Fishing the San Juan Islands in September

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Bess-C

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We will be in the San Juans from 9/3 to 9/12. I've never fished the area, but I'm thinking there should be a decent coho run in the islands sometime in September. I will have a young man that's dying to catch a salmon on board from the 10th to the 12th. The boat doesn't have downriggers yet and will only troll down to about 4-5 knots. I'm thinking that with a diver we might still be able to get down enough to hook a coho.
Lyle

Do any of you fish the area in September. If so, are you willing to divulge any areas and/or tactics?
Thanks,
Lyle
 
Lyle,

Coho are usually not too far from the surface (especially in the early AM) so a diver is probably OK. I've caught a lot of coho on just a banana weight and a cut plug herring. That's probably the easiest and most reliable approach if you don't have down riggers. A banana weight and a coyote spoon is good also. 4-8oz is plenty. I don't fish the San Juans much so I don't know the best areas up there. Perhaps a PM to Dusty will get you some good info on that area.
 
Thanks for the reply Roger. I'm going to bring this back to the surface, troll it slowly past and see if I can get a strike from Tom, Peter or someone else who fishes this area.
LYle
 
set the hook....zippppp..

I did not chine in yet because I had to call a few folks. I have not caught silvers in the San Jauns but from what I have found out its a out side show. what I mean is that most of the fish are caught on the out side edges of the islands and not in the middle or passes like kings. you want to target tide rips in deep open water. silvers will be in the top 60 ft or less of water so pink ladys,jet divers or dipsy divers will work find to get your baits down with out downriggers. in line weights will do the same but will not get you as deep. silver are fast fish and you have to troll faster then for kings so your troll speed of 4 knots should be fine.

as for lures the ace hi fly has been doing good for folks around here in the last week. Spoons in the 3 and 4 inch range. and I really like the new brads cut bait plugs. you can fish any of these by themselves or with a flasher. at the higher speeds I prefer the inline type flashers as oppose to the hot spot flashers.Dodger42.sized.jpg
 
Tom,
Thanks for the info. I've never used Brads cut bait plugs. They look interesting. I've looked up some areas on Salmon University, so I have a general idea of where to go. I still have to get the regs and figure out what I can and can't do.

One of the things I've always had great luck with on the west coast of Vancouver Island for cohos is anchovies. They are rigged with a plastic holder that has a treble hook. I'm doubting that they are legal in Washington state, but I hope they are. Easy to rig and effective.
Lyle
 
Hey Lyle, I can't speak to specific locations in the San Juan's, but suggest focusing around the outside of the islands on the north, west and south sides. Look for concentrations of boats.

Rather than go the diver route, I'd suggest you consider mooching with cut-plug red or green label herring. All you need is an assortment of 4,5 & 6 oz keel sinkers, 3/0 or 4/0 tandem hook leaders with pinched barbs, bait and have at it. If you don't have alot of experience cutting bait, you could use the artificial cut plugs Tom mentioned in an earlier post. Free spool your set up down to about 100' or so and reel back up to the boat at a steady pace. You can hook fish in both directions. Find the boats, focus your efforts around bait concentrations and you'll have a great chance of catching a fish.

When you get tired of reeling, you can put your rod in a holder with your baits down at various depths and drift through an area, or you can motor mooch. I'd suggest using 8 oz weights to do this. In this case you will want to let out a 100' or so, put the boat into gear until the baits rise and then out of gear to let them drop. Make sure your carefull not to troll across the path of other trollers or your likely to meet a few people the hard way.

Have fun. Tim
 
No treble hooks are allowed when fishing for salmon. You can use two, single point, barbless hooks and rig up a helmeted anchovy. There are also a variety of rotary clips that allow you to take a whole anchovy or herring and just clip it in (as opposed to holding it in with a toothpick on the helmets). I like the ones from ProTroll. The herring or anchovy goes in quickly and it's the fastest way to change out bait during a hot bite. The rotation is tight and fast just the way coho like it.
 
I have not used a lot of bait as i like lures better. but when I go with one friend, dave, he will always use bait. He does not cut his bait as most do but instead just places one hook in the side of the fish and the other right thou the lips. rotates right and trolls good. last time I was in his boat ( three weeks ago) he landed a 25 lbs king wild. works well and a lot cleaner.

also the maker of the raydavis bait heads has a plastic that is made to fit in the heads and works good. My boss got two kings in my boat with them so far this year.

Oh when my mother asked if I caught anything yesterday and I replied " one 12lbs king but it was wild and I released it" she said " well cant you train it?" then " tell the gamey is train to play dead, really dead" :roll:
 
Thanks for all the tips everyone. I'm only going to have one day that I can fish and probably only two of us fishing, with a bunch of other people on board. That means that I will need to simplify and go with one method. My usual style is to throw everything but the kitchen sink at them. I take lures, bait, buzz bombs and even bucktail flies. This time I'm going to have to discipline myself.

I'm also going to be in a 50' "party boat" so I don't think I will be welcome drifting or trolling through a bunch of other boats. It will be an adventure.
Lyle
 
I just read that there is record breaking sockeye run headed through the San Juans going back to the Frazier River.

Is there a sportfishing opening for them, or is it only commercial? Also, I've only caught them at river mouths. How do you fish for them when they're on the move?
Lyle
 
if its open you can use any of the methods already covered only change to small red hoothies or just plain red hooks. Small red spoons will work also. then you need to go as slow as you can. jigging small red or pink jiggs will also work, as wells casting and slowly retreiving buzz bombs.
 
Thank you all for your advice. We fished Eagle Point at the south end of Lopez Island on 9/11 and 9/12. There were at least 25-30 boats trolling there. I got in line and joined the group. I'm not sure they were happy to have us there, but after they realized I wasn't going to run over anyone, they pretty much ignored us and fished.

There were a lot of fish caught on the am slack tide on 9/11, very few fish on 9/12. My two fisher people were using a hootchie and a coho killer. They had fun and tried mightily, but didn't hook a fish. They didn't have much experience, but I couldn't help them and run the boat from the upper helm in traffic. An interesting experience and the weather cooperated, it was flat calm.
Lyle
 
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