Fished yesterday on incoming from Nehalem on up. Few boats on that stretch and few rigs at county launch. Never saw a net. Heard there were some fish caught down at Wheeler. hopefully fish just aren’t in yet, but should be some chinooks around

 

Fished the tips last weekend. We caught fish, but the weeds were really bad. Felt like we could fish a few minutes before gear was loaded up with weeds. Just about the time the weed situation got better the jellyfish started rolling in. Haven’t seen a coho yet. Bay is usually full of them by now, hopefully they are just late.

 

Attempted to fish last Sunday but had motor issues right away. Three trailers at the wheeler put in and probably same amount at the county ramp. Not a lot of pressure.

 

I’m not surprised about being low pressure with the way the CR is fishing right now. Are they doing the native coho retention two days a week again this year down there? Last year it was Wednesday and Saturday.

 

• September 10 – October 26 on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays only: In the Nehalem Bay and River from the tips of the jetties upstream to the Miami-Foley Road Bridge; in the North Fork Nehalem River from the mouth upstream to the North Fork Road Bridge at Aldervale:‌
  • Daily adult adult wild coho salmon bag limit is one fish in aggregate.
  • No more than three adult wild coho salmon may be retained for the period in aggregate.
  • Daily jack wild coho salmon bag limit is one fish. Pressure has been very light, and it has been recently very slow in the wheeler/Nehalem stretch. I would expect that to change anytime for coho.

 

Last year we harvested a couple clip fin coho. Those are truly unicorns down there too. Of course we caught them on Wednesday and Saturday when the natives could be retained… go figure.. lol.
I like the low pressure fishing down there myself. When those coho get in there in good numbers towards the end of September, and jumping all over the place, they typically have lock jaw. But we have had some fun times when the bite gets hot too.
But even when fishing is slow we always enjoy our time spent down there. Eating fresh crab and drinking good red wine while the sun goes down over the bay in Wheeler is a favorite time for us. Looking forward to it again. Kirk

 

My buddy ever down there yesterday and didnt see a net fly

 

Was on the water today. Few fish caught but weeds and jelly fish are horrible. We head out into ocean.

 

What’s with the damn jelly fish this year? We ran into them several times at B-10 in certain areas.

 

At netarts last week we seen the most jellys ever. was interesting

 

They come with the warmer water. I’ve seen thousands of dead ones on the beaches in years past.Some years are way worse than others. This is one of those years. They are everywhere.🇺🇸

 

Well hopefully the rains will come and bring that water temp down again soon. I’ll be down there on the 21st-25th. Come on rain storms!

 

Any recent reports? I’m considering a trip down there soon….

 

I fished Wheeler/Nehalem section on Saturday and Sunday never saw a net, never saw a fish roll. I expect coho to show anytime in town (I hope). Lots of pressure out at the jetty area and heard some positive reports. one bright spot is crabbing is worth your time. Good luck

 

Rains next week ought to get the ball rolling. Summers are in the river holding, very low water year this year.

 

Thanks for the updates. It’s so hard to decide what to do this time of year.

 

I finished the Bay last Saturday, and then fished for a couple hours yesterday, typical Nehalem, fishing for me, seems like the fish are either there, or they’re not. on Saturday, Picked up one Chinook at the Jaws and lost another one to a seal, drove down to Wheeler and picked up a Chinook right out front. Yesterday, trolled around without a bite at the jaws, saw a couple fish caught For 20+ boats.

Funny, the fish on Saturday came on my Rod, which was rigged targeting Coho, since I’m already tagged out in the bay for Chinook. Had friends with me that could keep chinook so that was good, number three spin fish behind a 360 did the trick!

 

Lots of fun camping and fishing the Nehalem( Mon, Tue, Wed), we ended up with 4 chinook in the boat, released 2 beautiful big wild Coho and a small jack. We lost a 20 lb. salmon to a seal, had another ferocious takedown that came unstuck when it ran and numerous drivebys. All the fish were caught above the town of Nehalem and below the mouth of the North Fork. The weeds and seaweed were just to problematic at Wheeler.

Those Nehalem Chinook are spectacular!

 

I feel stupid asking, but I’m tired of staring at the regs. I only fish Nehalem a couple days per year anymore. I found the wild coho and wild chinook regulation updates for daily and annual limits, but I wanted to confirm a couple of things. First, I didn’t see any barbless hook requirements so I assume we can use barbs. Also, I didn’t see any barbless “may continue to deploy gear” notation, so I assume we have to rack a rod if someone happens to limit out. Am I reading both of these things correctly?

 

Barbs are not an issue. Not entirely sure on party fishing but don’t think it’s an issue. There is a police boat there now, without markings and has a kicker. I’m sure they will let you know if there’s an issue. Buddy got a 150.00 ticket last month for forgetting to tag a fish.

 

You are right on the money about typical Nehalem fishing. It always seems to be either on fire, or slow going for us too. Last year was pretty much the same game. We were running the medium sized spin fish for the most part and had done well on them the year before, but it was slow going and very few nets flying along the jetty…. But…. We were marking quite a few fish out there. So I started rotating different color spin fish with tuna stuffing to try and change things up about every 20 minutes. When I put the green colored rig down it got slammed almost instantly…. Wow! … So I put another one on my wife’s rod and bingo! Doubles…. Granted… most of the fish were wild coho, but we picked up two clipped fish and one chinook. But we were on fire for a couple hours there and had a blast! I shared the color with the guide boat next to us, and he started boating fish too. So I would highly recommend playing with different color lures. Typically the corn chowder pink spin fish are deadly for coho and chinook both down there. But last year the Herring Aid and green and silver were the ticket…. Ya never know… I’ll be down there on Sunday……. Kirk

 

@Kirkll Any updates from this weekend?

 

I was there Saturday, but we only chased crab (I took salmon gear, but the girls outvoted us guys; they just wanted to pull rings all day ). We crabbed from about 9:30 until 2-ish; ended up with 29 crabs. About half of them were only half full. At least we got enough for the ladies to feed their book club tonight (they seem to informally compete for who can bring the best wine and snacks; I think the books are just an excuse to hold ladies night once a month).

 

I was there yesterday from 0930 to 4:30. We didn’t see one net fly in the Wheeler/Nehalem area for a couple dozen boats. We had a descent day going 4/4 on spinners and spin fish. Definitely slow.
I did see kirkll out there and said hi in the afternoon but he didn’t give me the time of day. I almost pulled down my pants and BA’d him but his wife was with him. Ever since I shaved my stache he is to good for me 😂.

 

Sorry I didn’t hear ya bro…. I’m deaf as a post and didn’t hear ya….

 

Great report, were any of your four Coho? I’m thinking of going Wednesday, but tagged out a while ago on my two wild Chinook, hoping there are some coho in the bay

 

We only had one silver and had to throw back a chinook as we already had two on board.

Saw a few jumpers but not a crazily amount. Think we need a good rain to bring in the ho’s.

 

also just curious, were you at the jaws or up river? I’m always torn this time of year, when I’m out at the jaws, I feel like I should be up river, and vice versa. Not sure what I’m doing Wednesday, but leaning towards the jaws.

 

I was fishing the wheeler/nehalem area, again we did ok but didn’t see another net fly. Very slow around us.

 

I was trying to decide about going this Wednesday or not as well.
Thanks for the report @RB Drifter , would you say there seems to be more Chinook this year?

 

I wouldn’t say there are more chinook around, more of a lack of coho. Buddy’s have been out and picking up a ho here and there. This time last year it wasn’t uncommon to pick up 4-6 hos a day.