Went to a local river to try a little salmon fishing. Holy crap were there fish. The kings have moved into the rivers and they are stacked like cord wood. I fished for about an hour and a half and fought 6 fish. Landed one jack about 5-6 pounds and fought one king that would have gone 30 pounds atleast!! sorry I didn't get any pics, i forgot my camera. Tons of them are already spawned out and laying dead along the banks. the smell was horrendous! And the sight of 200 dead fish crawling with maggots wasn't very pretty. But the ones that were biting made it all worth while. will try to get pics when i got back either this weekend or monday.

Ok, I'm jealous.

Soundls like a spear would be more successful.

Quoted: Soundls like a spear would be more successful. home.iprimus.com.au/tadams/ddd/douglas/caveman.jpg

a long handled net would have gotten me more than my truck could have carried, but i think the game warden would frown on a net or spear. they won't even let us use barbed hooks

How Kooter really got his salmon  


Ok, so I'm jealous too.  

Quoted: Man, I need to not work as much. That sounds like so much fun right now!

Are they running down in Oregon yet? about 30% were too dark to keep anyways. but they were still plenty of "bright" ones in there

Quoted: How Kooter really got his salmon   Ok, so I'm jealous too.

Kooter: If I want salmon here in So. Calif, I have to go down to the local supermkt. Its like $5/lb!
I bet the bears will be feasting on all of those dying fish.

It's close enough to quittin' time...

BRB


Edit:

The salmon are running...

Quoted: Kooter: If I want salmon here in So. Calif, I have to go down to the local supermkt. Its like $5/lb! I bet the bears will be feasting on all of those dying fish.

no bears in the area i was fishing. but the seagulls and maggots seemed to be having a good time.

You need to get out in the sound with a down-rigger!

Thursday, September 9, 2004

Outdoors Report: Coho entering Sound early
Plenty of large fish in run that started ahead of schedule

By GREG JOHNSTON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Coho salmon are pushing into Puget Sound from the ocean early this year -- and they're large.

Typically, coho fishing in the Sound proper gets good in mid-September; this year, it's been decent for two weeks and showing no signs of letting up. Furthermore, anglers are consistently reporting fair numbers of coho larger than 12 pounds, along with the usual 6- to 8-pounders.

"There are some really nice fish, up to 18 pounds," said Mike Chamberlain at Ted's Sports Center in Lynnwood. "There are a lot of silvers, but fishing has been sporadic one day to the next -- typical silver fishing."

Curt Kraemer, biologist at the Department of Fish and Wildlife's Mill Creek office, said samples of catches at the Everett boat ramp recently show about 10 percent of the coho are more than 10 pounds.

"The fishing (in the Sound) isn't hot like at Sekiu, but it's pretty relaxing: no swells, not much wind chop, and you can run out quickly for a morning trip or after work and have a good chance of catching a nice fish," he said.

Fair to good coho fishing is now being reported from the ocean right on through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and south through Admiralty Inlet into Puget Sound as far south as the Gig Harbor and Tacoma areas.

Of the inside waters, the best catches, as usual, are coming from Sekiu, although some anglers are complaining that the unmarked fish, which must be released in most northern waters, are far outnumbering the marked hatchery fish (those lacking an adipose fin).

Good catches have been reported from Sekiu east along the Strait past Port Angeles; from boat anglers off Whidbey Island at spots such as Fort Casey, Bush and Lagoon points (shore anglers who usually do well at those spots are not right now); at Possession Bar, the Mukilteo and "shipwreck" areas; from Edmonds south to Richmond Beach and across the Sound at Jefferson Head; at West Point and Duwamish Head in the Seattle area; to the south off Point Robinson and Redondo; the south end of Colvos Passage just north of Gig Harbor; and the area from Point Defiance to the mouth of the Puyallup River in Tacoma.

Local angler and Possession regular Wally Wallace cautions that pesky dogfish have been thick at times over the last few weeks on the west side of the bar, although anglers fishing there yesterday reported their numbers appear to be diminishing. Other anglers reported occasional problems with dogfish at Jeff Head, which has also been thick lately with schools of herring.

A few coho are also sneaking into local rivers early, such as the Skagit, Snohomish, Puyallup and Stillaguamish.

In the ocean, waters off Ilwaco (marine area 1) and La Push (marine area 3) remain open for salmon, and the fishing is excellent.

Waters off Neah Bay (marine area 4), which closed to salmon fishing last week as catches neared the area's coho quota, are likely to reopen. Fish and Wildlife Department sources say a final tally shows about 1,600 coho remain on the quota, and discussions were under way yesterday about reopening the area, possibly by this weekend. If so, it should be announced today (see http://wdfw.wa.gov/).

Chinook fishing is decent in the ocean and in a few other places, as well. Randy Lato of All-Ways Fishing charters out of La Push reported boating kings of 42, 25, 20 and 15 pounds Monday at the south end of "the Rockpile."

"The silvers are big too, 10 to 14 pounds on the hatchery fish," he said.

State catch samplers at Ilwaco reported several charterboats returning over the weekend with good catches of chinook, along with coho.

Although marine area 2 off Westport is now closed to salmon fishing, Westport charter operators are running south past Ledbetter Point into marine area 1 and finding good fishing for mostly coho.

Chinook must now be released in the Buoy 10 fishery inside the mouth of the Columbia River, but coho remain plentiful.

Chinook fishing has been good upstream in the Columbia, where kings may still be taken in the Longview, Vancouver, Kalama, Cowlitz and Woodland areas.

Willapa Bay produced good king fishing over the weekend, with many boats reporting multiple-fish days.

"Our checks there showed an average of a little better than a fish per boat, which is good," said Scott Barber, biologist at the Fish and Wildlife Department's Montesano office.

Reports from Willapa yesterday, however, showed slow fishing as a storm front approached. Another good chinook opportunity starts a week from today when Grays Harbor opens to salmon fishing.

Fair king fishing has been reported lately along the west shore of San Juan Island and in Samish Bay.

In other fishing news:


Albacore tuna catches off the south coast have been good, when weather allows boats to get out. Ilwaco and Westport charterboats are running anywhere from 35 to 70 miles out and finding larger than usual albacore, 18 to 30 pounds. One Westport Charters boat returned to port yesterday with 114 tuna for 10 anglers.


Squid jigging is off to an early start, fair off Seacrest, Terminal 85 and other Elliott Bay piers.

Quoted: You need to get out in the sound with a down-rigger!

I wish, i don't think my little 12 foot aluminum boat would do to great out in the sound. i've only got an electric trolling motor for it......know where any cheap small gas motors are

My sister caught a big ass coho in the Puget Sound.  Almost a 20lbs.  I couaght a little one only about 5-6lbs. The next year I look in the paper and there is my sister holding this monster coho in an ad for the charter boat!