The Nehalem fall Chinook fishing has been fair although sporadic. More Chinook should be coming in and the rain falling as of this writing may help facilitate that.

The Nehalem gets a return of hatchery coho salmon that should be showing up soon as well. In addition, the wild coho fishery starts this Saturday. Nehalem Bay is open to retention of 1 adult wild coho/day and 2/season on WEDNESDAYS and SATURDAYS only, from Sept. 7 to Oct. 23. See the regulation updates online for more details.

Trolling with flashers and spinners seems to be the go-to technique for this fishery in the bay, but trolling herring is always a good option for Chinook as well. In upper tidewater bobber fishing bait can be effective. The bag limit for wild adult Chinook is 1/day and 5 for the season from July 1 to Nov. 30. See the regulation updates for more details.

There are cutthroat trout throughout the Nehalem basin. Most of the sea-run cutthroat should be up in the rivers and tributaries by this time of year.