Early season salmon fishing

winchester270 · Oct 16, 2015

SO I am anxious to start my fall salmon fishing. I only have experience fishing the coastal rivers(wilson,trask,nestucca). So I do not have any experience fishing the bays where I hear the fish are hanging right now. As well as I do not have a boat for the bay, so are there good spots to bank fish the bays?
Any help is appreciated. And I can update with my success stories or lack there of after my trip
thanks guys

salmonriverjohn · Oct 17, 2015

Check out tide water on the Nestucca river, tons of fish and big ones too

jbett98 · Oct 17, 2015

There's a farm that allows fisherman onto their property for a small fee and it's just past the Tillamook Hospital on the old Neatarts Hwy when heading West.
You can drift fish with eggs in the big holes right next to the road.
Best place to watch and learn for a newbie.
There are always some snaggers working the holes, so try to avoid those asshats when possible.

winchester270 · Oct 17, 2015

Thanks for the help. Today I started at the hatchery hole watching dark salmon jump around, then headed down to the tide water on the trask at the hospital hole. There were about 30+ people at the hospital hole and no one was catching from what I saw and heard. I then proceeded to the north jetty near Garibaldi and watched about 50 boats working the area, and again, no one was catching. Finally I ended up in the nestucca bay, and things looked promising there but I was only able to fish for one hour of remaining light by this time. I saw some bright fish and saw one other guy land a nice one. Still all over was a very slow day, but of my options this looked to be the better f the options.

jbett98 · Oct 18, 2015

I witnessed Jim Teeny and his film crew, plus his paying clients fish for fall Salmon on one of the coast rivers near Tillamook and they were just slaughtering them with fly rods.
He had leased a small private gravel bar out in the middle of the river and about every 30 minutes or so, a run of huge Salmon would rush upstream and you could actually see the water rise above their bodies as they headed upstream.
He was fishing with large fly casting rods and these colorful streamers that looked like something you would use for Tarpon or other Gulf coast fish.
It was something to see.
He would cast out just in front of the moving pack of fish, twitch the tip of the rod and sure enough, fish on.
The smallest one was over 30 lbs, but most were near 40 lbs.
There was a crew member who's job it was to haul the fish up to the coolers and keep folks away while they filmed.
I helped him with a couple of the larger ones up and over the embankment and into the coolers.

winchester270 · Oct 18, 2015

Ya I saw a couple of guys out there doing well down in the bay fishing with flies also. I cant imagine a fresh Chinook on a fly rod

jbett98 · Oct 18, 2015

My best and biggest Salmon caught down at the coast was my first time using my 14' boat out of Garibaldi near the old Coast Guard station.
My brother came along and he knew less then me when it came to trolling the bay for Salmon.
We motored out into the bay and set out our lines with some rainbow spinners as I didn't know how to use cut plug herring back then.
I had borrowed an old vintage 9.9 Johnson trolling motor and when I tried to start the thing up, all it did was sputter and die.
It was just before day break and all of the regular fisherman trolling by would point and laugh at our troubles trying to start that motor as we drifted with the currant back into the bay.
I finally found the problem (crack in fuel line near the carb) and after being soaked in mixed fuel, I finally got us heading out against the current, my brother noticed that my pole had snagged on something and maybe I should try and shake it loose.
I picked up my pole and to my complete disbelief, a 42 lb hen Salmon had quietly swallowed my lure as it was rising off the bottom.
15 minutes later, I was surrounded my the same guys that had laughed at my motor troubles, as they watched the only large fish to be caught in the bay that morning.

brokenarrow · Oct 18, 2015

winchester270 said:
Thanks for the help. Today I started at the hatchery hole watching dark salmon jump around, then headed down to the tide water on the trask at the hospital hole. There were about 30+ people at the hospital hole and no one was catching from what I saw and heard. I then proceeded to the north jetty near Garibaldi and watched about 50 boats working the area, and again, no one was catching. Finally I ended up in the nestucca bay, and things looked promising there but I was only able to fish for one hour of remaining light by this time. I saw some bright fish and saw one other guy land a nice one. Still all over was a very slow day, but of my options this looked to be the better f the options.

Sounds like a good learning trip. Won't catch them sitting on the sofa.

salmonriverjohn · Oct 18, 2015

I worked today at the local hatchery as a volunteer. I dispatched 200 fish and processed them into totes to send off to a food share program this morning. There were tons of big, nice hatchery fish going to good use.
Until just this year they were being sent to landfills after the egg quotas were achieved. A good use of a resource that was before waisted.

winchester270 · Oct 18, 2015

Jbett98, that is a great day on the water.. I have had similar surprise fish and they are always the best. The circumstances in which you catch a fish add a great deal to the memory and story.
I caught my first steelhead when I was about 12-13 and trout fishing with my dad on the upper most legal section of the nesttuca. I found a orange bodied copper blade blue fox stuck on a rock in a mild section of rapids. It took me about 5 minutes to recover that spinner, then tied it on to try. After only a few casts into the riffles I had a 7lb buck dart out of the riffles and slam that spinner right near the bank! Way bigger then the 12" trout we were having fun with just prior. I have been addicted since.
catch and release on that buck..