Fishing Report: Astoria Sunday Aug 5th

What a difference a day or two can make!  After the first trip on Friday the 3rd proved unproductive, Sunday was a whole different story.  The ocean was fairly calm and the bar crossing was simple.  After dropping four crab pots, we joined hundreds of other boats off the north jetty and started fishing.  The action was very consistent, we caught our eight hatchery coho, released some native coho, and some chinook that were to small, less than 24".  The fish were caught on a variety of methods and baits.  We used pro trolls and cut plug herring, as well as triangle flashers and anchovies/cut plug.  All methods produced results.  Fish seemed to be fairly close to the surface, we fished in the top 25' or so.  Others appeared to be having excellent result also.

Given the amount of boats, the good fishing is certainly not a secret!  If you go, bring lots of bait, you will have several "stolen" by fish, and used on fish you must release.  The weekend of the 8th, 9th has some very large tide swings, https://www.tides.net/oregon/1112/, caution should be used to plan your bar crossings, what time you cross, if you decide to venture out.  The outgoing ebb chop can be dangerous, and conditions on the bar can deteriorate rapidly.  My plan would be to fish the river until after ebb, then cross on the incoming, and return before the ebb tide gets the bar rough again. 

One more note, the crabbing was very poor, four keeper crab for four pots.  The bait was good, a lot of females.  The amount of pots, I assume commercial, to the north of the CR entrance was amazing, line after line of pots.  It will be a while before we bring pots to soak in this area again.  Perhaps it is better to the south, I do not know.

A very enjoyable day with Jeff and Inna Schwab, and Anton.  We were in Jeff's boat, a very "dialed in" salmon fishing machine.