ILWACO REPORT AGAIN!!!

Hookset · 07-16-2001, 12:13 PM

No chinook, just 5 silvers. Heard of one boat landing a 30 pound chinook. We didn't fair as well with the silvers, landing only the 5 keepers for 4 rods. Released 4 adipose fish and several quick releases near the boat.

When we motored out, the bar was rocking and the ocean wasn't to much better. As we motored past 100's of boats, we only saw 1 net out. I thought the overall fishing was slow and noticed most of the charters still working at 9am along with the majority of the private fleet. From what I could see, the fish were really scattered or not biting good.

How did you catch your fish? Just the plug cut herring? We used whole herring to land ours.

hook

finclipped · 07-16-2001, 01:06 PM

Hookset, it took us 6 hours to get 6 limits and the fish seemed scattered to me as well. When we were in them, it was doubles and triples. Buoy 2 was producing a little better for us. We caught one 20 inch chinook, but I guesss that doesn't count. I had one chummer on board. But also had two 13 year old's (cousins) who caught their first salmon. But I don't think they have a strong desire to do it again. Ohh well, we can't all be die hards.

I used cut plug, whole herring, and anchovies and the plug cuts did the best.

Tilla · 07-16-2001, 01:57 PM

Went out on a Charter this AM. Went north, fishing was scattered but multiple hookups and lots of losses. As the group of boats moved to the NW the fishing seem to slow and we turned back towards the a big move at 8:30AM, went southwest and got into them better by ourselves. 15 limits of silvers by 10AM. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

Hookset · 07-16-2001, 02:39 PM

Tilla, are the charters using fresh herring or anchovies? Course I'm assuming they're using bait.

Thanks finclipped for the info on baits and your trip results. What time did you cross to get back inside? We ran in around 9:15am and the bar was choppy as well as the lower river.

Gregg

CATCH AND EAT · 07-16-2001, 04:29 PM

Hookset, we were using cut plug green label mostly. One of my chummers is a diehard purple label whole herring trying for a big chinook. He was having a hard time getting a spin out of it. I cut plug it and he proceeded to land a real nice 8 lb silver. tried hochies a time or two but not as successful as a cut plug green.

Saw a lot of barfers yesterday. Lots of boats, but like you guys fish were very scattered. CR area was a bust. South of bouy 2 did well. 10 pulls seemed the best. One fish came at 30 pulls. 1 native release. No shaker type fish this week.

Anyone going back next Sunday? I will be there. Look for a Bayliner Trophy named "Cindy Lou". Thanks for all your reports.

Hookset · 07-16-2001, 11:00 PM

Hey Catch, I saw that boat, not sure if it was out on the water or at Chinook. Do you moore the boat at Chinook?

Thanks for the update. I tried a hootchie once and while my back was turned, my partners told me the rod dipped. Tried a spoon and the same thing happened, but no fish. Being the impatient sort, I switched back to herring.

hook

CATCH AND EAT · 07-16-2001, 11:58 PM

Went out of ilwaco again Sunday. Bar was not to bad at 5:30am. The ocean on the other hand was a bit rolly. Had two barfers on board illegally chumming the water. We were going for Chinook around the CR area. But....with the stomach emptying buddies I decided that a quick limit of Silver was in order and a quick trip back to solid ground was needed. This suggestion was quickly agreeded to by the barfers and we hoisted up some real nice silvers.

Did anyone score on chinook out there on Sunday? Oh yeah, we did boat a 10lb Silver on a cut plug purple lable herring. This seemed strange.

CATCH AND EAT · 07-17-2001, 06:52 AM

Hookset, Nope my boat is in Ilwaco on G dock. I like this lanch much better than Chinook. Chinook is to shallow at the low minus tides for me. I've watched many a fishing boat sand up and then have to gun it in reverse to get out.

I had the same experience with hoochies and spoons. One wack and no fish. Guess I should have left the barbs on He HE HE! Dumb rule anyway if I may say so. What in the world is the difference between the ocean and bouy 10. 10=barbs, ocean=no barbs. No barbs, more fish wounded. Barbs, less fish wounded and quicker limits on boats. Just seems kind of silly to me.

Hookset, do you moore your boat or just lanch? Costs me less to moore it that to pull it back and forth to Portland.

Tilla · 07-17-2001, 06:05 PM

Hookset, the charter used Anchovies, some plugged, some with hoochies, different colors. We would troll until we would get a hookup, usually multiple. Then we sat in neutral as our baits would get hit mercilessly until it would slow down 15-25 minutes later. Then he would put in gear until we were attacked again. The amount of fish lost was huge. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

finclipped · 07-17-2001, 06:33 PM

Well I took the day off and tried again out on big blue. I started at the 2 Buoy and trolled to the CR with one take down and one fish. Caught on chovy. CR was dead, I trolled around for 1 1/2 hours without seeing a net. The boats were scattered and not that many out there. We ended up finding them a little North of the 2 and limited by 9:00. I only saw one boat leave before us, so we had a fair amount of luck to get our fish so soon. One chinook about 16 pounds and three coho about 8-10, so all and all a good outing. The coho were caught on anchovies and the chinook on a plug cut herring. I only saw one other boat come in at Hammond and he had half his limit.

By the way, I tried those Gami Barbless hooks and with four take downs, we had four fish landed and four fish kept. (3/0 & 2/0) Can't beat those odds. I am going to try them again this weekend to make sure its not a fluke. But I was less than a 40% land ratio with the pinched 4/0 and 5/0's on Sunday.

Sea's were 4-5 feet and about the same as Sunday. Bar was fine. See ya next Sunday.

Hookset · 07-17-2001, 07:51 PM

Figures, for bait we fished herring and now wish I would have took my own advice and fished anchovies, silvers love them.

Catch, I trailer my boat but last Sunday fished with a friend who has a slip at Chinook.

finclipped, 2/0 and 3/0 hooks? Now that's some smallish hooks when fishing bait. Except when using those smallish anchovies. I may have to re-tool some tackle and downsize. I like your odds better then what I saw last weekend. Thanks for the tip.

hook