Salmon
I have been fishing salmon all my life. I have been fishing Puget Sound Blackmouth for about 20 years. I know a little about how to fish but one of the most important lessons I have learned during this time is how to take information from several sources to create a style of fishing that I can use. This is one of the themes I have tried to apply to this site and everything I write whether it be on-line or in print. My goal is not to teach people how to fish but to share information so that my readers can create their own technique.
To that end when I find something on-line or in print that can add to the conversation I like to share it here. This is an incredible collection of videos by my friend Mike Jamboretz of Jambo’s Sport Fishing explaining in great detail how he fishes Blackmouth in Puget Sound. These videos were created by Mike and Doug Saint-Denis of Ridge to River Outdoors. There are four videos in all. Try to watch them in order. I did but I have been back through them several times as they are packed with information.
Enjoy!!
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
If you have fished around the Gig Harbor area for very long you know about Chambers Creek Hatchery. August is by far the best month to fish salmon around here and most of those fish come from Chambers Creek hatchery.
There is a dam at Chambers that was built a long time ago to provide water for the old paper mill that was closed in 2000. In the last couple years Pierce County and the Puyallup Tribe have spent over $13 million on upstream habitat restoration but as I have said a million times habitat means nothing if the fish can’t get to it. There has been one fish ladder in operation and the other was abandoned thirty years ago.
Enter the Chambers Creek Restoration Team. This is a group of volunteers that, with grant funding and technical assistance from the Puyallup tribe, have restored the second fish ladder and christened it on September 27th. While the hatchery kings will still be intercepted and the eggs used to replenish the hatchery, the new ladder will assist runs of coho and chum to get upstream to the habitat that has been restored. Which should mean increased runs of these species and that is great news for those of us that like to fish them in September and October.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
I commissioned my friend Tammy Derwick, the mermaid expert, to make me an image. My original goal was to make a graphic for the boat “Three Ladies” but as it evolved it became much more than that. What we have ended up with is a beautiful hand drawn portrait of my wife and daughters in mermaid form that we have framed and hung in a place of honor in our home.
I think you will agree Tammy does fine work. You can contact her and see more of her work at bethemyth.com.
Next we will start to work on a nice wrap.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
I don’t know if others experience this but I seem to have a lot of smarty pants type people around me. I was supposed to go crabbing with my friend YT (pronounced whitee) on Sunday but I worked a little overtime so I didn’t get the boat back in the water. We were going to drop some pots at Quartermaster Harbor and troll around for a couple hours get some fat winter crab and go home.
Today is monday and I see YT and he says “we only got three crab” in that “ask me what else happened” kinda voice. So I say “but they were big fat nice ones, yes?”. He couldn’t hold it any more and told me he caught a nice 23lb Blackmouth while soaking the pots. Needless to say it didn’t take much prompting to get the rest of the story. 
He was fishing on the west side of Point Dalco, in about 100 feet of water. he was running a hot spot on the downrigger ball, with about a 4 foot leader, and a coyote spoon about three feet behind that off the release. I will try to post a pic of this rig in the future.
Good Job YT
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
It turns out there is more quota left so there will be some more Chinook retention in the ocean.
The rule now reads: Change daily bag limit in Marine Areas 1, 2, 3 and 4 to two salmon only one of which may be a chinook, release wild coho.
Effective dates are:
Sept. 5 through Sept. 30, 2011, in Marine Area 1 and Sept. 5 through Sept. 18, 2011 in Marine Areas 2, 3 and 4.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
As I was fishing yesterday morning with my buddy Jeff We snagged this dude. It’s an eight and a half inch herring. The herring in the south sound tend to be a little smaller than in the north sound or the ocean so smaller spoons, hoochies and plugs usually work better here. Kingfisher and Apex spoons in the 3.5 inch or 4 inch Tomic plugs are my favorites. I also like needlefish hoochies. They give a smaller presentation to more closely match what the salmon are eating.
So at the end of our day we snag this huge herring. Can you guess what I’ll be trying on Thursday when I go out next?
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Yes boys and girls the fourth of july is past and now it is just a couple weeks till Kings come rolling in to the south sound. There have already been a couple small groups of kings come through with few fish but good size. Guys are picking a few by the Girl Scout Camp and the Slag Pile. I will be going out tomorrow to try Point Richmond and maybe the Girl Scout Camp. I will be starting this year with what worked last year. 3.5 inch kingfishers in cookies and cream and green uv. 36 inches behind green hotspots. I also have a couple ace hi flies I am looking forward to trying this year. As you may know the Gig Harbor PSA derby winner came on an ace hi last year by the Girl Scout Camp.
Here is the video on how to tie spoons:
I look forward to seeing you all on the water.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
My friend John Keizer just did a great, if a little long, video on tying spoons with micro hoochies. I cant wait to try this.
Check it out here: 
Also check out his other videos on the Salt Patrol Website here: 
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
The 2011 Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby (or Gardner Derby as it has been called for ever) is over and Guess who won.
photo from gardinersalmonderby.org
This years derby was great but not without some controversy. it seems a decision was made at the last minute to include area 9 and allow people to run fish up to Port Townsend to be weighed. The decision was made on the 17th and publicized on the derby web site. The argument is that if more people had known they would have fished there especially on Saturday with the north wind blowing people out of the straits.
The fact is these guys are all volunteers and they are trying to (and succeeding at) put on a great derby so don’t be to hard on them. All in all it was a good event with lots of prizes and a good time was had by everyone that wanted to. Good Job guys!!
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
I took the boat in to Lighthouse Marine in Gig Harbor to have the outdrive removed and serviced. There was really nothing terribly wrong with it but things had been feeling a little off lately and it has been 6 or 7 years since its been off so it was past due.
They called this morning to let me know how it was going so I decided to stop by after lunch and take a couple of pictures. Jay takes me out to look at it and we were quickly joined by Mike. The first thing they tell me is the u joins and gimbals are in pretty good shape.
Then, I notice all these eels on the ground. I ask whats that. Jay tells me there were eels in the outdrive and explains that it is actually pretty common. Eels living in the outdrive is common? they explained to me they really don’t hurt anything, unless there are a lot.
The other thing they found upon removing the drive was a glob of plastic plugging up the exhaust almost completely. A couple years ago my port riser go
t plugged and heated up the exhaust elbow. I had some hydraulic lines running along this elbow wich melted and sprayed hydraulic fluid on the hot elbow and smoked like hell. this melted the bellows and as it turns out the flapper valve. I didn’t know that it had a flapper valve so I never went looking for it so it just sat in there and turned into an obstruction. This had been causing me to loose power for some time but I never really noticed. The removal of this should give me more power and better fuel economy in the future. That’s why we have the outdrive removed and serviced every couple years.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Gig Harbor Fly Shop
Gig Harbor.com