Tillamook Springer Skunking

[Tinman]

Trolled herring Sunday at the Ghost Hole, Coast Guard Hole and between the jetties on an incoming tide....no luck on the springers. No more than a dozen boats were fishing them, and I only heard of one fish among them.

As an aside, there have been bird works a few hundred yards off Oceanside in the last few days, including some right in the surf zone. Sunday there were anchovies in the surf in just an inch or two of water, and the gulls were having a field day.

A few weeks back, I saw a giant bird work off Oceanside, and some sort of big fish were crashing and boiling...it reminded me of tuna.

What sort of fish did I see? What sort of fish are driving anchovies ashore? Chinook? Does anybody know?

[Salmonator]

I have seen seabass boil and splash like this going after crab spawn. This time of year it wouldn't suprise me to see them splashing after the anchovies too.

[seasquid]

Tinman,

I did pretty good on springers Friday and Saturday, but farther up the bay from where you were fishing. Sunday was not good to me either. My best success for springers has either been upper bay/lower river or outside the jaws, I have had very little success over the years inside the jaws and lower/mid bay.

Hard to say what the fish you were seeing, but they might have been a large school of seabass. Of course, they also could have been coho or chinook just as well. For that matter, seals and sea lions are always in the area, I've seen them crash balls of herring a time or two.

Was the "giant" bird you saw a pelican? I've seen a few around lately.

ss