Craig West of Marysville, Wash., was fishing with long-time friend and guide, Jeff Fischer of Fischer Guide Service on Friday when he caught this 39.4 pound Chinook in the ocean just outside the jaws to take first place in the Chetco Hawg Derby. The Pilot/Larry Ellis

Fishing report for 

September 30-October 6

WARNING: Do not go skinny dipping at Sport-haven Beach this week. You’re probably all saying to yourselves, “Why in the heck would we do that? We’d all get hypothermia!” But humor me on this one and just say, “OK, I’ll bite – why not?”

Tell you what. I’ll let you answer that question yourself. But first everybody get out a musical instrument (preferably a tuba or a double bass) and get ready to play the easiest song ever composed. Blow or strum the two lowest notes on your instrument slowly back and forth – and play it with feelin’! Duh-da, duh-da, duh-da duh-da, duh-da. (Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water.)

Are you starting to get the picture?

There were a lot more than Kong-sized kings nibbling people’s baitfish last Saturday, the opening of the Chetco Ocean bubble fishery.

 At least two intrepid pairs of anglers got the surprise of their lives when a thresher shark whacked their herring while they were trolling for salmon. These threshers made the Chetco Ocean Terminal Fishery’s famed 50-pound Chinook look like sardines.

The aforementioned information is not based on fibs, farfetched fables, fabrication or falsehoods. It is rooted in fact. I saw the first sharkmeister, and the beast measured a whopping 110 inches, including the tail, which was at least half as long as its body.

“We really weren’t very far from the can,” said Brookings guide Sean Clemens, who was out fun-fishing with a friend on his boat the Cat Balou. “It took at least 150 feet of line out on the first run. At one point about 45 minutes into the fight, it did come within 40 feet of the boat, but I didn’t know what it was because all I saw was my flasher.”

But the pinnipeds knew what it was. Not one was in sight, not even the huddled masses of seals that congregate inside the red can buoy. It was at that point in time that the entire salmon fleet knew what Clemens was grappling with on the end of his line.

After a one and one-half hour fight to the finish, Sean Clemens finally got to see what he was pursuing as he battled the brute to the boat.

“There was no way I could have gotten it in the boat by myself,” Clemens said.

It took all the strength the two anglers had just to yard the shark up onto the swim-step and throw a few loops around it to keep it from sliding off.

Back at the cleaning station, Clemens and his fishing buddy threw the carcass on the counter and dozens of anglers were treated to true life fish tales about the one that didn’t get away.

As the two started hacking up the fillets, another thresher was being fought in the same vicinity.

“The second shark was easily 50-pounds heavier,” said local angling enthusiast Ron Fairchild of Brookings. “The anglers told me that it took four and one-half hours to get this one in.”

There was another story about an angler losing a thresher shark the very same day, as well as numerous downrigger balls being broken off.

There may be more thresher sharks in the area this week. The water temperature isn’t as warm as it was last Saturday, but water temperature isn’t the only thing that brings sharks into the area. There are plenty of salmon hanging out close to the jaws, and to a shark that spells F-O-O-D.

~~~

Opening day of the Chetco Ocean Terminal Fishery brought several large fish to the scales. Although there weren’t any 50-pounders weighed in yet, anglers have talked about losing lots of very large Chinook.

“I’ve had some really big Chinook that came loose right at the boat,” said Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing (wildriversfishing.com).

Martin has had several good days on the ocean this season and he is hopeful that anglers will be hooking into some monster kings before the ocean season closes one hour after sunset this coming Wednesday.

“There are a lot of fish just outside the jaws,” Martin says. “Everybody’s marking fish.”

The important thing he emphasizes is not to get locked into using downriggers as the main method for catching these Chinook. Martin and his buddies have been trolling with ordinary spreader bars, the kind that people use in the Rogue Bay.

He says to use between 6 and 7 ounces of weight as your dropper, and to use a cut-plug herring with a Big Al’s Fish Flash, just like you do in most bays.

“I just start trolling immediately when I leave the jaws and head for Salmon Rock,” advises Martin. “There are a lot of fish hanging close to the jaws.”

As of Wednesday, the top three leaders entered in Sporthaven’s Hawg Derby are: Craig West, 39.4 pounds; Ron Hodgens, 38.9 pounds; and Gary Veach, 36.7 pounds.

Wild coho can still be kept in many neighboring rivers

There are still plenty of wild coho that should be available for anglers this weekend if you don’t mind traveling out of the area.

The wild coho quota has already been met on the Umpqua, but the Coquille and the Coos Rivers should still have enough fish left to last through next week, possibly even through the week after next.

While I was traveling south on 101 on Thursday, I stopped in at the Siuslaw. I must have seen at least 15 wild coho caught by bank anglers, with the average size being around 14 pounds. Anglers had to look twice to make sure that they were definitely silvers and not kings.

The quota on the Siuslaw might be reached this weekend, so be sure to check the news releases on the ODFW website (dfw.state.or.us) for any expected closures.

These coho are suckers for anything made of pink. Spinners, FatFish, Brad’s Wigglers and spoons with pink tape are all great lures.

Tight lines!