Posts Tagged ‘Salmon Fishing Puget Sound’
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
I was out yesterday and caught a small humpy. The trick with humpies is to bleed them right away and put them on ice. Unfortunately I didn’t have any ice so I cycled the water in my cooler a couple times and kept him alive till I could clean him at the dock.
I filleted him, put him on ice and BBQed him tonight with some pineapple pepper sauce we got at Costco. It was great!!!
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
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
I had a chance to take a couple of our brave fighting men from Fort Lewis fishing on Thursday. Ronald Hill, Keith Dempsey, Jason Jones (2 days back from Afghanistan) and I had planned to leave the dock at 7:30 but as things worked out we didn’t pull out till almost 9. This was ok because we would be hitting the tide change just right. It was an in tide so we went to the “Girl Scout Camp” on the west side of Vashon Island and trolled south to point Dalco. This looked unremarkable so we ran over to the Harbor and trolled from half cabin south to see what we could see there. right in front of the harbor SSGT Ron Hill sees the rod go off the release and says “Hey, what’s that mean?”. I tell him to grab it and start reel it up thinking it just got knocked off since we had dragged bottom a little earlier. Suddenly the rod starts to bend and wiggle. Ron starts reeling. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of fight in the fish but it was obvious there was something there. Fish gets to the surface, I see a wiggly flash of white and think “Dogfish”.
Then as it gets closer we realize it is a salmon but I’m pretty sure it’s too small. These guys talk me into netting it and we bring it aboard. Normally, I don’t like to bring small ones aboard as it is hard on them but I said I would measure and it’s a good thing I did. 23 inches and in the box.
Blackmouth fishing can be very hit and miss. I was glad to have been able to put these guys on a fish and they were very excited to have had the experience. We all can’t wait to do it again.
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
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
Day one is in the books and the leader is in with a 20.16lb Blackmouth.
Check it out here:
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