If you haven't caught a salmon on the fly now is the time in SW Washington. Mostly Chum with a few coho mixed in makes for one amazing trip on the water! Here is a highlight from Tuesday! We got 1.8inches of rain in the last 24 hours which will push in some fresh fish including some B-Run Coho. Key flies were bright pink and chartreuse raining from 1 inch to 3 inches in length for the fly. We used 8wt rods and floating lines with a Maxima Ultragreen 20lb leader! This weekend should be fantastic opportunity!
Chum Fishing in SW Washington
- Thread starter SpawnFlyFish
- Start date
That's a really nice video. But I gotta' admit, my first reaction was to cringe, "Eww! You touched chum salmon, on purpose!" Boot chums, no less. I know times have changed, but allow me to share some perspective. If that exact video had been released in the 1970s - and of course we had no internet nor You Tube, but bear with me - I am 99% certain the video maker would have been mocked and ridiculed from Hell to breakfast and back. Ergo, the times they are a changin'. Hell, without a doubt, they have changed.
I often joke with folks about the way I was schooled in the meritocracy of fishing on the NF Stilly in the 1970s. At that time one could legally fish only for trout - SRC and steelhead. (Bull trout were legal, but called Dolly Varden then and widely (and wrongly) considered a trash fish, and I don't think anyone counted them as part of their trout catch limit.) Fishing for salmon, any species, was prohibited. Hence, if you hooked a chum salmon, you were awarded one demerit. In order to erase the demerit you had to hook and land a steelhead. Not any steelhead. A bright steelhead, not a dark one. That just got the angler back to square ONE. You had to hook and land yet another bright steelhead to get a positive merit on the fishing score card. Clearly that was a different world than the one most anglers find themselves in today.
It was probably still the late 1970s when I met a Canadian fisheries biologist who was working on projects to enhance chum salmon populations on lower Fraser River tributaries. Chum salmon just didn't get the respect that Chinook, coho, and sockeye salmon received. So he wrote something called, "An Ode to the Chum Salmon." It was both witty and detailed the many positive merits of the species. I wish I had a copy today. It would make a terrific backdrop to your video.
Hope you don't mind a perspective from the Age of Aquarius.
I often joke with folks about the way I was schooled in the meritocracy of fishing on the NF Stilly in the 1970s. At that time one could legally fish only for trout - SRC and steelhead. (Bull trout were legal, but called Dolly Varden then and widely (and wrongly) considered a trash fish, and I don't think anyone counted them as part of their trout catch limit.) Fishing for salmon, any species, was prohibited. Hence, if you hooked a chum salmon, you were awarded one demerit. In order to erase the demerit you had to hook and land a steelhead. Not any steelhead. A bright steelhead, not a dark one. That just got the angler back to square ONE. You had to hook and land yet another bright steelhead to get a positive merit on the fishing score card. Clearly that was a different world than the one most anglers find themselves in today.
It was probably still the late 1970s when I met a Canadian fisheries biologist who was working on projects to enhance chum salmon populations on lower Fraser River tributaries. Chum salmon just didn't get the respect that Chinook, coho, and sockeye salmon received. So he wrote something called, "An Ode to the Chum Salmon." It was both witty and detailed the many positive merits of the species. I wish I had a copy today. It would make a terrific backdrop to your video.
Hope you don't mind a perspective from the Age of Aquarius.
Pink Nighty
Legend
I was literally heading down to tag you and ask how many demerits that video contained. Gonna need a lot of chrome for that one!
I wish we still lived in a salmonid reality that allowed for such high minded snobbery, but i for one have embraced our tiger striped dogfood brethren as an excellent sport fish. Unless I'm fishing to retain (almost never), I'm fishing for tugs, big tugs if I can get em and my fuck can a chum tug.
Oh I am well aware it's been something that is still laughed at to be honest. We get some chuckles each time we talk about it in the shop. But the people that laugh generally are the ones that used to catch species that we just don't see anymore in the same numbers. They pull hard, easy to catch and usually chum streams hold a special place for us cause of the abundance of cutthroat and we LOVE cutthroat fishing! thank you for watching and never mind a perspective!
Salmo can't be too much of a snob...
He drinks box wine.
White wine...
He touches a box of white wine.
There's more demerits there than in an entire Chum run !!!!
I remember beating up on Chums back in the 80's, lots of fun, and almost always wrangled up a summer run or two, a few coho and of course some cutts and later in the season perhaps a winter run.
Those runs of Chum are mostly gone, or dwindled beyond wanting to target for me, but a willing fish (we used to get them in the high teens, low 20's in some years) that kept you on the water instead of on the couch is a good thing.
White wine...
He drinks box wine.
White wine...
He touches a box of white wine.
There's more demerits there than in an entire Chum run !!!!
I remember beating up on Chums back in the 80's, lots of fun, and almost always wrangled up a summer run or two, a few coho and of course some cutts and later in the season perhaps a winter run.
Those runs of Chum are mostly gone, or dwindled beyond wanting to target for me, but a willing fish (we used to get them in the high teens, low 20's in some years) that kept you on the water instead of on the couch is a good thing.
White wine...
Was down in SW on Wednesday on a well known chum river hoping to find some coho. Didn’t land a coho but must have hooked 30 chum landed 14 man they pull hard. Got super aggressive when it started raining couldn’t swing a fly without hooking one.
I landed one coho and our chum fishing was about the same as yours haha! They were everywhere!
Salmo speaks the truth.
#Boomer
.Sorry salmo, I give 10 demerits to any fly fisher who doesn’t chase double digit pound fish that eat flies in their own backyards.
Pink Nighty
Legend
My dad raised me to believe that chums were not worthy of targeting, being a died in the wool meat fisherman that he is. However after going too many years without touching a salmon, I convinced him to come chase some upriver chums with me a few years ago. The smile says hes a convert now!
THREAD DRIFT, sorry to those posting great pictures: My wife and I watched a program on NHK World last night called Rice and Sake from Niigata to Yamagata. In one of the Sea of Japan coastal towns, the locals harvest chum, a centuries old tradition, and air dry the gutted fish whole. Nothing is wasted, the entire fish is consumed:
In the program, the host explains many of the the various portions served in this elegant presentation (heart, liver, stomach are part of meal).
@Salmo_g - I personally prefer to catch coho because of all salmonids that's my favorite one to eat but the mighty dog salmon is the only fish that's spooled me (it seemed like my spool emptied in about 2 seconds).
Now, back to your regularly scheduled programs
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Little known fact is we get some carp in the tide water down here at the mouth of the Columbia! it doesnt always happen but when it does its wild!
Love this! its all about that smile and having a blast!
SilverFly
Legend
Worth keeping an open mind. One of the Taiwanese engineers I work with was asking me about tuna fishing, and if I could bring him a few heads. I did, which resulted in a dinner invite. I was down, but the invite included my squeamish, although brave, wife (who also works there). Turns out almost the entire head is edible, and delicious. I was amazed at the amount of meat there was. Lots of small bones, but worth the effort. We had a great time and dinner was amazing.
That's interesting - so the carp are moving into brackish water. They're fascinating creatures.
When I was in high school, I dated a girl from the Jamestown (S'Klallam) tribe. Her mother insisted I sit for dinner one night when I picked Vicki up, a big pot of fish (salmon) head soup.
SilverFly
Legend
Was it good?