Three days on the coast kayak fishing for salmon.....What a dream.
Three days on the coast kayak fishing for salmon without a camera....What a drag.
I launched my new boat, an Ocean Kayak Prowler Trident 15, on the Nehalem river on Sunday morning. Amanda, who took the 3 star sea assessment with me, and Jeff Wong, who I guided kayak tours with a couple of years back met me at the put in.
We paddled down stream about a mile and ran into the fish. There were a few dark silvers rolling, and every now and then, a big, bright king would jump. We fished hard for a few hours before calling it a day. Nothing seemed to entice a strike. I had a feeling the fish would be off the bite with the 80 degree temps and sunshine. We decided to head into town for a nice meal, and save our strength for the next day.
The next morning, I crawled out of my tent at 5am, and scrambled over the dunes to check out the swell. If the fishing was no good, hopefully the surfing would be. I looked out over a completely flat sea. No swell. No surf. Usually I can't surf because the swell is to big and the period to short. A flat sea is quite a rarity in the Pacific Northwest.
I decided to head back to the river to try for more salmon. I paddled 6 or 7 miles down river and found no fish. Not even cutthroat. It was depressing. I talked to a few locals at the marina in town, who told me it was slow, but kings & cohos were taken in the bay that day.
The following morning I launched at the Nehalem boat ramp into the bay. Coho were everywhere, and a few trollers were hooking up with 30 pound kings. I knew this was going to be good.
I paddled along the pilings in the bay between Nehalem and Wheeler with a rainbow spinner on a 5 ft. leader, and a 1 ounce banana weight tied inline, and immediately hooked up with a coho. He managed to wrap my line around a stump after a brief battle, and I lost him.
I trolled for a couple more hours, and had 7 or 8 solid strikes that I missed, a few blown hookups, and managed to boat 3 nice native coho, around 10-12 pounds, which I released.... and that I have no pictures of!
I've definitely got it dialed now, the new boat makes fishing allot less work. I'm heading back this Sunday and Monday, with my camera, and will post fish pics as soon as I return.
It's on!
-Jason
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