Grant’s Getaways – Fishing for Kings from Travel Oregon on Vimeo.

Despite the wild and wet weather of the past few weeks October is prime time for “King Fishing.” King Chinook Salmon, that is! There is a simple reason that they are called “Kings.” – after all, the big fish can tip the scales at fifty pounds or more.

Despite downpours and sea squalls, I recently joined a fishing party on Tillamook Bay where we tried our luck for the king of the salmon. If you’re eager to catch a “King,” you arrive at the Garibaldi docks an hour before sunrise.

A longtime Oregon fishing guide, John Krauthoefer, told our huddled group of anglers: “It’s the early bird who gets the worm, men! This has become such a popular fishery that if you wait and go late, you might miss the bite.”

Krauthoefer added that it had been a long salmon fishing season. I knew exactly what he meant because we had joined John on two earlier salmon fishing trips. Our first adventure was in July – on the ocean – where the summer Coho salmon bite was awesome. We joined John again in September when the Coho and Chinook season slipped into high gear at “Buoy 10” on the Columbia River.

Now, in mid-October thousands of salmon are migrating through dozens of estuaries like Tillamook Bay and swimming into their home rivers.

As we motored out of the marina, Krauthoefer noted that it had been a wet and wild weather week and that several big storms had pumped up a huge ocean. As we approached the ocean, we watched huge swells rise and fall – sometimes fishing boats would briefly vanish as the swells passed by. The bar was closed – no one would be heading out onto the ocean today.

Birt Hansen, a longtime fishing partner, had joined John and me on Tillamook Bay where scores of other anglers had also gathered – we were excited, anxious and ready for action. After all, low tide was about to turn to flood and it might serve up the biggest of all the salmon species called “King.”

John’s a big believer that a plug-cut herring makes the best bait when fishing for Chinook. He makes a bevel cut with his razor sharp knife just behind the herring’s head to make the bait spin when it’s trolled in the water.

We dropped our lines over the side and John began a slow troll with the tide. As the tide turned to flood, signs of salmon life began to appear as nearby anglers hooked up. It happened to us too! Suddenly, I had my hands full with a hard charging king that had decided to head back to sea.

Krauthoefer put his motor in gear and followed the salmon. After a twenty-minute tug of war, the gleaming 20-pound salmon came to the net and it was scooped aboard.

It can be a he challenge to fish along the jetty – where the swells and the waves and the tide can combine to change conditions in a heartbeat. We wore our inflatable PFD’s (Personal Flotation Devices) at all times.

Sport-anglers catch more than 12,000 King salmon on the bar, the bay and the five rivers that flow into the bay on their way to the sea. So, special rules are in place to protect the Kings from over harvest. An angler can keep one King per day and five per season from Tillamook Bay or its rivers. In addition, anglers can also keep a hatchery Coho salmon.

Information on purchasing an Oregon Angling License

Sport Fishing Regulations (pdf)

Locate a fishing guide here

Information on Safe Boating Practices

A huge rush of Silver Salmon – also known as Coho Salmon – is swimming along the Oregon coast this summer. Oregon fishery managers peg the “run” of coastal Coho at more than a million fish this year.

Licensed anglers – with rods and reels in hand – are trying their luck on the ocean waters as the best fishing of the summer season gets underway. There is an old fishing adage that goes, “You should have been here yesterday!” The assumption being – the fish are always more eager to bite – the day before you decide to go fishing.

So when I stepped aboard John Krauthoefer’s (Firefighter’s Guide Service) boat at Garibaldi Marina for a day’s adventure on the big blue Pacific Ocean and heard: “The fish are here – no doubt about it,” noted the longtime Oregon fishing guide. “Every place we went yesterday we had a bite…there were three guys in the boat and we dumped the fish in and were done 35, 40 minutes later…it was great fishing!” His report sounded fantastic and yet my heart sank a bit!

That’s because it has been my history that whenever I hear such a solid report of angling success that occurred the day before – it is usually followed by nearly the opposite when I step aboard the next day.

While Krauthoefer fishes the ocean each summer, he insisted that he hadn’t seen ocean Coho salmon fishing like the past month in a long time. As we sped across Tillamook Bay toward the ocean he was convinced that our fishing adventure would be every bit as successful as the day before.

As it turned out, our combination of tactics and techniques added up to one of my most amazing ocean Coho salmon trips ever. He added that the summer forecast for Oregon’s Coho population is pegged at more than a million fish.

Anglers are allowed to keep three hatchery Coho per day.

Fish splashed and nets flew from boats all around us as we trolled within sight of Twin Rocks, just north of the entrance to Tillamook Bay.

You can tell the Coho are hatchery fish by the missing adipose fin; that’s a half-moon shaped fin located immediately behind the dorsal fin. (The adipose fin is clipped off at the hatchery when the fish are babies.)

Not only is there a greater abundance of Coho, but the fish are bigger than usual – on average two pounds larger – for this time of year.

There were plenty of keepers to go around and we ended up with Coho limits all around.

For more information on Fishing Licenses and Regulations

Grant’s Getaways – Bay Clamming from Travel Oregon on Vimeo.

Summer days are the getaway days for families on the go – perhaps to set out on a camping trip or a stream side picnic lunch. I recently discovered along the Oregon coast, it’s also a chance to try something entirely new.

On this Grant’s Getaway, all you need is a rake, a bucket and a spirit of adventure to try raking bay clams along the Oregon coast. Summer mornings along the coast are often met by folks in hip boots with shovels or rakes – but they’re not there to work, rather they’ve come to play; especially on a minus low tide on Tillamook Bay at a place where clamming is king.

There are six species of bay clams found in Oregon’s estuaries. Four are most popular for the rake and shovel crowd; they are called “Steamers,” “Butters,” “Gapers” and our clam of choice, “Cockles.”

Each clam-raker is allowed twenty cockles and must carry his/her own container and an Oregon shellfish license that costs $6.50 is required of each clammer 14 years and older.

I think that the best part of this recreation is that even the littlest ones can do it and have some success – it offers a little bit of mud or sand, a whole lot of estuary water, but there are lots of clams.

Recipe for Seafood Getaway Chowder (pdf)

Oregon Shellfish regulations (pdf)