Posts Tagged ‘Coho Salmon’
It’s the end of October and that means some great fall fishing is coming to a close and with it goes the retention of wild kings and the ability to keep two Chinook. The good news is blackmouth season is upon us. My personal favorite Puget Sound fishery is blackmouth, or local kings, so I get very excited about this time of year. We are back to releasing wild Chinook (adipose fin in tact) and only keeping one Chinook but there are still some chum around and local coho to fill the two fish limit. And we will have winter crabbing in area 11 this year starting November 21st seven days a week til December 31st.
There is nothing like a crisp clear winter day, where the sun is out and the water is perfectly flat. There is very little competition for these fish so I am usually the only boat out, or one of just a couple. If I’m lucky I can get my buddy James or one of the other hard cores to go. We fish Blackmouth mostly at the tide changes, and hour before to an hour after. I’ll fish the Girl Scout Camp or Point Richmond on the in and Point Defiance on the out. Or Gig Harbor on either tide. There is a hump just north of the harbor that holds fish on the leeward side.
I troll between 2.5 and 3 MPH but will go slower if I’m running fat plugs like the Tomic Tubby’s. I usually run spoons or hoochies in green. I also have a couple Tomic Plugs one white and one green that work really well for Blackmouth. For instructions on rigging these check out my youtube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe. And you want to run this right on the bottom. usually if you run your downrigger ball the same depth as the water, or even a little deeper for the angle, you will usually be close enough. These fish are sitting on the bottom and feeding up.
Don’t forget to wear a life jacket when fishing in the winter and let someone know where your going and when you’ll be back. Unlike the summer, there aren’t a lot of other people around so a small mistake could be disastrous. Good Luck
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
Wow!!!! 
Every year we get a couple fish caught around Dalco and Point Evans in the thirties but this is the first 40+ I’ve seen here in a long time.
Check out the TNT story below:
Angler lands 42-pound chinook salmon off Point Dalco.
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
I am reading this article by Dave Shorett at the Kitsap Sun. Dave is a great writer with strong ties to the area. While, as in this case, I don’t always agree with him you always know where Dave stands on issues. And, while the Suquamish Tribe, and most other tribes, have done a lot toward salmon restoration to say they played no part in the demise of this once plentiful resource while stretching nets across the rivers and seining the beaches is a bit of a reach.
Please read the article and let me know what you think but know I will delete any comments that include personal attacks. I welcome civil disagreement.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
I went to the Washington Sportsman’s Show in Puyallup today. This years show showed me way more substance this year than last. I fell in love with a Beautiful 29′ Wooldridge SS Pilothouse. This boat has a 9 foot beam, carries 150 gallons of gas and gets almost three miles to the gallon at cruise. Twin 150 hoarse Yamaha’s push it up to around 48 mph (32 on one engine). Fish boxes are huge and the transom box has an outlet that can be a washdown or an aerator for bait (think tuna). Add to all this a huge cabin with an enclosed head and a walk through door to the bow. This boat has everything all for around $150,000.
Boulton had this cool solar powered electric boat there. They said it would do 60 but we later learned it does about 10 mph and is great for lakes and other places where a big gas motor might be impractical. This is a great conversation piece and brought in a lot of people. But, like most green alternatives, it just isn’t practical.
I talked to several rod manufacturers. I was not able to find the 9′ ugly sticks I like but Sportco had some nice 9′ medium action Diawa steelhead rods for about $25. Fetha, Lamiglass and all the rest were there. Jim from X-Rods was there again but I wasn’t able to get in to chat. I did not see Northfork Composites, the new venture by Garry Loomis, and I could not find them on the map so I assume they were not there.
We went to one seminar put on by Micheal Jamboretz of Jambo Sport Fishing on Ocean Bottom fishing. He had some great information about how to properly use a spreader bar or California (slider) rig. He had a great idea for rigging scampy tails with a zip tie on the back hook to avoid ripping the back side out. I learned some cool modifications for my pipe jigs next year and a cool way to rig a herring with the middle portion of a squid called a George Washington.
Coho Killer Deal
Sorry for the bad picture. I will try to make one next spring for halibut prep.
Some of the best deals I found on tackle were at the Point Defiance Marina booth. One such deal was this special on Coho Killer spoons. These are great for winter blackmouth because they imitate sandlance which is what most of theseblackmouth are feeding on.
The other great tackle discovery was made by accident at the Brads booth in the magic tank. Anyone that has fished a few years knows what a Brads super bait is. These remarkable little rigs have been absolutely killer in the last couple years. The only real problem with them is the angle on the head is always the same so you can’t really change the spin rate like you can with a cut plug.
Solution: They are working on a head piece that can be slipped on top to with varying angles to adjust the spin. these will come in several angles for optimum spin in every situation. This is still in development and in the mean time some people have started running a spinner blade in front of the super bait. this effectively reduces the water flow over the leading edge of the lure slowing the spin rate beautifully.
And finally
I met a great many incredible people. I got advice on everything from Tuna to Internet marketing. I met a man that told me about a forum I need to get involved with called wafish.com. These guys are all about bass and walleye fishing, are you listening Tom, and they have a huge following.
And last but certainly not least. I was absolutely floored by the beautiful women of Sportco. These ladies are not just pretty faces but really are great at what they do. Make sure when you go by you tell them you saw it on gigharborfishing.com.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
This looked so good I had to share it. I try to get around the net a bit and share things from other sites. this recipe comes from carycitizen.com
If you think it looks yummy also click on the picture.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Last week, Tacoma Power recovered 10,003 coho adults, 402 jacks, 465 fall Chinook adults, 30 jacks, one chum salmon adult, 207 summer-run steelhead, seven winter-run steelhead and 82 sea-r
un cutthroat trout during seven days of operation at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.
They released 809 coho adults and 91 jacks into the upper Cowlitz River at the Skate Creek Bridge in Packwood.
Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/11/12/1437644/angling-steady-plenty-of-elbow.html#ixzz158D3WmtS
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
This will make Ben happy.
Four marine areas of Puget Sound will reopen to recreational crab fishing Nov. 15, based on summer catch assessments by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) that show more crab are available for harvest.
At 8 a.m. on Nov. 15, marine areas 6 (eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca), 9 (Admiralty Inlet), 10 (Seattle/Bremerton) and 12 (Hood Canal) will reopen for sport crabbing seven days a week through Jan. 2, 2011.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Gig Harbor Fly Shop
Gig Harbor.com