Now that QIN fishers are in it is a good time to reflect on just what happened. Jack fishing was spotty until Sept and even then the first two weeks of Sept were nothing to write home about. Then things changed around the 15th big time is an understatement. To put things in perspective the bay was just great fishing with Coho streaming through and those who know how to fish the bay cleaned up! Now upriver in tidewater it was different to say the least. The river was a series of very soft hold over tides and the fish started building up below Cosy and after a couple of days the build up turned into what I call a mob! The mob was stuck in about a mile half or so stretch of the river and just slowly moved upstream. We had fish coming into the mob and fish moving up out of the mob but the mob just slowly went upstream. It was more like fishing in a lake than a river.

Saturday morning the 25th the bottom end of the mob was at Higgins Island and when tide changed to incoming it was a stampede as fish just stormed out of the channel and river screaming upstream. How far up they went no idea but for sure there is a lot of fish above South Monte but biters I am not sure of. I have not come into contact with a Coho with scales set, about half had sea lice, and about 50/50 hatchery wild mix. Despite a slow start the are a ton of Coho Jacks in the river and I mean a ton way way past normal and this is good. Now the bad, the Chinook numbers appear to be well below normal based upon encounters. Could be water conditions or anything but in tidewater Chinook are not present in numbers that the preseason forecast anticipated.

Now Coho, here is the thing it was a aerial circus where the mob was with Coho airborne all over the place. It got to the point that it was simply amazing to watch! Now the bad if you got the fish at the right time it was lights out but if not you just watched jumping fish. Clear water and at the end of a retrieve one could see one, two or more Coho just following your gear to the boat. To say this was frustrating would be and understatement of epic proportions! It was also entertaining as I watched George fishing near me and I swear he had Coho jumping all around his boat to the point I yelled just stick your net out and wait for one to jump into it! I thought the old guy was going to have a stroke! He finally got one hooked about 3 ft from the boat and George is as good fisher in tidewater as it gets.

It also got crazy out as anything that could float was on the river which is good but folks got a bit frustrated watching jumping fish and if you got a fish on lord did you draw a crowd! I watched 3 boats fishing the point as I was anchored taking a break and it was tight quarters for them but they did a V which impressed me. Then this boat came screaming by me saw them get a fish on and slowed down dropped his gear and trolled right through the V. Well that started a discussion to be sure and when I heard the words “you don’t own the river” I figured the jig was up then things settled down. It was not 10 minutes later that the boat at the top of the V hooked a fish that by its behavior was a Chinook and it did the power run left and power run right several times then made the turn right under his boat headed for deep water. Things went South again as that guy trolling had come back and literally trolled right over that guy’s line with a fish on! It went down hill from there as all three boats surrounded that troller and I exited as they sorted things out.

So it is a little strange out to be sure so everyone be prepared to be irritated more than once in a day but we have a good run and folks want to catch a fish! Us who fish a lot are just going to have to be tolerant but lord grant me patience comes to mind.

From this point on in tidewater we will fish upon only what is swimming upstream that day as the QIN and NT commercials will prevent any major build up. This morning I have yet to see a fish of any size jump which is normal with the nets in. Tidewater fishing is going to be Thursday through Sunday noon from this point on and anything to get the water temperature down would help.