fished a bit for bass and had some luck, we just didn't get serious enough about it because we couldn't get ourselves over the perch. There are alot of bass in the lake, there are some cutthroat also but not near as many as at Woahink. I would guess yo could still get perch, I've never fished the lake this late in the year but heard the perch go shallow and weedy come October and November?
I feel it would be a good thing to get some of those perch out of Tahkenitch at this time to help prevent stunting in the future. Maybe next year we'll get the average up to 10"-11" and jumbos to 14"!
For good info on Siltcoos, and most likely Tahkenitch too, for the coho fishing call Vince at Westlake Resort, he's a nosey sucker and seems to know all that's going on down there, tell him Mike and Jane say hello!
If you go dowm Billfisher, do let me know how you do. I/we really fell in love with Tahkenitch this year, and feel drawn to the seclusion we felt there.
Smj
seasport24
11-01-2009, 05:21 PM
fished siltcoos this morning. Trolled both spinners and plugs... nothing. Did not see any fish caught, 1 dark coho roll in the most eastern portion of the lake. You would have thought fishing would be better with the dam opening.
Wouldn't recommend making the drive until there are solid reports.
Oustanding report Smj. I didn't make it down there this October for the first time in years. I guess the prime coho fishing hasn't happened yet and it's really too bad about the perch situation. October always was a good time of year for a variety of fish and also for a few ducks while hunting in the mornings. Yes, Vinny is an excellent source for information.
Billfisher
11-05-2009, 09:01 AM
Smj,
Thanks for the awesome report! I ended up going to Tiernan on the Siuslaw, trolling a #6 Vibrax Blue Fox (yellow with orange spash) and bonking a nice 36", 17.5# Chinook! I'll be headed to Takenitch next though, as those perch are major tasty. Not to mention, the kids love catchin 'em.
Doug
Smj,
Thanks for the awesome report! I ended up going to Tiernan on the Siuslaw, trolling a #6 Vibrax Blue Fox (yellow with orange spash) and bonking a nice 36", 17.5# Chinook! I'll be headed to Takenitch next though, as those perch are major tasty. Not to mention, the kids love catchin 'em.
Doug
Consider yourself lucky/good! One of my clients stayed at the trailer park there on the bay 1st of September thru end of October fishing the tides most days, and he knows how to fish the Siuslaw, and only put nine chinook in the boat for all that time. Fishing with different people of course.
Let us know if the perch still bite this late eh?
Smj