Siltcoos and Tahkenitch

[JeannaJigs]

Oh I went walmart and exchanged the gas can. Thinking I'm going to clean ot my 6 gallon can and start using it and maybe just keep regular gas in the 5 gallon can for whatever. Seem like the pour can for a spare boat can has been a bad idea since june I have exchanged 2.

It doesn't help that I dropped a 50 pound battery on it....

I sent ya a PM about Tahkenitch Sunday...This weekend is all dependent on my pain scale, which right now is a nice 8/10. I'm gonna take it easy tonight, and see how I'm feelin' in the morning. More than likely, I will disregard all the reasons why I shouldn't be going, and try to ignore the pain, and go anyways...because...it's raining, even though I shouldn't.

 

[JeannaJigs]

Dams are NOT open

Dams are NOT open

So Tahkenitch today...was completely dead. There were 20,000 boat trailers at the launchsite, but we quickly realized there was a bass tournament of some sort going on, and only two boats, ours included, were actually out there seeking the 'hos. There are a few fish near the outlet, but the numbers are very poor, and there is nothing going on past the tressel. The dam is not open, I checked it out. There were a couple intelligent folks (see: sarcasm) that in previous seasons I have ran into out there, that completely fail at fish identification (i.e. they keep coho thinking their chinook, and they've kept chinook thinking their coho...not gonna get started on that topic, but, it's relevant to today) They said they couldn't keep the jacks off their gear all the way up the 5 mile arm, so being the idiots that we are, to actually think that these guys had any sort of a valid report, we decided it was worth checking out... 30 minute boat ride up the arm...and we realized it was a major fail on our part lol. These idiots were hooking into searun cutts, and thought they were jack 'hos... There are some seriously nice cutts up there, but they definitely are not salmon. I checked out the creek below the dam...it's going to take some hardcore rain to get fish into Tahkenitch, so I won't be giving it another try for probably 3 weeks or more. Gonna try Siltcoos tomorrow, even though I feel like I'm dying tonight. Back pain and puking woohoo!

Pikshures of the dam, and the fatty cutt.

 

[Mike123]

Thanks for the reeeport JJ!

Don't you love the ignorant fisherman? lol.

 

[Teo]

Fish ID

Fish ID

You know Jeanna, looking at your pics of the cutthroat and looking at the species guide in the ODFW fishing regs, I would have a hard time seeing that this is a cutthroat. Obviously I'm pretty new to this salmon fishing stuff, and I've never caught a cutthroat. Now I'm not doubting you in anyway, but in the regs a cutthroat has spots all over it's body and your's only on the top half. Also, yours has a significant strip along the middle of it's side which is nowhere to be seen in the regs. Just looking at the regs and looking at your pic I'd have guessed that your's is a chinook since your's has spots on both the upper and lower parts of the tail. But as I understand it there aren't any chinook in this system, Yes? So, what's a newbie to do. There is a thread about telling the difference between coho and chinook, and I feel confident I could do this mainly by the coloration in the mouth, never the less I find the pics in the regs lacking, and the ODFW site doesn't offer any more than what's in the regs booklet. Any suggestions for finding some good annotated pics of fish species?

Thanks,
Teo

 

[Mike123]

That's no chinook. It's a rainbow of some kind... Doesn't look like a cutt that much to me either but sometimes you get cut/bow strains of fish or just big fat rainbows. Was there big bright red markings under it's throat?

 

[Thuggin4Life]

It was a searun cutt. They don't have much of a colored slash. I thought my first was kinda funny looking.

 

[Mike123]

It was a searun cutt. They don't have much of a colored slash. I thought my first was kinda funny looking.

Is the limit on them down there 2 a day as well?

 

[Thuggin4Life]

Camera finally woerked for me. Me and Bfshin along with xltom and windburnt. Went ot to siltcos ysterday in search of ho's. BFishing got this jack on my new plug I didn't get a chance to try out. 18" er.

 

[TTFishon]

At first glance it doesn't really look like a cutthroat, but after taking about 20 seconds to get a good look at it. It sure looks like a cutthroat to me. I'm not sure if I've seen a sea run cutthroat or not. This fish looks like a dark, fat, cutty to me.

 

[TTFishon]

Camera finally woerked for me. Me and Bfshin along with xltom and windburnt. Went ot to siltcos ysterday in search of ho's. BFishing got this jack on my new plug I didn't get a chance to try out.

Nice fish.

 

[Thuggin4Life]

Is the limit on them down there 2 a day as well?

Depends on where you are at. Can be 2 but I think it could be 5 depending on where you are at.

 

[JeannaJigs]

You know Jeanna, looking at your pics of the cutthroat and looking at the species guide in the ODFW fishing regs, I would have a hard time seeing that this is a cutthroat. Obviously I'm pretty new to this salmon fishing stuff, and I've never caught a cutthroat. Now I'm not doubting you in anyway, but in the regs a cutthroat has spots all over it's body and your's only on the top half. Also, yours has a significant strip along the middle of it's side which is nowhere to be seen in the regs. Just looking at the regs and looking at your pic I'd have guessed that your's is a chinook since your's has spots on both the upper and lower parts of the tail. But as I understand it there aren't any chinook in this system, Yes? So, what's a newbie to do. There is a thread about telling the difference between coho and chinook, and I feel confident I could do this mainly by the coloration in the mouth, never the less I find the pics in the regs lacking, and the ODFW site doesn't offer any more than what's in the regs booklet. Any suggestions for finding some good annotated pics of fish species?

Thanks,
Teo

definitely is NOT a chinook, or a salmon of any kind, and not a 'bow either.

I did not get a good picture of it, but I would bet my life on it that it's a sea run cutty, if you look at the jaw, and the underside of the jaw, the "cutts" are huge, the pictures aren't good...should have got better ones, but the fish has been fried up already. If we have learned nothing from this forum it's that spots can be deceiving... The bilateral cut lines on the underside of the jaw are the definative characteristics. Sea run cutts do not have the coloring of rainbow, they're silver/brown...but they have characteristically elongated heads with the teeth of a hardcore predator, they look vicious, side by side with a normal trout. This one was full of eggs, ready to spawn, so the coloring is different than a cutt straight from the salt. Tahkenitch and Siltcoos both, are loaded with searuns.

 

[JeannaJigs]

The dam is about to flow over. For sure it will be open on the first, but it might be open sooner if there is decent rain.

 

[Thuggin4Life]

Lucky guy he was. I was so pissed it was funny. You come around the bend expecting to see no one and if anyone a kyak or maybe someone doing the same thing you are doing. Being dumb and not fishing to do some recon of the dam. But to see a guy casting derectly at the fish ladder? And to not have a care in the world that you say him? And then on top of that hold up a fish that was just caught totally illegally as if it was nothing. He better have not known but come on. I always at least try to make sense out of a reg book. Maybe we should have told him. But I was to busy trying not to laugh. Don't forget there is that 1% chance that wasn't there rig and someone else got the note. That would be funny! Oh and sorry about the S*** eating grin but they had just proudly showed us there fish.

 

[Thuggin4Life]

Matbe we should have said something but its kinda aukwerd when you roll up on someone doing something illegal.

 

[Mike123]

You guys dating now? :lol:

 

[JeannaJigs]

Yeah, i wasn't in a position where I felt comfortable approaching them...i don't deal with confrontation so well, and I don't like confronting because I've had it backfire, and had people get really, REALLY angry, at which point...I was a bit freaked out...but...when something is wrong...somethin' needs to be done. Pretty sure they got a mouth full from those guys we saw on our way out, headed their direction. And guarantee ya that was their trailer, it matched their boat to a T, and the few remaining trailers were for ginormous sleds

Just makes me mad that so many people get away with that kinda thing because there is not enough enforcement.

 

[JeannaJigs]

You guys dating now? :lol:

lol shut it. I just continually bum a seat in his boat, because...I'm a bank maggot needing an escape (and if i spend another day like Saturday in a little boat with my stubborn parental unit, one of us is gonna go overboard)

Gettin' a boat soon...but not soon enough.

 

[Mike123]

lol shut it. I just continually bum a seat in his boat, because...I'm a bank maggot needing an escape (and if i spend another day like Saturday in a little boat with my stubborn parental unit, one of us is gonna go overboard)

Gettin' a boat soon...but not soon enough.

Ok haha just checking..

I got a smaller boat but have to borrow my dad's truck all the time to pull it.
It would look a little funny seeing a lowered Honda Prelude towing a boat. :lol:

 

[JeannaJigs]

Is the limit on them down there 2 a day as well?

Limit is 2 in the rivers (see reg book for specific body of water you are fishing though!!! special regs in effect in different zones), 5 in the lakes, as they count as a regular trout when lakeside livin', even though we've pulled some out that have been GINORMOUS in previous years, my dad got a 28 incher wayyyyyyy up a certain arm at Tahkenitch last fall. Can't keep 'em off the plugs up there. They get kinda dark this time of year, and aren't much to look at because like all salmonid species...they're in the process of spawning. (but similar to steelhead, and unlike chinook, they don't start turnin' into carcasses as soon as they hit the fresh h20) the meat is soooooooo good. Better than any salmon or steelhead I've ever had. Usually though during salmon season, we let them go because that's not what we are fishing for. That one I got Saturday was a bleeder though and wouldn't have survived, it had the first treble in it's mouth, deep, and the second treble through the entire side of it's face. An unfortunate (but tasty) bi-product of running giant plugs with dual trebles.