Umpqua River Forks Park, smallmouth and chinook!

NKlamerus
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Decided to sleep in and fish an evening bite as I dont work labor day, made it to the launch at River Forks Park at 230pm and fished until 6 before I decided to switch to largemouth.

It was hot and windless, saw what I thought were king salmon filleted at the ramp, which is also a fall Chinook? Just up river? And lots of bait. Didn't think anything of it.

I quickly made my way to moving water, with the heat and lack of wind I knew the fish would want something cool, the rapids just up into the south fork were perfect, I started with a spinnerbait and immediately caught the best one of the day, maybe 2lbs.

I could feel fish hitting the blades, so I switched to a Rapala shadow rap, cast after cast, fish after fish, the action was crazy. I caught 23 fish in that one spot, some small, some decent, one with a hook in it's mouth already.

I switched sides and nailed some more, but the bite died off when 4 other angler's started pitching in.

On my way back west, after catching a couple small fish and one decent boil on a baby spook, I switched back to the shadow rap to fish past the drift boats outside of the north fork flow.

First cast off the shelf of the bank and I get slammed, rod doubled over and started peeling, similar to a large redfish just off a flat in Florida. I fought it for probably 4-5 minutes before finally getting it to the side of the kayak, my first salmon. Looked pretty similar to the one at the ramp, as I was deciding what to do, she took off again and the one rear treble finally gave way, probably should have just netted it, not sure I'm legal though

By then some of the drift boats had started asking questions, I had to confirm what it was, I do not know my salmonoids at all!

Seemed to be some confusion about where the cutoff line is for the angling ban at the fork, boats were discussing it, even though people on the bank were fishing right at the point and across from it.

Retied and kept fishing, caught 2 more small fish on my way back to the ramp on the spook, I'll definitely be back to explore some more
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Nice nook! 3 of those are mine. LOL.

My buddy was guiding on the Umpqua on Saturday and his guest landed a chinook on a swimbait he was using for bass. Fun surprise.

Let me know when you're there and I'll meet up with you.

FYI....the south closes on the 16th I think.
 
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jamisonace said:
Nice nook! 3 of those are mine. LOL.

My buddy was guiding on the Umpqua on Saturday and his guest landed a chinook on a swimbait he was using for bass. Fun surprise.

Let me know when you're there and I'll meet up with you.

FYI....the south closes on the 16th I think.
Absolutely! Didn't know the south closed either, I'll have to take a look at the regs!
 
Is there any decent bank fishing there?
 
pcstock said:
Is there any decent bank fishing there?
There's a ton, further south from the boat ramp there's a rock bank that wraps around to the north fork

Then between the north and south, at Singleton park, there's a concrete dock and more bank access
 
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Fished the park again from about 3pm-6pm on Saturday.

Much slower fishing, little rain coming through with off/on cloud cover. Water level was a tad higher, but more importantly it was extremely dirty. Not just visibility but actual junk floating downstream, leaves, algae, plant detritus, etc....

I didn't catch a single fish with a treble hook bait, couldn't make a cast without slopping up.

13 fish on a Ned rig, nothing if any size.

I did see 3 Chinook caught, and had more rolling and jumping around me.
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I must have just missed you on Saturday. I think I left my house around 6 so I got there about 6:15. Did you check the regs for the closure on the South Umpqua. I caught a really big bass about a half mile downstream of the ramp on a salmon plug. Water definitely got dirty but from the rain.
 
jamisonace said:
I must have just missed you on Saturday. I think I left my house around 6 so I got there about 6:15. Did you check the regs for the closure on the South Umpqua. I caught a really big bass about a half mile downstream of the ramp on a salmon plug. Water definitely got dirty but from the rain.
Yes kinda, is the south still open for bass? Just closed for Chinook?

I might try to head downstream tomorrow.
 
Pretty sure the South is completely closed until Dec. 1. I haven't looked but that's how it's always been.
 
With the trolling motor I was able to float quite a ways down the main from the boat ramp.

Bite was slow, gorgeous day for fishing, terrible weather for catching, still managed about a dozen smallmouth, 2 of those being decent.

See my other post about losing my Chinook out of the net........

Salmon everywhere, rolling everywhere I went, spooked a few up on rock flats too, I could see them from pretty far with no wind and still water
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Good day for catching salmon too. Went 11 of 15 with these 3 hatchery fish to go. Plugs and twitching jigs did the trick. Tried a little bait too but no bites.
 
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Made it down to leatherwood rapids yesterday from river forks, bite didn't really pick up until 2pm, but the smallmouth eventually picked up nicely.

Mostly Ned rig, did catch my last good one on a Whopper plopper

Threw a Huddleston 68 around for a little bit and had some salmon chasing and playing with it, at some point I hooked a scale off one.
Smallmouth were pretty interested as well

Ended the day with 14 fish, all of them sitting on river rock flats in the current, they didn't want weeds or still water at all
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We're the coho still all over in there?
 
jamisonace said:
We're the coho still all over in there?
Absolutely, I think I saw every color imaginable at some point in the day.

Lots of rolling, breaching, and full acrobatic jumps
 
Figured i would share this with you all pretty interesting.
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jamisonace said:
Whoa....that would be awesome if we got a humpy run on the Umpqua.
I am guessing its a solo one that got confused and went up the wrong river. It would be pretty cool to get a humpy run on the umpqua though.
 
Clbagshaw said:
I am guessing its a solo one that got confused and went up the wrong river. It would be pretty cool to get a humpy run on the umpqua though.
I'm thinking it was one of a spawning pair pioneer that is here to colonize a new world.
 
jamisonace said:
I'm thinking it was one of two spawning pair pioneers that are here to colonize a new world.
I hope so.
 
Clbagshaw said:
I hope so.
Those humpy runs are prolific. I was in Alaska during a humpy run and they were literally in the run off drains on the side of the street. The creek was so full they were stacked side by side like firewood all the way across.
 
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