Depoe Nookies and Coho

[Fishmstr]

First of all: Wow...what a day on the ocean!!! One of the flattest days I've ever seen
Launched my 15' Gregor at 5 a.m. Started trolling just past the Whistler (Although Puffin tried to talk me into taking my skiff out tuna fishing...probably could have since the ocean was really just a big lake!) Had a few take-downs and landed a few wild fish. Headed out to deeper water and really got into them @ the 210' mark. Ended up with 5 fish in the box...a 30 and 20 pound chinook and 3 8-10 pound coho. Fish were plugged with 4-6 inch chovies. We released at least 5 or 6 wild fish (arrr....the last fish are sometimes so hard to come by). We must have had 20 + fish on for the day. Got the nooks on the downrigger at 50' with rsk/herring with hot spot flasher. The coho came on what ever you had on.
It was an amazing day on the water. Glassy calm so you could see everything that was going on. We saw several bait balls right on the surface. Cruised by one that was getting destroyed by coho...tight little ball with coho tearing through...must have been a trail of scales 50 feet long! Saw another huge ball...all chovies, just cruising the surface, mouths wide open filtering the krill. Fish were noodling around all day. I began casting to fish as we were trolling by. Twice they followed the lure in, then made a u-turn and hit the troll rods...way cool watching the whole thing. I did catch one fish casting to a noodler...pretty cool. It was on a krocodile. Amazing day watching the coho crash bait on the surface all day. Plus getting a couple of fat nooks...icing on the cake. Those chinooks are sure a different fish than coho. What a fight.
Wish I could have been tuna fishing, but my pa took his boat home last week. I've got 60 pints canned from the past two weekends, so I am pretty set. It was still painful to see all the tunny at the cleaning station. Looks like you guys knock the snot out of them.
Days like yesterday would make a salty dog out of anyone.

Steve
"Cortez"
formerly the "Avocation"