Puget Sound

_WW_ said:
It must be or you wouldn't be doing it.
And I have no idea where you are fishing, all I know about you is that you are from WA.

Back when the Skagit had a massive run of Chum I would stay in knee deep, grab my line as mentioned above and reach down with pliers or cut the leader, whichever the situation called for. I tied all my flies to ride upside down as hooking them in the kype seemed to produce more fight.

Having them scream across the river and watching $100 worth of line go through the rod soured the experience for me and I gave it up.
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Wait, you don’t know my life history and full background… how could you not ;). My point was you know folks often target these fish in estuaries and by my pictures, it’s obvious that I’m fishing an estuary type environment. Muck walking is not enjoyable but required if you want to fish chum in estuaries IMO. I’d rather land and release quickly than leave hooks in their mouths. In the end, probably does not matter since they’ll all be dead within a month or two and are not actively feeding but prefer not to donate flies to hatchery personnel or the river bottom. I honestly don’t find chum to be reel screamers unless snagged. Small hooks, retrieved very slowly results in very few foul hooked fish. I landed over a dozen yesterday hooked in the mouth before I foul hooked one. I’ve hooked a lot of chum over the last couple of weeks and probably 5% of those made it to the reel (if that). 20 lb flouro leader and play them tightly stops that initial run quickly..if they even do that. Only a couple big foul hooked fish made it into the backing. Maybe Skagit fish are different.

Not everybody's cup of tea but as I’ve said before, plentiful, large, close and they eat flies so it’s my cup of tea….at least for a few weekends a year.
 
jasmillo said:
Wait, you don’t know my life history and full background… how could you not ;). My point was you know folks often target these fish in estuaries and by my pictures, it’s obvious that I’m fishing an estuary type environment. Muck walking is not enjoyable but required if you want to fish chum in estuaries IMO. I’d rather land and release quickly than leave hooks in their mouths. In the end, probably does not matter since they’ll all be dead within a month or two and are not actively feeding but prefer not to donate flies to hatchery personnel or the river bottom. I honestly don’t find chum to be reel screamers unless snagged. Small hooks, retrieved very slowly results in very few foul hooked fish. I landed over a dozen yesterday hooked in the mouth before I foul hooked one. I’ve hooked a lot of chum over the last couple of weeks and probably 5% of those made it to the reel (if that). 20 lb flouro leader and play them tightly stops that initial run quickly..if they even do that. Only a couple big foul hooked fish made it into the backing. Maybe Skagit fish are different.

Not everybody's cup of tea but as I’ve said before, plentiful, large, close and they eat flies so it’s my cup of tea….at least for a few weekends a year.
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Chum in river current are much different critters than in the salt I imagine. When they get into the main run, they leave when they feel like it lol.
 
With chums I usually play them until they get close, and then do everything I can to let them get off the hook on their own. If dropping slack doesn’t work, the trick of holding the line under a lot of tension and suddenly letting go so that the fly pops out is a good one. If that doesn’t work, I bring the fish in to leader range and use a cup hook on a stick dehooker. I learned the hard way that handling angry, toothy, chums is not a good idea.
 
Pink Nighty said:
Chum in river current are much different critters than in the salt I imagine. When they get into the main run, they leave when they feel like it lol.
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I was gear fishing a small river west of town, let my corkie with yarn drift under a partially submerged log where I hooked and landed a small chum hen. I wondered if her boyfriend might not be down there as well. He was. That big buck showed himself for a few seconds as he took off downstream far faster than I could negotiate the creek, log jam and brush. I got spooled. Thinking back about those few moments while my reel emptied makes me smile all over again. Tough fish.
 
Buzzy said:
I was gear fishing a small river west of town, let my corkie with yarn drift under a partially submerged log where I hooked and landed a small chum hen. I wondered if her boyfriend might not be down there as well. He was. That big buck showed himself for a few seconds as he took off downstream far faster than I could negotiate the creek, log jam and brush. I got spooled. Thinking back about those few moments while my reel emptied makes me smile all over again. Tough fish.
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My first big swung fish was a mid teens chum, long story short he stole my reel and 3/4 of my rod!
 
Pink Nighty said:
My first big swung fish was a mid teens chum, long story short he stole my reel and 3/4 of my rod!
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Honest question because I’m curios; was it fair hooked? If so, I need to target them in rivers more! Honestly, I’d guess ~50% of chum I hook in estuaries don’t make a single run of more than 20-25 feet from where they were hooked. Some barely fight at all. It’s like walking a lazy dog back to shore by a leash to unhook them :).
 
jasmillo said:
Honest question because I’m curios; was it fair hooked? If so, I need to target them in rivers more! Honestly, I’d guess ~50% of chum I hook in estuaries don’t make a single run of more than 20-25 feet from where they were hooked. Some barely fight at all. It’s like walking a lazy dog back to shore by a leash to unhook them :).
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"Honest question" why do you do it?
 
lltk.org

Are Juvenile Salmon LOVING the New Habitat at Vigor? - Long Live The Kings

Preliminary Findings from Post-Restoration Monitoring With the habitat restoration project at Vigor Shipyards completed in the Spring of 2023, University of Washington’s Wetland Ecosystem Team and Long Live the Kings conducted their first year of post-restoration monitoring this past spring...
lltk.org lltk.org
 
jasmillo said:
Honest question because I’m curios; was it fair hooked? If so, I need to target them in rivers more! Honestly, I’d guess ~50% of chum I hook in estuaries don’t make a single run of more than 20-25 feet from where they were hooked. Some barely fight at all. It’s like walking a lazy dog back to shore by a leash to unhook them :).
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It sure was! Can still see the flash of red/orange hobo spey sticking out of its lip! I can say that I've experienced lazy Chum in side channels, I don't think it's a fresh vs salt deal, just when they get lazy in a heavy current it's over!
 
Pink Nighty said:
My first big swung fish was a mid teens chum, long story short he stole my reel and 3/4 of my rod!
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Size matters! 😆
The chums of north sound rivers Skagit, Nooksack, and BC's Fraser
are a different animal than the Hood Canal chums for the most part.
Much larger on average and swift water in the rivers make it a whole different ball game. 20+ pound chums are caught when targeted in open seasons and 15+ are fairly common.
Fraser chums are found from Whatcom county marine beaches though salmon seasons are closed when they are present.
 
Wanative said:
Size matters! 😆
The chums of north sound rivers Skagit, Nooksack, and BC's Fraser
are a different animal than the Hood Canal chums for the most part.
Much larger on average and swift water in the rivers make it a whole different ball game. 20+ pound chums are caught when targeted in open seasons and 15+ are fairly common.
Fraser chums are found from Whatcom county marine beaches though salmon seasons are closed when they are present.
Click to expand...
I saw a dead one on the nook last fall that was absolutely gigantic. My estimate was a bazillion pounds and a mile long
 
jasmillo said:
Honest question because I’m curios; was it fair hooked? If so, I need to target them in rivers more! Honestly, I’d guess ~50% of chum I hook in estuaries don’t make a single run of more than 20-25 feet from where they were hooked. Some barely fight at all. It’s like walking a lazy dog back to shore by a leash to unhook them :).
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You need to come up here and give it a go and decide for yourself. I would not use any leader with a breaking strength higher than that of my flyline and backing.
 
The power of some of those larger Skagit chums (seen carcasses approaching 30#) were scary. Unfortunately, the population has been chronically depressed. The even year (non-pink year) escapement goal is 116,500, which was last met in 2002. This year's forecast was only 22,768, another year without a season.

Curt
 
_WW_ said:
You need to come up here and give it a go and decide for yourself. I would not use any leader with a breaking strength higher than that of my flyline and backing.
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Yes I do. I need to fish the Skagit for anything. The fact that I have lived here over ten years and never made a cast on that river is disgraceful. Long distance for a day trip from this sound of the sound but that’s not an excuse!
 
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