I am very excited about the upcoming 2019 Tillamook Bay Fall Salmon Season and the Nehalem Bay fall salmon season. We will be fishing in the bays from September into October. In mid October through early December we will be fishing the tidewater and rivers These fish are typically chrome bright when we catch them since they have just come in from the Pacific ocean.
There are three reasons why I am so excited for this falls fishing:
The first reason is that we have had an amazing summer so far in the ocean off the Oregon and Washington coast catching Coho salmon. In most cases when we get on the fish we quickly limit out and we are back to the dock well before non. This has been some of the best Coho action we have seen in the last 5 years. This is a fabulous sign for what is in store for us this fall in both the Tillamook and Nehalem systems. We fish for both Coho and Chinook Salmon in these waters. The fishing pressure tends to be much less than what is on the Columbia fishery which means much better fishing conditions for us.
A second reason is they made drastic cuts to the commercial salmon fisheries in Canada and Southeast Alaska this year, this is a very good thing for Northwest fishermen. Most of our fall salmon swim though that area and that will bode well for better returns this fall for the biggest strain of Chinook salmon of the year. Fish over 20 pounds are fairly common and an occasional fish in the 30 pound range will be brought in.
And the 3rd reason is the charters in Southeast Alaska have been seeing much improved fishing this year. When they see good fishing there that normally means we will see good numbers in the fall here in the Pacific Northwest. As I mentioned above, our fish have been in the Alaskan waters and are migrating down to Oregon.
In all, I am looking forward to a very fun and exciting fall salmon season from Tillamook and Nehalem bays to all my tidewater and river fishing. If you are looking to get out for fall Chinook or Coho don’t wait too long to book your dates. they are filling up fast for September, October, November and early December.