Puget Sound

Hit the water with @Kfish today. Went 2-4 from the boat. Let one go, kept the other but gave it to Lou. Repayment for a fish he accidentally left in my cooler last year :).

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Also hit the water with @copperJon yesterday in his boat looking for kings during the short MA 10 reopening. Not on the fly but got a solid king trolling. First time ever trolling, outside of trolling for tuna with a fly rod or back trolling while kicking to a new spot on a lake. I’m not going to be adding downriggers to my boat anytime soon but had a good time with Jon on the water and the king put up quite a tussle.

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I continued my coho quest this morning in MA10. The South wind made things a bit of a struggle with casting. After taking a clouser to the back of the arm, I started turning around and casting backwards.

Beach 1: 5:00-7:15
0 for 1 on the fly I posted yesterday
The cobble at low tide was VERY slippery and I almost took a dunking when a surprise freighter wake caught me and I lost my footing. Thankfully I stayed upright

Beach 2: 7:30-9:30
0 for 1 on a really nice fish that I brought to within 10 feet before coming undone. Chartreuse over gray clouser.

I know that people lose fish but I'm 0-4 so far and can't help but feel like I'm doing something wrong. Oh well, I'll be back at later this week.IMG20240730052425.jpg
 
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Gary Knowels said:
I continued my coho quest this morning in MA10. The South wind made things a bit of a struggle with casting. After taking a clouser to the back of the arm, I started turning around and casting backwards.

Beach 1: 5:00-7:15
0 for 1 on the fly I posted yesterday
The cobble at low tide was VERY slippery and I almost took a dunking when a surprise freighter wake caught me and I lost my footing. Thankfully I stayed upright

Beach 2: 7:30-9:30
0 for 1 on a really nice fish that I caught to within 10 feet before coming undone. Chartreuse over gray closer.

I know that people lose fish but I'm 0-4 so far and can't help but feel like I'm doing something wrong. Oh well, I'll be back at later this week.View attachment 122629
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Sounds to me like you're doing things right, with 4 hookups. These fish get off all the time.

And yeah the freighter waves are no joke. It's weird how you can see a ship pass by, the water will still be calm 5 minutes later, suddenly it's like blue Hawaii for 30 seconds, then suddenly calm again. I got pummeled by one once when I under-estimated how big the waves were going to get, and tried to ride it out standing in knee deep water. At the last second I realized my error and turned my back to the water to run up the beach, and got flattened. Luckily only my pride was damaged, it was August in an odd year so plenty of witnesses.
 
Gary Knowels said:
I continued my coho quest this morning in MA10. The South wind made things a bit of a struggle with casting. After taking a clouser to the back of the arm, I started turning around and casting backwards.

Beach 1: 5:00-7:15
0 for 1 on the fly I posted yesterday
The cobble at low tide was VERY slippery and I almost took a dunking when a surprise freighter wake caught me and I lost my footing. Thankfully I stayed upright

Beach 2: 7:30-9:30
0 for 1 on a really nice fish that I caught to within 10 feet before coming undone. Chartreuse over gray closer.

I know that people lose fish but I'm 0-4 so far and can't help but feel like I'm doing something wrong. Oh well, I'll be back at later this week.View attachment 122629
Click to expand...
Are you stripsetting?
 
Bagman said:
Are you stripsetting?
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Yes. I cast, tuck the rod/reel under my right armpit and 2 hand strip. When I feel anything I've been giving 2 hard strips then left hand slow strip as I tuck the line under a finger on the right hand and grab to rod handle to keep tension. Once I've got the rod in my hand I've continued to strip the fish in. All fish have been on 3 or more strips after coming tight, bone of them have taken much line so never ended up on the reel. 1 fish tried to bulldog down towards the bottom and with current away from me parallel to the beach. The other 3 have all trashed around on the surface/top 1.5 feet of water until coming undone.

I don't think I've had a problem getting hooked up, just keeping them on once the fight commences.
 
Gary Knowels said:
Yes. I cast, tuck the rod/reel under my right armpit and 2 hand strip. When I feel anything I've been giving 2 hard strips then left hand slow strip as I tuck the line under a finger on the right hand and grab to rod handle to keep tension. Once I've got the rod in my hand I've continued to strip the fish in. All fish have been on 3 or more strips after coming tight, bone of them have taken much line so never ended up on the reel. 1 fish tried to bulldog down towards the bottom and with current away from me parallel to the beach. The other 3 have all trashed around on the surface/top 1.5 feet of water until coming undone.

I don't think I've had a problem getting hooked up, just keeping them on once the fight commences.
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If you have excess to the old form you will see a thread I opened called “ can’t keep them pinned that I started. Someone but I can’t remember who said it to just reach for your ass holding on to the line when he hits. I went from loosing well over 50% of my hits down to like 10%.
 
Posting for clarity. Does this mean only 1 day of salmon fishing all of August in MA9 or does this apply just to Chinook on Sunday?

I’m mostly just a c&r guy besides the odd years for pinks so excuse my confusion.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulat...additional-day-chinook-salmon-fishing-2024-07

Also, one of two from this morning. Lots of jumpers. It’s been one of those work weeks so I needed to get out before getting back to the circus.

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Semper_Fly said:
Posting for clarity. Does this mean only 1 day of salmon fishing all of August in MA9 or does this apply just to Chinook on Sunday?

I’m mostly just a c&r guy besides the odd years for pinks so excuse my confusion.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulat...additional-day-chinook-salmon-fishing-2024-07

Also, one of two from this morning. Lots of jumpers. It’s been one of those work weeks so I needed to get out before getting back to the circus.

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I’m reading that as 1 additional day of chinook fishing in MA9 August 4th. Nothing reads that this is a change in the regs for other salmon species for August as previously written.
 
Gary Knowels said:
Yes. I cast, tuck the rod/reel under my right armpit and 2 hand strip. When I feel anything I've been giving 2 hard strips then left hand slow strip as I tuck the line under a finger on the right hand and grab to rod handle to keep tension. Once I've got the rod in my hand I've continued to strip the fish in. All fish have been on 3 or more strips after coming tight, bone of them have taken much line so never ended up on the reel. 1 fish tried to bulldog down towards the bottom and with current away from me parallel to the beach. The other 3 have all trashed around on the surface/top 1.5 feet of water until coming undone.

I don't think I've had a problem getting hooked up, just keeping them on once the fight commences.
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How have you been orienting your rod/line with a fish on?
 
Gary Knowels said:
Yes. I cast, tuck the rod/reel under my right armpit and 2 hand strip. When I feel anything I've been giving 2 hard strips then left hand slow strip as I tuck the line under a finger on the right hand and grab to rod handle to keep tension. Once I've got the rod in my hand I've continued to strip the fish in. All fish have been on 3 or more strips after coming tight, bone of them have taken much line so never ended up on the reel. 1 fish tried to bulldog down towards the bottom and with current away from me parallel to the beach. The other 3 have all trashed around on the surface/top 1.5 feet of water until coming undone.

I don't think I've had a problem getting hooked up, just keeping them on once the fight commences.
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A couple suggestions.
When you hook up, continuing to strip with both hands to insure the fish is well hooked before lifting the rod rather than just doing two additional hard strips. There are times when you might end up stripping the fish in more then half way using both hands, especially late in the season when they get plucky.

Also consider fishing some non stinger patterns this early in the season. Fish should be inhaling herring and sandlance right now and at times a good old standard hook pattern works better then a stinger in my opinion. They might miss the stinger hook or you might not get a good hookset on them if they going for the head of your stinger pattern. You’ll still catch fish on stinger patterns but just another option to consider.
As mentioned, good job hooking up. Coho are the Houdini of fish species. You wouldn't land them all.
SF
 
Still shutout...

0 for 0 for me today. I fished 4:45-9:30. Lots of wind, waves, and salad. Only saw 3 fish landed, well except for the couple that was absolutely crushing flounder.
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I plunked a seagull midair with a cast, thankfully I didn't hook it. The guy next to me wasn't so lucky. A full picked his fly off the water as soon as it landed and hooked itself in the mouth. It flew circles around the guy while hooked for a couple of minutes before going back to the water. Admirable job landing and releasing the bird. It flew off and seemed to be unharmed. That was an entertaining few minutes!
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Before dawn, a gear guy throwing herring hooked this, drug it up the beach, kicked it in the head, and then put kelp on top of it. I couldn't tell exactly what it was/ what he was doing because it was dark, but later I checked it out.
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Nice job Gary. I second the suggestion to keep stripping with both hands several times even after you think you're hooked up.

You were luckier than me with the bird. @jasmillo helped me release a bonaparte gull there a few years back after I somehow managed to wedge the dumbell eyes of a clouser in the crook of its wing. Looking forward to finally hitting MA 9 this weekend.
 
Gary Knowels said:
Still shutout...

0 for 0 for me today. I fished 4:45-9:30. Lots of wind, waves, and salad. Only saw 3 fish landed, well except for the couple that was absolutely crushing flounder.
View attachment 122785View attachment 122786
I plunked a seagull midair with a cast, thankfully I didn't hook it. The guy next to me wasn't so lucky. A full picked his fly off the water as soon as it landed and hooked itself in the mouth. It flew circles around the guy while hooked for a couple of minutes before going back to the water. Admirable job landing and releasing the bird. It flew off and seemed to be unharmed. That was an entertaining few minutes!
View attachment 122784
Before dawn, a gear guy throwing herring hooked this, drug it up the beach, kicked it in the head, and then put kelp on top of it. I couldn't tell exactly what it was/ what he was doing because it was dark, but later I checked it out.
View attachment 122783
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There were two additional birds caught after you left 😆 Both were released and flew away. 0/0 for me aswell this morning. Saw a few caught but seemed pretty slow. Tide and water looked great. Wind wasn’t ideal..
 
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