Chum From a Canoe - Miami Cove (Tillamook Bay)?
- Thread starter CanoeGuy
- Start date
Something to think about. Especially if foul hooked. I’ve had foul hooked chum effectively fight my spot locked trolling motor on occasion. Use a leader material you can easily break off if getting pulled around a bit is a concern at all there.
The first salmon I ever caught on a fly in Oregon was a hefty chum, like having a tug of war with a submerged pit bull.
From now until first serious rains is a great time to fish the bay, salmon will do laps around the bay shorelines waiting for the rivers to rise and propel them upstream.
From now until first serious rains is a great time to fish the bay, salmon will do laps around the bay shorelines waiting for the rivers to rise and propel them upstream.
FinLuver
Native Oregonian…1846
Probably like a wild cow milking contest at a rodeo…
A scene from Junior Bonner comes to mind.
He'll be fine.
Put your outriggers out all the way, use your motor to go to and from, and drift.
Didn't see one, do you have an anchor trolley rigged up bow to stern ? If so, add a drift sock to your arsenal. Use it to help add drag if you're being towed.
Put your outriggers out all the way, use your motor to go to and from, and drift.
Didn't see one, do you have an anchor trolley rigged up bow to stern ? If so, add a drift sock to your arsenal. Use it to help add drag if you're being towed.
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Wondering about the Hoodsport area. Not worried at all about tidal currents in the Miami Cove estuaries. I am sure my anchor will hold just fine there.
I would most likely fish anchored up, but it would be fun to get a tow
I normally just drop my anchor over the left side and tie the line to the middle seat. If I really want to fish a spot for a while and be at a specific angle I have another small anchor for the front.
Two anchors should work. Chum do seem to be the bulldogs of salmon so you're usually in for a tug of war when hook one of the critters.
I feel they must mill around in the bay for sometime before heading up the river. Usually they are colored up quite heavily when you can them in the moving water. Except for that one day I mentioned earlier. The chum we caught that single day were bright as dimes ... very, very rare for fish from the Miami.
I feel they must mill around in the bay for sometime before heading up the river. Usually they are colored up quite heavily when you can them in the moving water. Except for that one day I mentioned earlier. The chum we caught that single day were bright as dimes ... very, very rare for fish from the Miami.
You would be fine current wise at Hoodsport. I do it on a SUP.
The wind can be an issue and remember to check the netting schedule. It can fork you over.
1st; it's the only place I've ever been to where you can fish in front of a hatchery. To me, thats wild.
Hoodsport is shallow from the bank out about 100 feet. At high tide that reduces to maybe 30 feet.
There's a deeper channel maybe 250 from the bank. A canoe, kayak, rowboat , small craft, can take advantage of that variable geometry very well. Just be advised you'll be in combat fishing mode with all the guys in waders tossing hardware and flies. (anchovies/sardines under a bobber seem to be popular)
Honest, I'd go north of that area by a few hundred yards and fish there. Tide change can cause some rips, so exercise the usual cautions.
Hope this helps
Besides fishing at the hatchery, just about every creek that dumps into the canal hosts chums. If you want some solitude but maybe not as many fish, it’s an option you might want to consider.
As mentioned, watch the wind.
SF
Lance, those winter kings are almost gone. To protect them, ODFW now closes the season at the end of November to protect those really late fish that arrive between Thanksgiving and New Years. Winter kings are now the focus of several restoration projects in those watersheds so there's hope for recovery.
My experience with Tillamook Bay chums is that they start congregating in the lower tidewater holes of the individual systems they are running up {starting about now). Since the Miami doesn't have a tidewater section like the Kilchis, you definitely would want to target the area of the bay that's adjacent to the delta. We are expecting 2 plus inches of precip later next week - this should help.
Sad to hear...at a meeting I went to that ODFW hosted in Tillamook over a decade ago, the chief dept biologist attending predicted the gradual and then accelerating diminishment of salmon in both numbers and size due to warming ocean currents diffusing the bait schools = salmon having to search further and longer, impacting survival and growth potential.
Wild question; would you fish T Bay like you would Drano, except on a larger scale ?
Good question. Hopefully someone with T-bay tidewater experience will chime in. I have fished Drano quite a bit years ago. Based on that, I think it would mostly depend on depth and current.
A couple times at Drano when there was some outflow current, the normal stillwater countdown and retrieve transitioned into slow swings. One time, the water clarity and light was perfect to actuality see a swing grab. Stillwater and suspended fish I'd start with standard Drano slow sink, slow retrieve - but just a guess with T-bay fish.
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I've had some T Bay experience but have no clue what happens at Drano. The tidal current is noticeable depending on the tidal exchange and location within the Bay. There are a handful of "deeper" areas where fish congregate and of course that's where the trollers are as well.
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bascially Drano is a tidepool of the columbia. its usually fished as a trolling racetrack with often too many boats being in the pattern. it's fed by an inlet from the Big C under an overpass of Hwy 12 (?) and 1 river, something or other Salmon, and sometimes white water kayak guys will suddenly and unexpectedly enter the pattern from it. (Also, theres a YT channel with a bunch of young guys who dive it and clean up all the snagged and cut off lures. biggest haul was like 300lbs of gear)
i'd never really paid much attention until this thread but, layout wise, T Bay could be a larger version of Drano, with wider access and more river and stream inflows. I doubt it woud fish like that though.
i'd never really paid much attention until this thread but, layout wise, T Bay could be a larger version of Drano, with wider access and more river and stream inflows. I doubt it woud fish like that though.