Buoy 10 Wednesday

[I'mThe10Percent]

We launched from Warrenton at about 7am, and we were fishing by 7:30am. We fished the Oregon side, pretty slow. I hooked a nice URB, but it unhooked himself. We then pulled up and headed to the Washington side, just below the bridge. I couldn't believe there were only 20 boats below the bridge. We put our herring down and whammo! We nailed 4 nice kings, not very big, between 12-16lbs.
We then headed back to the Oregon side and I nailed a 22lb.er! 5 keepers for the day!!!
Overall, it was a slow day. Several people at the launch had nothing, while others had 2 or 3.
We lucked out and didn't catch any tules, however I saw alot caught and only one released. I guess most fisherman just don't realize what they are keeping????
Will be back next week, fishing should be better and more silvers WILL be in the river!

[rojo]

Thanks for the good report. What were you fishing? Getting ready to try it one more time and was wondering about silvers....Roger

[Killertraylor]

10 Percent - I'd definitely say you were one of the highliners on the river on Wednesday. We ran out of Chinook and into the Ocean at about 8:00 a.m. (trying to cross the bar at low slack) It was still ebbing pretty hard at Buoy 10 when we went by, but the bar was fine and the ocean was like a lake. Fishing was slow. Took us 4 1/2 hours to get our 10 silvers. Released 5 native silvers and one bright Chinook about 15 lbs. All the big charter boats were still on the ocean when we came back around 1:30. We got our fish northwest of the CR Buoy about 1-2 miles. Tried it up by buoy 1 but no luck and the ocean was quite a bit rougher up there for some reason. Cut plug herring, green divers, 5 foot leaders seemed to be the most productive, 15-20 pulls. Talked to several people at the dock who fished the river without success and a few who fished the ocean without success. That Toby guy from Sidewinder Charters had 4 chinook laying on the dock and all were dark ugly Tules that looked like they had already spawned. He outfished most of the guys out of Chinook though. I think the fish are going to show up right about the time they reduce the limit to 1 chinook. Can't believe how slow it's been so far with the number of fish returning. Next week and Labor day might be gangbusters.

One other thing - a friend of mine in port said he had 2 nice upriver brights in his cooler. I looked at them and they were kinda bright, but not chromers. One slit into the tail proved they were Tules - a Tule will cut white or pale pink at the tail whereas your URB will cut red. (He did this to me last year, so it was nice to get back at him!)

[ 08-22-2002, 08:31 AM: Message edited by: Killertraylor ]

[Bounty Hunter]

Just smoked up a Tule that I caught last weekend. It came out superb.

Not sure why everyone gives them such a bad rap. My boat won't be turning any of them back this weekend either.

One thought though: Are most of the fish being caught Tules? Are the URB fish hanging back with the silvers. I haven't seen many URBs caught now that I thing about it. Most have been bright fish, but have pale meat and large eggs.

[Killertraylor]

The Tule we got last weekend also cut o.k. but they don't smoke up anything like a nice oily URB. I smoked both last weekend and there was no comparison. The URB's just have more fat in them because they are making a longer trip than the lower river Tule's. I probably saw 50 fish cought last Saturday and only 1 looked like an URB. The URB's are coming through though (gillnetters are getting 60% URB's and 40% Tules) but there doesn't seem to be as many URB biters.

[Trick]

I was out last Tuesday and fishing was rough. We were out about 4 hours fishing around the bakers bay area along the Washington side. We only managed one fish for three rods and it was, unfortunatley, a Tule of about 25lbs. I was on the fence on this one. It was fairly bright with a strong pink in it's throat. I filleted it out when I got home and it cut red all the way to the tail. The flesh color was identical to the springers and June fish I kept this year.

So you probally wonder, how does he know it was a Tule? It smelled like **** and you know what I'm talking about. My wife complained about the smell and she hardly ever complains about the fish I bring home.

It was a buck with a hooked nose and big teeth. Still can't believe how red it was. Will I keep anymore Tules this year.....no way! The slime and the smell are to much to deal with and I really don't need fish that bad. If fishing wouldn't have been that slow I would have released it for sure. I'll smoke it up and eat it. Not going to let it go to waste.

[I'mThe10Percent]

I have noticed that ALOT of fish are being caught on lime green divers and lime green fish flashes. The chinook are running at a variety of depths...case in point... My boat put a 39lb.er at 16 pulls, a 12lb.er at 22 pulls, and I got a 30 lb.er at 30 pulls??????? I think a big reason we are having success is because we keep adjusting are depths all day long.. (and my secret herring cure can't be hurting :grin: )