09/22/2025 Report: fished above Wheeler in town.

One Rod. 0630-130pm.
14oz lead, chrome pro troll
Water temp 62° on the outgo
Dropped to 59° on the incoming

Released 3 wild coho. 2 on the Shortbus Pink Panther 3.5 blade. 1 on Mexican hat 3.5 blade. Fishing in 10-15’ of water. Suspended. Going faster than normal. First two in the early morning on the outgoing/slack tide. Last one was during incoming.
Finally got my chinook close to high noon. Mexican hat couple cranks off the bottom in 15’ of water, while I was cutting across the deep water(23’) to 15’. I marked it on the fish finder and got hit within 5 seconds.
Weeds got worse as the incoming pushed in harder. Saw a ok bite at low slack, mostly COHO. Prolly saw/heard of 4-5 chinook taken all day. 15 or so boats for the first few hours of light, then most boats headed to the jaws for the incoming around 8:45am. Never a hot bite, just fish hooked here n there. I did talk to two gentlemen who said they were fishing yesterday in the same area and could not buy a coho. And, of course on the day you can’t keep Coho they hooked 4 and landed 3… go figure. I suspect the rain from Saturday had something to do with that once the river finally settled.
Check gear often if you go!! A few boats came up from Wheeler later in the morning and said the weeds were pretty bad down there so they came up to town where I was at. Didn’t talk to anyone who came from the jaws to get a report down there.

 

KirkII thinks his stash is so cool 😉

 

Now THAT was funny…. Cracked me up big time….

 

Dear God....
I hate when a smaller BEAUTIFUL river gets blown up like this.
Especially now, when the big river closes.

 

I love CrEYEFish!
Nehalem is no secret. It’s only been featured in STS and every edition of Fishing Oregon. Detailing timing, where, and what to use before the World Wide Web was invented. I’m sure the businesses in Wheeler and Nehalem appreciate the foot traffic from fisherman passing through. I’ve only fished it for 18 years or so and the jaws is about the only area busy anymore. Don’t blame the internet for blowing up your river, ODFW is to blame. Fish are planted there for people to have an opportunity, everyone. If I catch fish around one or two boats or 30 or 40 boats, it doesn’t change what I do.
Flame away, I’m a big boy.

 

I am very happy you almost caught your yearly Nehalem limit big boy.
I am just a little bit curious though on whether you contribute to the "few fish" planted here?
Since you got animated about my simple thought about the Nehalem.
I suspect the fish you caught had "the" fin?
Enjoy this beauty of a river Sir.

 

😘
Yup, contributed by paying for my license 👍

 

You tha man!
Glad you are happy with your decisions.

BTW
I am not the enemy.
Just a little bit concerned with one of my favorite rivers.
The smaller Kilchis was killed for retention in my lifetime.
Just a little bit protective of something as Beautiful as the Nehalem.
Wish you the best.

Umpqua closed for salmon? | IFish Fishing Forum

 

Thank you sir 🙏
I get it, I know where you are coming from.
I didn’t mean to come off as a jerk. I
Apologize!!! I just miss the good ole days of Ifish, where people shared info to help the fellow humans. With inflation, gas prices, and higher cost to fish. I get people trying to get reports to make their money spent worth while. And if I can help, it makes me feel like I’ve given back to a wonderful community that has helped me be a better fisherman!
Tight lines CHD 🍻

 

Pretty simple really. We need some rain. There’s plenty of Coho around. Buddy has been pounding them out side and a lot of the bucks are getting big hooked noses. They are ready and waiting on the rain. Totally different year here so far. No rain and dry as a bone. 🇺🇸

 

I’m planning on tomorrow and fishing through the tide change, if you had to pick jaws or up river knowing you can’t keep a chinook, which would you choose?

Thinking I may bring a twitching rod and cast a bit to try to target coho more. might be fun

 

I would hit Tilly Bay or the Siletz. Not many ho’s around. If I were to go to nehalem for silvers, I would throw the pink flying c’s I believe they are called. Trolling has been slow.

 

I'll be there tomorrow with the Party Parge (Hot-Diggity-Dogger) throwing Flying Cs all over the bay.

 

Where did kirkll go? Did his wife ground him? Did he make her mad, I know the crabbing has been good… just saying 😂

 

I met Kirk yesterday at the Lodge dock. Great guy, and I can see his high mustache standards.

Our crew had some pretty good success with Coho, especially this morning. Caught 3, lost 3.

 

I met Kirk yesterday at the Lodge dock. Great guy, and I can see his high mustache standards.

Our crew had some pretty good success with Coho, especially this morning. Caught 3, lost 3.

It was good meeting you! I was in the middle of tying mooching rigs for switching back to bait today… you guys had it going on pretty good just casting spinners! Nice!

We had a great day today ourselves…. Kirk

 

Camped at Nehalam SP, 3 limits of crab today, neighbor was fishing yesterday and caught 2 salmon, kings I beleve I never saw them. 3 more days of crabbing, O and caught a few surf perch too.

 

We were having internet issues down there, and I don’t post much while fishing anyway. Sunday, Monday was pretty slow going for everyone. We did well on crabs on Monday though. Pulled a limit in 3 traps on the first pull. The ones we ate were pretty full too. On Tuesday the crabbing sucked for us, but we didn’t put much effort into it. Just dropped the pots at low tide and concentrated on fishing. The guys were doing well running herring, but of course I was running stuffer baits and spinners. Catch and release coho was our action and only netted two…. So last night I cured some green label and we went 2 for 6-8. I lost count, but we saw nets flying all morning on the incoming clear until 2 pm. Tagged out on coho, and lost a very nice chinook at the net. The Admiral was pretty bent out of shape loosing that one like that. It was a scrappy fish and it dove under the boat at the last second and the duo snap hung up in the net. Never had that one happen before… bummer…. When the fish ran again it broke that duo snap off, or bent it straand took her mooching rig with it…

Fun day today. Didn’t mess with crab traps…. Kirk

 

36 more crabs have left Nehalem Bay, I think fishing was slower today but we didn't fish. One more day of crabbing, KirkII I've been looking for your boat but we have been off the river by 10am.

 

Out again this afternoon. Probably 20 boats around and saw one fish landed by a guide and one other boater said they caught one. Pretty slow out there.