Garibaldi coho Aug 5,6,7, and 8

Headed to Garibaldi Wednesday night, began fishing Thursday morning. Fished solo, managed to tag one hatchery coho. Lost another at the side of the boat, and released a few natives. The fish I did keep had a lot of food in its stomach, two herring and an anchovy, from what I can tell. These appear to have been swallowed whole. The fish hit my 3.0 Spinfish. I spent the day out in about 200’ to 240’ of water. Not a hot bite, but enough action to keep things interesting.

Repeated the process on Friday the 6th, with the same results, using the Spinfish. Friday evening my friend Todd came down and we fished together Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we spent the day out at about 200’ for the most part, and each ended up with a hatchery fish. Released some natives, and jack coho, and had several takedowns that did not stick. Todd was using the Spinfish, and also hoochies with a small spinner blade in front, and a chunk of herring on the top hook. This method proved very productive, as well as the spinfish and traditional cut plug herring. It is worth noting we also fished off Nehalem in about 130’ of water, where Todd got his hatchery keeper. We were running 10 ounce weights at about 32’ on the line counter.

Sunday the bar was restricted, we did not get on the ocean until about 10:00 a.m. We found success much shallower than I am used to fishing, from 130’ to 150’ of water slightly north of the north jetty. I managed to get two hatchery fish, and Todd got one, he also released one of the biggest natives I have seen this year.

Time to plan for next weekend, the weather and tides appear to look very promising at this point.