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Different
techniques and tips for fishing our
coastal rivers
Our fall season produces chinook weighing
up to 70 lbs, chrome bright and ready
to give you a good fight.
Jetty fishing
and Bubble….
If you are fishing
our jetty area, fall chinook will be
entering in route to our river systems.
Chinook start coming into the Tillamook
system starting the first week of September.
The chinook's food of choice will be
herring either plugged or whole. We
have found plugged herring works best
making nice wide roles as the bait turns.
Depending on the current and winds,
your lead can range from 24 oz to 8
oz. outside the Bubble (cross the bar).
For the Jetty area, your weight will
be about 6 oz with about 11 pulls. Fish
will come up closer to the surface to
feed and you will want your bait there
waiting for them.
Bay….Heading from the jetty
The chinook will
move into the bay and here you will
need to switch gear to spinners. Blade
styles of Colorado Deep Cup and Willow
leaf are the most popular shapes. Best
colors are chartreuse with green dot,
green rainbow, red/pearlescent white.
Change your weight to about 1 ½
oz when using spinners.
Tidewater area
Just before
our rains come, fall chinook enter into
our water system known as tidewater
and they will wait until there is enough
water to allow them to freely move up
into the Wilson and Trask Rivers. But
the tidewater area is tricky to fish
but due to the close proximity to the
ocean, this is a great place to target
fall chinook. Here, learning to bobber
fish and having quality bait is a must.
The tidewater
area as mentioned is tricky. The tides
move in and out 4 times per day changing
the direction it flows and the water
is slow moving with poor visibility.
But since Chinook has a very keen sense
of smell presenting a high quality of
eggs that milk down is killer bait.
The best cured egg that will milk and
produce this scent comes from an egg
that has been cured with a wet cure.
The fish will smell your bait and know
it's there long before they see it.
If it smells right, they will search
for it and aggressively strike it. This
is a good place to use your bigger,
less firm eggs since there is little
current and not a lot of casting to
tear them apart.
When you have
a slack tide, Chinook is on the move
to get oxygen. When the tides starts
coming in, they need to get their bearing
and will seek out logs and other obstacles
to get oriented. As fish gather on or
around these things, you need to target
these holes. Same is true on the low
tide. As fish will bite anytime, you
need to continue presenting bait across
times low, slack and high tide.
Bobber Fishing
A very important
tip is to make sure your bobber is upright.
If its not, you aren't fishing. You
will want to fish just off the bottom.
Cannon balls or tear drops work great
for your weight and weights can vary
from ½ oz to 3 oz. You will have
to adjust the weight depending on the
current.
Tidewater using
Kwikfish
Another very
effective technique that works well
in the tidewater area. Begin with a
well-tuned plug wrapped with a sardine
around its belly. If you are using the
Kwikfish to dive down on its own, use
both treble hooks one for the belly
and the other at the tail. Use about
3 oz of lead and let the plug work for
you. You can also use a diver with your
plug but would remove the belly hook
and let the salmon really swallow the
plug. Always make sure your plugs are
cleaned using mild detergent and tuned
before using.
Fishing chinook
and steelhead on the Wilson and Trask
Rivers
Several techniques
are used in the river systems. Again,
the best technique for chinook is with
eggs and sand shrimp. The chinook has
a keen sense of smell and presenting
them with quality eggs that milk down
will increase your fish quota. For our
rivers, the most popular combination
is called the shrimp cocktail. This
is a golf ball size of cured eggs with
a sand shrimp above it. Make sure the
sand shrimp's head is facing downward
towards the hook. First take your egg
loop tied hook and line and push the
hook through the shrimp's tail and out
its head. After pushing the shrimp up
the line, wrap the egg loop around your
egg cluster and drop the shrimp over
the cluster. Add a bobber and bobber
stop and you're fishing.
Fishing Tip:
One of our readers sent a fishing tip
when fish are rolling but not biting.
They suggested adding tuna balls to
your line or dipping your bait in tuna
oil to give off more scent. This technique
can be very effective.
Back Bouncing
Effective on
the rivers. The lighter the weight,
the more delicate the presentation.
Your objective is to get your plug or
bait just off the bottom. If the weight
is resting on the bottom the rod tip
stops wiggling and slack will eventually
form in the line. If the weight is too
far off bottom, the rod will wiggle
rapidly and eventually load and bend
much more than usual. Work the holes
keeping your line in the riffles. Salmon
need oxygen and the faster moving water
is supplying them with it. Remember
as they move they will stop and regain
placement which will be by logs and
other structures.
Plug Fishing
Plug fishing
the rivers with hotshots is very effective.
Sizes 25, 30, 35, 40 are your best bet
for our coastal rivers. Size 40 works
best for steelhead and trout. The best
colors that we have found is white/black,
gold, metallic green, and flame. Hot
shots are self-planing, diving lure.
The faster you pull this plug, the deeper
the plug will dive. Generally no additional
weights are needed. The big advantage
of using a non-weighted plus is that
the lure will naturally follow the river
currents, guiding it around snags and
rocks while still maintaining a position
near the bottom, home of most game fish.
Steelhead fishing
Both winter and
summer steelhead, jigs with bobbers
are very effective. Popular colors for
the coast are pink/white; black/red;
red/white. The most important tip is
that you must fish the jig one to three
feet above the steelhead at an absolute
dead drift. The key is estimating water
depth. As water visibility increases,
steelhead will be able to see you and
get spooked. Use smaller, lighter gear
and don't let your shadow cast over
the fish.
Drifting with
sand shrimp with hardware or eggs has
always been a standby here at the coast.
One rod in the boat should at least
have shrimp on it. Popular corky colors
or plugs are flame, pink/white, green,
and orange.
Tuning your Hot
Shot
It is imperative
that a Plug be tuned correctly. It must
"swim" straight and not pull
to one side.
If the lure runs
to the left, then with the bill facing
you, turn the screw eye slightly clockwise.
If the lure digs to the right, turn
the screw eye slightly counter-clockwise.
More tips and
advice to come. Feel free to discuss
these topics or ask questions in our
forum.
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