Chinook fishing off to hot start.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

Fall chinook fishing is just bob-bob-bobbin' along this year on Oregon coastal rivers.

"It's a good year for bobber and eggs because those mid-September rains moved fish upriver while they were still good-quality fish," said Jim Muck, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's district fish biologist for the Umpqua watershed.

Most years, Muck said, fish taken on bobbers tend to be a little dark because the bobber fishing doesn't start until later in the season.

But not this year. The rain pulled early-arriving fish up out of tidewater, to small but deep holes where bobbers are most effective.

Fishing with bobber and eggs - sometimes with a chunk of sand shrimp added - also works anywhere salmon "stack up" in bays and estuaries. One such area is near the mouth of Winchester Creek in Winchester Bay, where the local STEP club releases chinook pre-smolts. It's a popular area with bank anglers.

"Everybody's throwing spinners, but the people fishing bobber and eggs are catching fish," Muck said. "Chinook will occasionally strike at a spinner, but they just eat eggs."

This year's fall chinook run on the Umpqua appears to be about the same as last year's, when about 13,000 chinook returned to Winchester Bay, the biologist said.

However, overall catch rates have been lower this year because the early rains led the fish to scatter throughout the river sooner than usual.

There are pockets of fish in the River Forks area and at Elkton, Deans Creek and in the bay itself.

"Fishing is good everywhere, but there isn't a real high catch rate anywhere," Muck said. "You're not going to see many boats with limits."

Good but not great is pretty much the story all along the coast, with some rivers doing a little better than others.

Coos Bay and its adjoining river tidewater areas have produced some of the best fishing recently, Muck said. Anglers fishing near the head of tide recently were averaging about one fish per rod. The Coquille River also has been productive, he said.

There have been spurts of hot action on the Siuslaw River, but the overall fishery is lagging behind last year's pace, judging from the record of landings kept at the C&D Docks. Through Tuesday, 445 chinook had been logged at that marina this season, 90 fewer than on the same date last year.

However, this year's fish seem to be a little larger, on average.

"A 49-pounder is tops so far," Bill Lewellen said. "But there are a lot of 20- to 30-pounders."

District fish biologist Bob Buckman at the ODFW office in Newport also noticed that this year's salmon seem to be of exceptional size.

"The average is 20 pounds-plus, with a lot of them running 30 pounds-plus," Buckman said.

"The Siletz River has been very good. The Yaquina initially did not have a lot of chinook, but recent reports say fishing has picked up there.

"The Alsea, in mid- and lower-tidewater, has been real consistent, with new bright fish moving in daily on the tides. Fishing is also picking up in the upper tidewaters, now that the streams are lower."

In-river chinook fishing is expected to remain productive through October.

CAPTION(S):

A chinook salmon caught by Char Shelton of Florence tips the scales at 28 pounds at a marina on the Siuslaw River.