Newport Pier yesterday...

rainrshine · 10-24-2002, 02:49 PM

Yesterday while crabbing off the Pier in Newport there was a guy what looked to be jigging and catching salmon smolts to me. He was rigged up with with an triangle sinker and then little hooks all the way up his line with little red and green beads. There were times when he would pull up 4 fish at a time no bigger than 4-6 inches. I got a little closer to see what exactly these fish were and from what I could tell they were salmon smolts. I asked him what he was catching and he said they where "herring" now correct me if I am wrong here but the last time I was putting a herring on my mooching rig it did not have spots on its back!! Any of you guys have any onfo on this I would like to know what you think!!

Jennie@ifish · 10-24-2002, 02:51 PM

:shocked:

BottomFeeder · 10-24-2002, 03:07 PM

I think you should have notified the OSP. What did the guy look like?

-BottomFeeder

Pilar · 10-24-2002, 03:29 PM

Rainrshine, uh ... um ...

What did these fish look like? Little trout or herring with spots? I have caught small shad there and they look like herring with spots.

Hard to believe anyone would intentionally catch salmonid smolts.

Ramstrong · 10-24-2002, 03:44 PM

I've seen this before in yaquina. Though this was closer to Labor day. There were people filling buckets with smolts. Once I showed them what a herring looked like, they were able to tell the difference and release the smolts. I don't know how many smolts don't make it each year, but I think it's a pretty common occurance.

rainrshine · 10-24-2002, 04:03 PM

Pilar.....Yes these fish looked like like little trout. Shiny with dark spots on there green hue of a back and a short snout. I have seen plenty of salmon and steelhead smolts but I have not seen the small shad with spots you are talking about. I do not like to judge people by the way that they look but this guy did not look like a very well kept person. I hope that I wrong on this one. I almost asked this guy if I could snap a picture cause I knew this was going to happen if I posted it.

Spoiled Daddy · 10-25-2002, 06:05 AM

For the last month or so, Yaquina Bay has had a lot of smolt in the river from the Riverbend area down to the jetty tips. You have to be careful when jigging herring to carefully release the salmon smolts. They are all mixed up with the herring schools and love to hit the herring jigs.

Those are our future big fish, so be careful with em'!

SD

AuntyM · 10-25-2002, 01:05 PM

Could these have been anchovies? Sounds alot like the ones that hang around coastal areas this time of year.

Greenish backs and black spots. We caught them on the Columbia. 4-6 inches sounds right too. Wouldn't smolts be bigger? sounds like the guy was catching way too many to be smolts.

10-25-2002, 01:22 PM

I was with Aunty jigging anchovies on the Columbia and I think she is right. The anchovies we caught we pretty hard to mistake for smolt. The Newport pier is a pretty busy area so how could they get away with that?