Silver Salmon Fireworks on the Nehalem!

[Jennie@ifish]

I have never seen anything like this!
Bill and I fished Nehalem today, just at high slack for salmon.
I have never in my life seen more silvers! Geesh! We kept counting them jump, 4 at a time, all around us! One even hit the bottom of the boat, and another almost jumped in with us! I got the giggles so bad I couldn't stand it!
They are HUGE wild silvers, mostly... I'd say more than 90 percent, and you can't keep them, so it's not all that HOT of a fishery, but it's pure amazement right before your eyes!
I did hook and land a 15 pounder, (estimate... it was huge!) and you wouldn't believe what on--
We had to take the drift boat, cuz the big boat is in the shop... We put the kicker on it, and found that we couldn't go slow enough for the proper spinner action. We'll fix that, next time... but for this time...
What could we do?
Bill had an idea. He knew! "Let's try.... an ALVIN!"
(Nah.... really?)
REALLY!
I took a copper and silver Alvin, smeared liberally with Marie's shrimp scent, and whammo!
FISH ON!
Really easy to release, too, on those big siwash hooks.
Trolling with Alvins, huh? Yip!
We tried everything, to get those big boys to bite, but they were just there to hang out, I guess. Really, never seen so many silvers in my life! It was like Alaska or some dream fishing world! We started counting, and within 20 seconds, we were over 20!
1,...2,.....345! :smile:
It was a blast just being there!
What a truly amazing world we live in!!!
There wer people in kayaks paddling around. I can't imagine how incredible that must have been, so close and quiet, as they paddled through the infested waters!
What beautiful fish!
I gotta go take Kilchis down to the river now and tease a few cutts.
Cruel me. :smile:
Jen

[TundraIII]

It's been like that for the past few years I've noticed. I remember one afternoon 2 or 3 yrs ago when the silvers were so thick that they were actually jumping out of the water and onto the banks. We were out there on Sunday and saw the "Show" too. Pretty incredible but the fish all had lockjaw. Saw two fish caught, with all the boats out there, definately a slow day.

[PeterMac]

C'mon RAIN!!!!! :grin: :grin: :grin:

PeterMac

[papa bear]

Well, yeah, it is nice in a kayak, I once had a springer pace me just underneath the boat, and a big otter was shadowing the springer.

Another time, watched an old-growth ********* try to catch a wood duck. From about 30 feet away...