[NoLimit]

Fished from dawn Friday (slept on the boat - it was chilly)to 3:00 PM. Spent first 6 hours (the ebb) bobber fishing the Spruce Tree Hole near the mouth of the Trask. My plan was to be patient and fish the entire tide, which I did. No take downs at all. Nothing. No sign of fish. A guide and his clients anchored up and ran Quickfish, left, and returned to bobber fish. We had the hole pretty well covered, no fish. On the flood I moved out into the bay to pull K14's, and saw one fish caught about 1 hour into the flood, right where the picket fence starts.

The weather was clear blue sky, cool, and windy. Water temp 45 deg in the Trask on the ebb. My gut feel was that this would be a tough day due to the high pressue - but that is the bass fisherman in me. I do not know if that impacts salmon or not. Saw very few boats on the bay, but the lot at Memaloose has plenty of trailers. Most folks were up in the rivers.

Advice for fishing Tillamook this time of year is appreciated. I tried several depths in my bobber fishing, and had beautful eggs courtesy of Thumber. Thanks Jack.

 

[Spinner]

NoLimit,

It seems to me your strategy was OK for fishing the upper bay. Did you bobber fish all the way through the low at the Spruce Tree hole? I seem to get most of my bobber fish toward the tail end of the ebb when the tide starts to slow down a bit but is still moving. Keep in mind I am hardly a bobber expert...
I also pull alot of Kwikfish along the picket fence..all the way to the far north end. I prefer sardine wrapped K-15's as I think they have better action, particularly when wrapped. Typically I will fish the picket fence for a 4 hour period around the high slack.
High pressure or a rising barometer is good for salmon...a falling barometer can put a damper on things. Also, a pile of fish came through last weekend (I was lucky enough to get to participate), possibly there was a lull in # of fish coming in this last week.
Keep in mind...the more days you fish the more great days you will have.

 

[NoLimit]

Thanks Spinner. I fished all the way through the tide, from the tail end of the ebb (6:30 am or so), through the swing to low slack, and through that swing back to the ebb. I know that spot is productive at times. I decided going in that I would stay with the spot through the tide and learn a little bit, fish or no fish. I agree with you that success is in large part a function of hours on the water. The outstanding fishermen seem to consistently find fish. And most of those fisherman put in a lot of hours.

 

[ANDYCOHO]

I was there Friday as well, trolling spinners through the whole area. I agree it was very cold and slow.

 

[[email protected]]

The Wilson, folks, is not dead. Sorry... I just can't tell a lie. :smile:

 

[NoLimit]

Thanks for the info Plugcut. That goes in my Tillamook notebook.

 

[plugcut]

Well the one thing you did wrong was fish tidewater the small exchange kept the fish out in the jaws. On Friday and Saturday they had a great bite in the jaws and the coast gaurd station. SO on big tides swings fish the tidewater and small ones stay closer to the ocean. Also the spruce tree is an early season hole and after mid October the fish don't hold there. The Trailer park hole and Stump hole are producing now. Go UP RIVER. The wilson is very dead the fish that were there are all gone!!!

 

[Thumper]

I may not give you any more eggs if you can't catch anything on them! :tongue:

 

[NoLimit]

Don't say that. I need all the help I can get. First ingredient is to fish where the fish are. I think that is the challenge right now. I am going to give it another try this weekend but don't know yet if it will be tidewater or the front end. Advice?