That's adorable!
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That's adorable!
That is a GREAT day of salmon fishing, kind of a super slam in a senseGood morning with @Kfish. The plan was to hit some hot spots where gear guys have been doing well. Jig rods in hand, we headed that direction. Well, also, the night before, we had this exchange…
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Well, the diver work. Really well actually. I think we hooked 5 or 6 and landed 4 or 5 in a couple hours using it (we only had one). Lou got one on a jig he also released. Good morning though. Lou had to call it at 11 so we headed in with three fish. Lou kept two, I kept one because…well, I had other plans for the afternoon.
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After dropping off the boat at home, I headed out to a local spot with the fly rod to rinse that nasty gear stank off my me..ha. Hit the incoming about perfectly and landed a couple in about an hour of fishing. I love fishing, pretty much any kind of fishing but the take of an aggressive fish on a fly rod is unmatchable IMO. 2-2 on the beach with the fly rod. Kept one. Let the other go. Puget Sound is a cool place indeed…
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Let this guy go.
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Two keepers for the day.
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Nice! Is that a Shock-n-Awe style tube fly you use for bucktailing?Short, unplanned outing today motivated by a bit of insomnia. It was VERY foggy in central Puget Sound. Hoping fish would be up top early and unable to see much to focus casting due to fog I started bucktailing into the pea soup. Change of plans when I was almost hit by another boat, who ran over my line even if it was only 20 feet on the prop wash, had to scream at the guy to stop to try to recover my fly/line which was peeling at a fast rate from the reel. The other guy said he saw me but assumed I was not fishing...went our separate ways after recovering gear and wishing good luck to each other. While checking for damage on the line (ended up being fine), switched to full dirtbag trolling. Caught and released a mid-sized coho and two nice sized kings, surprised they are still around, followed by another mid sized coho, a bleeder so it was kept.
Similar to other outings this season, most salmon marks on the fish finder and bait were quite deep 80ft to 150ft, very little surface signs. Found a decent tidal front, a kayak fishing friend told me he saw a few coho swimming by on the surface so switched to fly again. Looked around the front and eventually found a pod of about a dozen and a half coho cruising by, got a couple good casts in front of them in two stops but they were not in slightest interested, very cool to see anyways!. A first for me: I caught a rhinoceros auklet in one of the fly stops, very weird take, could tell it was no fish, luckily for both of us the hook ended up outside the auklet's mouth, barely hooked on the skin between beak and top of its head, so the long dehooker stick did the trick on the first try. The auklet was fine, shook its head a couple times, quickly dove, resurfaced and flew away, too shaken to take any pictures of the affair! I resumed bucktailing on the way to the ramp and was rewarded by another unlucky fellow, a nice coho with a fully healed prior hook injury on the upper jaw, my guess from a "shaker" encounter years ago. Good outing, good numbers of salmon marks on fish finder and some on surface, they definetly seem less bitey.
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Nice! Is that a Shock-n-Awe style tube fly you use for bucktailing?
Got one today on this fly.
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I gotta say I am more partial to the "Dazed and conefused" name for that fly, sounds almost the same but...Funny how different people’s approaches to flies for PS salmon are. The only thing I have fished this year is this:
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5 times the size of your fly, and a completely different color. I think it just shows that they will eat anything.
That thing is kind of a half assed version of Anil Srivastava’s shock and awe fly. We call it the dazed and confused; because that’s how you feel when you mess up your cast and that massive cone hits you on the back of the head…..
Not sure if pretty enough, but as the saying goes "some flies catch fish, some flies...." and @Chucker's pattern catches fish! I started fishing it this year after getting one from @Chucker, I tied it in different colors (different combinations of chartreuse, white, pink) but the all-white seems to work best. All in the 5- to-6-inch range matching this year's Puget Sound green label sized herring and WA coast surf smelt. As shown below, it seems to imitate a half digested herring bestBig enough, yes. Pretty enough? I doubt it!
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I'm sure this has been covered elsewhere, but what speed to you like to bucktail at and how far back from the boat?Short, unplanned outing today motivated by a bit of insomnia. It was VERY foggy in central Puget Sound. Hoping fish would be up top early and unable to see much to focus casting due to fog I started bucktailing into the pea soup. Change of plans when I was almost hit by another boat, who ran over my line even if it was only 20 feet on the prop wash, had to scream at the guy to stop to try to recover my fly/line which was peeling at a fast rate from the reel. The other guy said he saw me but assumed I was not fishing...went our separate ways after recovering gear and wishing good luck to each other. While checking for damage on the line (ended up being fine), switched to full dirtbag trolling. Caught and released a mid-sized coho and two nice sized kings, surprised they are still around, followed by another mid sized coho, a bleeder so it was kept.
Similar to other outings this season, most salmon marks on the fish finder and bait were quite deep 80ft to 150ft, very little surface signs. Found a decent tidal front, a kayak fishing friend told me he saw a few coho swimming by on the surface so switched to fly again. Looked around the front and eventually found a pod of about a dozen and a half coho cruising by, got a couple good casts in front of them in two stops but they were not in slightest interested, very cool to see anyways!. A first for me: I caught a rhinoceros auklet in one of the fly stops, very weird take, could tell it was no fish, luckily for both of us the hook ended up outside the auklet's mouth, barely hooked on the skin between beak and top of its head, so the long dehooker stick did the trick on the first try. The auklet was fine, shook its head a couple times, quickly dove, resurfaced and flew away, too shaken to take any pictures of the affair! I resumed bucktailing on the way to the ramp and was rewarded by another unlucky fellow, a nice coho with a fully healed prior hook injury on the upper jaw, my guess from a "shaker" encounter years ago. Good outing, good numbers of salmon marks on fish finder and some on surface, they definetly seem less bitey.
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When I got my boat I was sure that working a clouser past the outside edge of kelp beds would be the ticket but alas...Learning how to gear fish on my new boat with a little success. Have been flyfishing for salmon & steelhead since college, but the downrigger game is brand new to me.
To make it a tiny bit more fly like, I’m tying on a tail of Krystal Flash on the lead hook of my hoochie, and snelling the whole rig myself.
My daughter has been out with me and she is a very happy and successful coho catcher.
Next challenge - find the places where I can cast to coho on the fly! My Scout center console is itching for some flyrod action![]()
I'm sure this has been covered elsewhere, but what speed to you like to bucktail at and how far back from the boat?
Personally I bucktail anywhere from 4 mph to 7 mph and 20ft to 40ft back from the boat. I use an 8wt, sinking line and shortish (4-6ft) leader. Days when the sun is not on a calm water (foggy, early, late, cloudy, nice coho chop wind/wave coditions) seem to work best. I look for birds, edges of surface bait, foam wakes of larger boats/ships, tidal/weed lines. If I can, I hold the rod on my hand with the tip pointing to the water, every so often I either lift the tip up or strip a bit to sort of hop/skip the fly a bit. If busy with something else it goes on a rod holder pointing straight back and I try to make some U, S turns to keep it interesting. I use large flies that won't spin at speed, so not clousers for me, either traditional bucktails or the conehead fly of the earlier post. Whatever I use, it has to work for casting too in case I found some good action to quickly transition to casting instead of bucktailing without changing gear. Some useful links below. Hope it helps!When I got my boat I was sure that working a clouser past the outside edge of kelp beds would be the ticket but alas...
Bucktailing:For awhile now I’ve been wanting to bring a fly rod along on our boat. The issue is we have a sailboat and casting would be flirting with disaster so we’ve always used trolling gear and deep sixes. I’m wondering about bucktailing in our wash while we are trolling under way to get my fix. I’ve tied up a couple Tofino Special type flies for coho and humpys. Should I be using a floating line or one of my sinking beach lines for this? Am I OK with a six weight as long as I’m trolling a little slow?