This was the best year ever for the Harvester Albacore fishing. We landed 4600 fish in 36 days on the ocean averaging 16lbs each for nearly 47,000 lbs. Pretty incredible for our small boat since last year we only landed 1600 fish for the whole season. What made the difference?
The Weather!
Short Video of Jumper School
Video: Landing Two Albacore
This July was the clear and calm nearly all month. It was an amazing month with very little wind so it was no problem fishing so we got a lot more days on the Ocean than we did last year and we found the tuna big time. As you get later into the season you have to change your strategy to find the tuna. In the early part of the Summer, when the tuna are moving in they follow the warm currents so you can have a pretty good idea where they will be. They’re here in the summer to put on weight so early on they’re always biting so its just a matter of finding the warm waters and trolling a pattern through it.
John Martin, left, Chad Brunick, center, and Sean Metzger, all of Klamath Falls, boat a fall chinook salmon in Chetco on Sunday. AP Photo
BROOKINGS (AP) — Despite having only a sliver of the Chetco River open to angling this month, John Martin of Klamath Falls does not lament the loss of upstream fishing access.
He drops his anchovy into the estuary between the jetties, then motors his small aluminum boat, already loaded with two friends and three adult Chinook. The fish are all around 30 pounds.
They’re trolling, though, through no more than 200 yards of the Chetco.
“Because this is where the fish are,” Martin says.
Though most of the Chetco remains closed to angling to protect a poor return of wild Chinook to this South Coast stream, anglers are finding they don’t need much space to catch fish eclipsing 50 pounds in an ongoing fishery that is as popular as it is maligned.
Estuary waters west of U.S. Highway 101 are the only part of the Chetco open under a restricted bag limit of one wild Chinook a day and no more than two this season. The low wild fall Chinook return is blamed largely on poor ocean conditions, and is expected throughout Southern Oregon streams.
But anglers are making the best of that one wild Chinook a day, hauling in some of the largest salmon seen here in two decades. Tops so far comes courtesy of Carl Johnson of Brookings, whose 58-pounder caught Sept. 30 unofficially is the largest Chinook caught in the Chetco Bay since the early 1980s.
“That was a gorgeous, gorgeous fish,” Johnson said. “I’ve caught several in that category, but none on the Chetco and not in the estuary.”
Chinook fishing in the Coos River has slowed this past week. But with a forecast of rain and larger tide exchanges, we should see more salmon coming into the river. The wild coho season on the Coos has closed but you may still retain fin-clipped coho.
Chinook fishing in the lower Coquille River has also slowed, but the wild coho season has remained strong with good numbers of fish being caught in the lower river and bay. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates we have taken about 45 percent of our 1,500 wild coho quota. Some fishermen have remarked that wild coho are larger the later we get into the season. The Coquille is also producing some 30-plus pound Chinook, and we still have plenty of jacks in both river systems to keep the fishermen excited.
Salmon fishing on the lower Rogue River in Gold Beach still is producing some Chinook, and there are plenty of fin-clipped coho being caught in the bay.
As the water termperatures continue to cool down, the fall Chinook salmon will continue to work their way into the Rogue River.
Michael Becker, of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Gold Beach, said the waters are about 67 degrees currently, and more Chinook will move upriver as the temperature decreases.
About 35 to 50 catches of fall Chinook per day are being reported, Becker said, and numbers look normal for this time of year. The two-year-old jacks are also starting to appear.
Becker said that the bay still is best for fishing, but steelhead fishing is beginning to slow down, although you can still catch some adult summer steelhead. Becker said it’s important to make sure that the steelhead are fin-clipped.
Many 16 to 20 pound fish are available in the area, as well as three-year-old fish, Becker said. One person reported catching a 481?2 pound fish.
The ocean should be good for fishing next weekend, Becker said, when the waters are calm. Fish for bottom fish, especially lingcod.
While it’ll still be a good time raising money for a good cause, the Oregon Tuna Classic might not reel in much tuna this year.
Charleston will host the food bank fishing fundraiser for the second year in a row this Saturday, but organizers fear heavy seas might not permit the actual fishing part.
“It’s a lot of fun, and we get to help out a good cause,” Port Captain Jim Pex said. “A lot of families come, so it’s a pretty good crowd.”
This was in the AP wire but thought all you fishermen might appreciate it.
Ohio woman says her windshield smashed when an eagle dropped fish onto her car.
MARBLEHEAD, Ohio (AP) — A woman in Ohio is telling a fish story about one that got away – from a bird, and damaged her car. Authorities in northwest Ohio say the fish – a Lake Erie freshwater drum, known as a sheepshead – smashed a car windshield Tuesday when an eagle dropped its catch from a height of about 40 feet.
Leighann Niles says the impact felt like a brick hitting her Toyota’s windshield. The woman from the Cleveland suburb of South Euclid was vacationing along the lake in Marblehead.
Niles says she had thought herself lucky to escape damage in another animal encounter shortly before the fishy one. She says a truck hit a small bird, which struck her back passenger door and startled her 5-year-old daughter.
It was another beautiful day in Bandon when we left the docks at 6am. The waves over the bar were small and rolling and we set off to catch that deep-water pancake known as the Pacific Halibut aboard the Prowler owned by Prowler Charters.
When we got out to the place known as the high spot we were there with 6 or 7 other boats trying to catch the same thing, a monster halibut.
Starting in about 550 feet of water to nearly 750 we drift down the hill with a 3 pound ball of lead and a nice juicy 10 inch squid.
Our first drift we only got one small halibut about 15 pounds or so. After resetting we started the drift again. I hear someone say there’s a big one hooked up on the bow.
Since I was there primarily to film people catching halibut I set my rod in the holder and head up front. It turns out there are 2 up front. The first is a big blue shark which I filmed first (SEE VIDEO HERE).
After that I start to film this guy as he pulls on a pretty good sized halibut. After another 4 minutes or so he had it landed. It was somewhere between 45 – 50 pounds.
The halibut put up a pretty good fight and from over 600 feet this guy really had his work cut out for him.
Yesterday I was fortunate to have picked the perfect day for tuna fishing off of the Oregon Coast.
The time was 5:30 am and the fog was still keeping the sun at bay. 10 anglers left bandon aboard the Prowler owned by Prowler Charters of Bandon. As we came across the bar there were rolling 4 foot swells and all was well.
By 7:15 the water temperature was around 62.5 degrees. We set 8 lines in the water and drew our numbers for the order we would land fish. I drew number 2 which means when number one catches his fish, I get the next one.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife marine biologist Cristen Don will discuss wave energy development at an ODFW fish conference in September.
As the United States looks for ways to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels the Oregon coast is gaining more attention as a potential source of renewable energy.
Questions about this new technology revolve around the effect of large anchors and other structures on marine habitat and species composition, an ODFW press release said. There also are concerns about entanglements and the effects of electromagnetic fields on fish and other animals.
Don is the near-shore assistant project leader for ODFW’s Marine Resources Program and is a member of team of stakeholders addressing potential environmental impacts of wave energy technology.
The conference will bring together 40 speakers who are scheduled to present the latest findings in fish-related research at the conference Sept. 11-13 at the Oregon 4-H Conference and Education Center eight miles west of Salem.
A New Jersey company is already pursuing a permit to set up wave energy facilities off the Oregon coast, and others are contemplating it.
Oregon State University is studying wave energy at its Hatfield Marine Science Center and plans to expand that research. Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants to promote wave energy in an environmentally responsible manner and has directed state agencies to amend Oregon’s Territorial Sea Plan, which governs activities in the ocean within three miles of the coast.
Advance registration is required at a cost of $15 for individuals, $20 for families and $5 for students. Registration forms are available on the ODFW Web site at www.dfw.state.or.us/STEP.
For more information, contact Debbi Farrell by phone at 503-947-6211 or by e-mail at Debbi.L.Farrell@state.or.us.
As the water termperatures continue to cool down, the fall Chinook salmon will continue to work their way into the Rogue River.
