Posts Tagged ‘King Salmon’
We have been working on the boat getting it ready for Spring Halibut, Summer Salmon and Fall Tuna. We are adding 10 rocket launchers, Upgrading the electronics to add a Garmin 740S which will replace the old Furuno ls4000 fish finder and an old Garmin 210 GPS, replacing the plugs on my Scotty Downriggers, patching some holes and cleaning out a bunch of old wires. We are also adding a b60 tilted element thru hull transducer, it is scary drilling a 2 3/8 hole in the bottom of the boat.
While I was down yesterday laying out some stuff and cleaning out my wiring area my friend Ringo (Bob) was down to help me. Ringo is an old gill netter from back in the day and we were swapping stories, I was mostly listening. When I finally poked my head out of the cabin I saw what Ringo had been working on. He made this beautiful series of knots on my starboard grab rail and started on the port one as well. 
These are beautiful but I told him when people ask me at the dock if I did that myself I was going to have to tell them I did. He just laughed. I also learned that he had never been halibut fishing off the coast here. So Ringo has promised to do more of his magic to my boat and I am going to make it a priority to get Ringo Halibut fishing this year. It’s a win win. I get more cool stuff for the boat, and I get to go fishing with Ringo. It kicks ass being me.
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’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
Regular readers know this year I have focused on learning the Washington Coast Tuna fishery. I have learned a lot of lessons that I will use in the future but there was one lesson I was able to bring with me from years of winter blackmouth fishing that helped me out there.
Often when fishing Blackmouth, or really any time fishing in the fall and winter, I find that I am the only boat in the area. 
This situation happened to me when I was Tuna fishing last week. I had planned to go with a couple other boats but as is sometimes the case the other boats decided to go the following day so I found that I was the only boat going. Rather than cancel my last tuna trip of the year I decided to go and use what I have learned from winter blackmouth fishing and make sure several other people knew where I was going and when I would be back. I even told them if I was not back by 3:30 start looking for me. When I pulled in to Westport about 3:15 I checked in with the people I had coordinated with but if I hadn’t they knew to start looking.
This is very important on the ocean as it can be challenging at times just staying on the boat. This is also important in the sound where the water is not always so challenging and is easily underestimated. Every year we read in the paper about a guy that went fishing alone one day and washed up on the beach a couple days later. I was out blackmouth fishing on a dead calm day a few years ago, caught one and stepped out on the swim step to net it. There I was out by myself, on the swim step trying to negotiate my nine foot rod and a four foot leader, the long handled net and the boat. Fish goes on way net goes the other and I scare the crap out of myself thinking I’m going over. later, it occurred to me that if I did fall overboard the boat would keep going without me and I probably couldn’t swim to shore.
Lesson learned. It’s always a good idea to let someone know where you are going and when you’ll be back, especially when you will be out by yourself. This goes for Puget Sound or offshore or even your local lake. And always wear a life jacket, especially when fishing alone in the boat. accidents happen and a little preparedness can make the difference between being the guy in the picture or the guy in the paper.
Also remember that Boaters licensing is being phased in in Washington state. For details check out this link:
Graphic courtesy of BoaterExam.com – Get Your Boating License Online!
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Guys are catching Kings right now in all the usual spots. Now is the time we wait all year for so get out there and get some!!!
This one was Jessica’s first salmon and was good for 19th place in the Gig Harbor PSA derby last Saturday. The winner was a 25.42 pound hog caught near Nisqually by Russel Stone.
I was out tonight and there were several fish caught, including one that I broke off for my other daughter Kristina. Sorry Babe.
Anyway this is a great time to go fishing so get out there in anything that will float and get some!!!!!
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
It looks like this rain has done it’s job and some kings are moving in to the area and plenty more are on the way. Try the girl Scout Camp on an incoming tide or Point Defiance on the out. There have also been some nice fish caught in front of Gig Harbor early in the mornings and evenings this last week or so. When fishing in the Gig Harbor area I will often stay “between the cabins”
View Gig Harbor (www.GigHarborFishing.com) in a larger map
I have been known on an out tide to fish farther south near Point Evans. You don’t want to get too close to point Evans because the bottom is rough and you will lose gear.
Try kingfisher spoons in cookies and cream and green uv, the 3.5″ apex in green and smoke or ace high flies. Any of these can be run with a flasher.
I have also been seeing great reports coming from my friends in
Ucluelet, BC 
and LaPush. 
Westport has been doing well also and if your like me and excited about Tuna a friend of mine went 40 miles and got one last weekend. That was an expensive Tuna but it is only the beginning of some great fishing to come.
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
Those that know me will not be surprised that I love to run plugs. I have in my arsenal several different colors but I have two favorites. One is, the old standby, Tomic 140, white with a pink head, everybody should have a couple of these. The other is a two tone green, dark on top light on the bottom. This story is about the second.
In May, 2004 I did a trip up the west side of Vancouver Island with some guys. On the way up we stopped in couple places one of which was Ucluelet. In Ucluelet there 
was a little tackle shop on the water. This place was great. Like all old tackle shops they had a lots of things that work for salmon but all the really good stuff was in the front by the counter. As used to be the case in many coastal shops there was a bucket with old plugs the commercial long line guys had used and discarded for a buck a piece or 5 for $4. These buckets can be a lot of fun to go through. The trick is to find the ones with teeth marks in them, those are the ones that really work. So I picked out a few that looked good including this goofy two toned green thing.
In June of that year I tied up the green one and a couple others. Here is a short video I did on how to rig these plugs.
Up to this point I had had very little success catching June fish in the Gig Harbor area (White River Kings). The first time I ran this green plug it caught a nice 14lb Chinook. This plug has continued to be a consistent producer for me (especially in June). I had to call Tomic to get more made because I couldn’t find them in stores here. They advised me that this was not a color they did for the general public. It was a custom color they did for a long liner in Canada but they would make some for me. So I ordered a dozen. A couple years ago I ordered another dozen after the company changed. The colors are not an exact match but it still works well.
The moral of the story is “when you find something that works use it!!!”.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
I copied this from a forum I follow. It should be a good time.
APRIL 9th DEFIANCE MARINE GRAND OPENING!!!
The Seminars will be as follows:
10:00 AM Downrigger Fishing with Flashers by Ken Pinnell
11:30 AM Bottom Fishing for Halibut and Monster Lings by Tommy Donlin
1:00 PM Puget Sound and Ocean Fishing For Salmon by John Keizer
2:30 PM Mooching Mastery by Rob Endsley
4:00 PM Albacore Fishing by Tommy Donlin and Todd Schwartz
As you can see we will have quite a lineup of the best fisherman around. So be sure to be at this great event to get all the info you need to have an incredible summer of Fishing Success!
We will also have many Doorbuster Sales items, and big discounts on many of the top name brands of fishing gear that you need!
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Gig Harbor Fly Shop
Gig Harbor.com