Anyone been fishing Puget Sound lately

B

Beartrack

New member
Boat is still in the shop, supposed to be back today (heard that 3 days in a row though) and I'm hoping to get the rod holders and downriggers all mounted up tomorrow plus a new mount to raise the 8hp Yamaha trolling motor. If all goes well I'm hoping to fish Sunday. As I've only gone salmon trolling once since I was about 14 or 15 (lol), any pointers on where the fish are getting caught would be really appreciated. I'm mostly looking for pointers in say the Edmonds/Possession on up to the Tulalip region (will be launching probably in Everett or Edmonds) this weekend. Next weekend I can also try Neah Bay, Sekui or Port Angeles as I'll have a 3 day weekend to play with - if folks think it's worth the trip out vs. fishing here in the Puget Sound.

As far as gear, I picked up a ton of gear to try, dozen or so each of Coyote spoons, Coho Killers and Sonic Edge spoons in various colors, some e-Chipped Protroll heads for trolling herring, flashers, dodgers, snubbers, and about a dozen colors of hoochies in 4.5" and mini-sized; so I'm probably more loaded for bear than fish. ;-) Any pointers on if folks are getting more Kings or Silvers and what I should try from the gear choices above, plus what depth at what time of day or at what tides, etc. - any and all tips would be appreciated. Thanks from a newbie gang!!!

Thanks!
Beartrack
 
Sounds like your getting setup nicely. I have heard of some good fish coming out just north of Kingston and off possesion, if you're launching out of edmonds look for a tide rip that can develop out in the middle off the channel off the ferry , that can produce both coho, and kings. Just fish right along the edges of it. I fish mainly spoons and would say a coho killer in green/white or the same color coyote is a good bet. A guy from my club caught a 40 lb king in EB last weekend on a purple UV sonic edge spoon so It won't hurt to throw that out either. And you can always go to cutplugs too. I would fish shallower early in the am, say 25-45 feet down, and move down as it gets brighter maybye 60-90 or a bit deeper if needed, or marking fish deep. I find small tide changes are the best and of course fish the slack tides hard. Look for bait, and rips and fish them hard if you find some. Good Luck!!

Sark
 
Thanks Sark! Any recommendations on lure sizes as far as the Coyotes or other lures by chance? Have you heard anything by chance on what size of bait is in the area?
Thanks again!
Beartrack
 
Sarks comments on depth is correct, fish fairly shallow in the early AM and late PM and deep during the brighter parts of the day. Fishing for King Salmon (mature and clipped) is open in area 9 for the first time in many years and the fishing has been great. My son and I went out last Wednesday. Our boat is moored at Everett, we left the dock at 4:45AM, dropped off crab pots and were fishing the West side of Possesion Bar by about 6AM. We caught a 14lb King and a 6lb King (blackmouth) and had pulled the pots by 7AM. We did the same thing on Friday but only caught one nice mature King which was about 10 lbs. I believe the quota is about 3000 fish (all must be hatchery or clipped) so the season may not last long. All fish we have caught have been clipped so the odds are in your favor.

We have had the best luck with spoons and fake squid, both on the darker side in color. A dark purple squid worked best on Wednesday. Dog fish are abundant, so I really wouldn't recommend fresh bait. My son and I will be out at least once again next week but may wait until Wednesday so we can drop off the crab pots as well.

Good luck, Mason on MacNaughty III
 
I went out of Edmonds this AM and fished the west side of Possession bar. According to Gamefishin.com posts, the king fishing was much better earlier in the week and tapered off on Fri. and Sat. We did so-so. Never saw a king but had the hookups and long distance releases early on, A couple of dog fish and a shaker and we decided to try some place else. We motored over to Jeff Head and did a little better. A couple more shakers and a nice 5-6 pound hatcher coho were landed. That was it today. Called it quits and went in for lunch.

Also, rumor has it that the king quota will be gone by about Wed. so get 'em while you can.
 
Fished the East side of possession out from the green can early Saturday morning. We had a lot of action, lost a nice one to a seal and had one cut off by a dummies down rigger cable. Ended up boating three kings there, 2-13 #'s and one about 8 #. Trolled out the East bar and headed West and got our fourth, 9 #'s, out on the Southwest corner of the Bar. Good days fishing! We were using a green speckle back needle fish hoochie with a twinkle skirt, about 34" behind a green hot spot flasher. We were fishing between 70' to 117' off the edge of the Bar.
Stayed the night in Kingston and tried a again Sat. morning and it was a complete different story, pretty slow. Lost a nice silver after a decent fight, spit the hook. Lost another king on a broken leader. Changed to coyote spoons and caught a 6 # blackmouth and released two natives. It was hard to keep the dog fish off both days.
Jim
 
Yeah, well we really had to work for that fish. We were out 17 hours that day. We did take our limit. First small fish in the morning at Jeff Head. Went to Posession, where we saw Work Release. Gave up there, headed to PNP. Nothing happening there. Went back to Jeff Head, it was slow. Went in to port (Shilshole) and took a 2 hour nap. Following nap, went back to Jeff Head, and it was a different story. Many of the boats were gone, and the fish were back. We guess that fish at 18lbs. Phil said the filets were 8lbs a piece.

Went out again today. Got 3 fish, no giants.
 
Well it seems we hit one of the right spots Sunday, just the wrong time!

I got the boat back Friday night from the shop, still backfiring through the carbs at low and mid RPMs, but temporarily driveable they said - and recommended if I wanted to try for kings to take it out and return it to them this morning before the season closed, which I did. Well, I worked on the boat for 21 hours straight Saturday a.m. through 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning, and got to Possession at about 3:30. First hookup was right away in only about 70 feet of water, at 45 feet deep on a spackle-backed green Aces High hoochie and lost the fish. After that, saw only one other hookup on any boats there, and didn't have any more hookups from then through dark unfortunately. But even so, it was a great time FINALLY having the boat on the water with my wife and 2 daughters. In fact once we got trolling I couldn't get my wife to give me some time at the helm for about 4 hours straight! :-) What a blast. Few more pole holders to add and undoubtedly a bunch of upgrade ideas to implement from y'all at a later time, but Saturday I got the first pair of rod holder on there plus the Scotty electric downriggers and some other general stuff and a bit of other general repair for a touch more dry rot I found on one gunnel.

To my suprise despite the somewhat rough running engine we did get it up on the calm water running back to Mulketeo to 27 knots and 5700 RPMs, so I'm guessing she's propped right.

I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing you folks out there in the coming weeks and hoping to learn a lot more about the Dory's, various customizations, fishing in general and simply just getting to know some of you all. Thanks for the great info folks!

Anyone know if Sekui is still catching any kings and halibut? I plan on taking 3 to 5 three-day weekends in a row starting this coming weekend with the Dory since my project at work ends in a few more days (assuming the shop gets the final motor fixes done on the Yamaha 80...

Thanks,
Beartrack
 
Beartrack":2uj4kz44 said:
<stuff clipped>
Anyone know if Sekui is still catching any kings and halibut? I plan on taking 3 to 5 three-day weekends in a row starting this coming weekend with the Dory since my project at work ends in a few more days (assuming the shop gets the final motor fixes done on the Yamaha 80...

Thanks,
Beartrack
Click to expand...

Here's the most recent report posted at Olson's resort in Sekui.

FROM Olson's Resort":2uj4kz44 said:
Perhaps “groovy” is the best word to use here. There are just lots and lots of fish of every size, shape and species here now. Coho are here in abundance, with some of them already nudging the mid-teens in weight, pinks are thick and plentiful, and we’re seeing some excellent chinook brought in, although chinook fishing remains a bit on the slow side.

Pinks can be found from right outside the marina all the way to the shipping lanes, coho are being caught from about 200′ all the way out the shipping lanes, and chinook are generally being caught around the Caves and the area east of Slip Point.

We just received word that we are 37% of the way through our chinook quota, so it’s a safe bet to say we’ll make it through approximately mid-August, although things can change.

It’s definitely safe to say that this is the best salmon fishing we’ve seen here since at least 2005, so come on up and have some fun!

We are constantly uploading fish photos to our online photo album (see sidebar), so feel free to keep checking out the newest additions! Also, if you see YOUR picture there, feel free to add a comment such as your name, the size of the fish and where you caught it, as we don’t always get that information when we post the picture. In short, the photo album is an interactive way to relive your fishing experience here at Olson’s Resort!

Halibut season is still open, and we’ve seen some nice fish still coming in. This is some folks’ favorite time of year- you get to fish for chinook, coho, pinks and halibut! Just remember: Lingcod is now CLOSED in Area 5, and halibut is closed each Tuesday and Wednesday.
Click to expand...
 
Beartrack
Two friends and I just returned from a 4 day trip to Sekiu. We brought at least 130 fish to the boat and lost a lot more. At first we had a heck of a time tying into any clipped fish but we fianally found some. Alot of catch and release pinks. largest clipped king was a hair over 20 lbs. we also got some dandy cohos both clipped and wild. All but two fish were caught on artifical lures. Coyote spoons and bait busters were our top getters
Chuck
 
I caught me a beautiful 16 lb King today at Jeff Head! I didn't go out until the afternoon and thought I'd try the high slack but actually got it on an outgoing tide at about 4:15 pm.

I'm gonna try and get more! :thup

Peter
C-Dancer
 
Sounds like folks in general are doing excellent! After this Friday, I hope to see some of y'all out there!

Anyone heard any updates on when they'll be closing the kings in Puget Sound? I talked to just the receptionist at the Mill Creek Wildlife regional office on Monday and she said they figure they'd only caught 2,000 of the 7,000 king quota, but that the department was going to meet on this Thursday to see if they were ready yet to plan a closing date... but I'm not sure how reliable that info was not coming directly from one of the biologists, etc...
 
Great Job Peter!! What did you get it on? I was out at PnP yesterday with a buddy and we got three from 8-12 lbs. Got into a real hot bite right before sunset, and got all our keepers in about 20 minutes, lost a couple others during the bite,including a real fighter, that was making huge runs and must have been a pretty nice fish. earlier in the day hooked a 15ish lb wild fish, that we released and lost a nice 8 lber at the boat. Almost limited but that last fish just didn't come and it was getting dark, so we boogied back to everett in record time( just made it to the river when it was getting really dark). All our fish came to coho killers fished deep in 120 feet of water, the chinook had some nice sized herring in their gut though so I will also try a diamond king or other larger spoon, on thursday when I go back out. As far as the quota I've heard rumors of it closing today or lasting until sunday, I'm hoping for the latter since I need to work on my trailer today.

Sark
 
I fished Point no point today at the morning tide change. Got on site at 830 and fished pnp until 1100. rich, form work, hooked up a nice fish in the teens but lost it at the boat. After that I hooked and brought to the boat the biggest king I have ever landed. easy 25 lbs if not more. this fish had a hugh head and one of those damm extra fins. I never btought him out of the water. just reached down with the pliers and turned him loose. :cry :cry . I would love to have ketp that one. all the boats around us where getting fish and I heard several limits over the radio. I also saw three more wilds get turned loose. Good day on the water.
 
Tom,
I was fishing on the beach at PNP and saw you troll by a few times. I waved, but it would have been difficult to see any one person among the crowd. You had better luck than I did, that is for sure. It was combat fishing on the beach. Many said there were more beach fishers than they had ever seen. I left and drove south and fished another beach. Beautiful sunrise, beautiful day.

Robbi
 
Robbi, sorry we did not see you but we did see you and a hundered of your closes friends lining the beach. We hit our fish just off the east facing beach heading south. 120ft down in 220 feet of water. the pic that rich took looks awful. I cant post them. to bad biggest fish I have hooked a relaesed. Robbi have you heard of anyone picking up a pink yet???
 
Sorry Sark, I just got back from a week-long trip and this is the first time I've checked the site in a week. I caught it on a Sonic Edge UV (Green tinted) spoon with a UV (silver) flasher 90 feet down. I really like to fish Jeff Head, it was full of bait and salmon. Sorry, no camera, no pics. I caught a really feisty coho, about 20" but let it go to live another day. The darn thing fought every step of the way, a lotta fight for such a little fish.

I fished Possession on Thursday & Friday midday, couldn't get out there any earlier and only picked up a few shakers. Now I'm kicking myself for not going out to PNP on those days.

Peter
 
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