Puget Sound

@ffb and I got out today. Pathetic tides weren't ideal but it was Jon's day off and ya gotta get it in while ya can. Spent the morning fly fishing and in spite of the weak tides there was about an hour and a half of just an unbelievable amount of herring on the surface literally everywhere. Like acres of it. It was pretty amazing. Still, that much bait and there wasn't a ton of fish activity. We each bonked one casting flies and we each missed 5 or 6 but overall pretty slow. The highlight was about a 20' minute period where there were suddenly adult chinook crashing through the herring, often coming clear out of the water. I've fished with Jon for a long time now and I've never seen him so excited haha. We never quite got a good shot at any of them but they weren't far from us and it was impressive as hell.

Mid morning the wind kicked up and suddenly fly fishing got really difficult so we switched over and started mooching. Action wasn't red hot but it was consistent enough that we were releasing nice coho just because we didn't want to quit yet. I've played that game in the past and I know better, and as it often works out, something switched and then we never did land our last fish for our limit. We had opportunities though even when it slowed.

Highlight there was Jon pulling a page out of @clarkman book and totally figure eighted a really nice coho that swam up hard on his herring right next to the boat. It was an awesome hookup and a solid fish that we released.

Overall not the greatest day of fishing ever but all things considered we had plenty of action so no complaints.

Just one pic today to show @Kfish that as long as the hook is point up, this color combo will definitely produce ;)


20230725_071529-01.jpeg
 
Nick Clayton said:
@ffb and I got out today. Pathetic tides weren't ideal but it was Jon's day off and ya gotta get it in while ya can. Spent the morning fly fishing and in spite of the weak tides there was about an hour and a half of just an unbelievable amount of herring on the surface literally everywhere. Like acres of it. It was pretty amazing. Still, that much bait and there wasn't a ton of fish activity. We each bonked one casting flies and we each missed 5 or 6 but overall pretty slow. The highlight was about a 20' minute period where there were suddenly adult chinook crashing through the herring, often coming clear out of the water. I've fished with Jon for a long time now and I've never seen him so excited haha. We never quite got a good shot at any of them but they weren't far from us and it was impressive as hell.

Mid morning the wind kicked up and suddenly fly fishing got really difficult so we switched over and started mooching. Action wasn't red hot but it was consistent enough that we were releasing nice coho just because we didn't want to quit yet. I've played that game in the past and I know better, and as it often works out, something switched and then we never did land our last fish for our limit. We had opportunities though even when it slowed.

Highlight there was Jon pulling a page out of @clarkman book and totally figure eighted a really nice coho that swam up hard on his herring right next to the boat. It was an awesome hookup and a solid fish that we released.

Overall not the greatest day of fishing ever but all things considered we had plenty of action so no complaints.

Just one pic today to show @Kfish that as long as the hook is point up, this color combo will definitely produce ;)


View attachment 74512
Click to expand...
Aww dammit now I have to redo :)
 
Nick Clayton said:
@ffb and I got out today. Pathetic tides weren't ideal but it was Jon's day off and ya gotta get it in while ya can. Spent the morning fly fishing and in spite of the weak tides there was about an hour and a half of just an unbelievable amount of herring on the surface literally everywhere. Like acres of it. It was pretty amazing. Still, that much bait and there wasn't a ton of fish activity. We each bonked one casting flies and we each missed 5 or 6 but overall pretty slow. The highlight was about a 20' minute period where there were suddenly adult chinook crashing through the herring, often coming clear out of the water. I've fished with Jon for a long time now and I've never seen him so excited haha. We never quite got a good shot at any of them but they weren't far from us and it was impressive as hell.

Mid morning the wind kicked up and suddenly fly fishing got really difficult so we switched over and started mooching. Action wasn't red hot but it was consistent enough that we were releasing nice coho just because we didn't want to quit yet. I've played that game in the past and I know better, and as it often works out, something switched and then we never did land our last fish for our limit. We had opportunities though even when it slowed.

Highlight there was Jon pulling a page out of @clarkman book and totally figure eighted a really nice coho that swam up hard on his herring right next to the boat. It was an awesome hookup and a solid fish that we released.

Overall not the greatest day of fishing ever but all things considered we had plenty of action so no complaints.

Just one pic today to show @Kfish that as long as the hook is point up, this color combo will definitely produce ;)


View attachment 74512
Click to expand...
For it being such a weird tide/wind day there was definitely enough action to keep things entertaining most of the day. Watching those big Chinook bust bait and clear the water multiple times was so sick.

@Nick Clayton has been schooling me on mooching lately and it was cool to finally have some success with that. The eats on the drop are awesome. Been fun learning something new to add to the arsenal out of my boat as well. He even taught me the fine art of dogfish whispering which we had great success with lol.
 
Divad said:
Got one today on this fly.
View attachment 74524
Click to expand...

Funny how different people’s approaches to flies for PS salmon are. The only thing I have fished this year is this:
IMG_0144.jpeg

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…..
 
Nick Clayton said:
@ffb and I got out today. Pathetic tides weren't ideal but it was Jon's day off and ya gotta get it in while ya can. Spent the morning fly fishing and in spite of the weak tides there was about an hour and a half of just an unbelievable amount of herring on the surface literally everywhere. Like acres of it. It was pretty amazing. Still, that much bait and there wasn't a ton of fish activity. We each bonked one casting flies and we each missed 5 or 6 but overall pretty slow. The highlight was about a 20' minute period where there were suddenly adult chinook crashing through the herring, often coming clear out of the water. I've fished with Jon for a long time now and I've never seen him so excited haha. We never quite got a good shot at any of them but they weren't far from us and it was impressive as hell.

Mid morning the wind kicked up and suddenly fly fishing got really difficult so we switched over and started mooching. Action wasn't red hot but it was consistent enough that we were releasing nice coho just because we didn't want to quit yet. I've played that game in the past and I know better, and as it often works out, something switched and then we never did land our last fish for our limit. We had opportunities though even when it slowed.

Highlight there was Jon pulling a page out of @clarkman book and totally figure eighted a really nice coho that swam up hard on his herring right next to the boat. It was an awesome hookup and a solid fish that we released.

Overall not the greatest day of fishing ever but all things considered we had plenty of action so no complaints.

Just one pic today to show @Kfish that as long as the hook is point up, this color combo will definitely produce ;)


View attachment 74512
Click to expand...
Figure 8 coho. Love it!
 
One thing I really appreciate about this thread is all the info, techniques, flies etc people have shared, without burning beach names.
There really aren’t any secret spots, but nothing needs more pressure either, especially on an odd year.
SF
 
Chucker said:
Funny how different people’s approaches to flies for PS salmon are
Click to expand...


So very true! One of the things I love about fly fishing Puget Sound is there are so many ways to go about it. Some people love to tie and fish patterns that closely mimic every food source. Some people love to fish nothing but poppers. Big stuff, small stuff, natural stuff, flashy stuff.....hell, a fly angler could fish the sound year round with nothing but Wooly Buggers and catch plenty of fish.

Personally if I had my way I'd fish the same individual fly for the entirety of the season. Just my preference, I keep it pretty simple.

Just goes to show if you focus on learning the water, learning where the fish are most likely to be, and put a fly in front of it you're going to succeed more often than not.

We are so fortunate to have this amazing body of water right here to play in!
 
Abrupt speed and/or direction changes have long been successful strategies in trigger strikes from following coho.

I typically rely on spped changes during the bulk of the retrieve but as the fly nears the boat sudden sweeps of the rod - to either side or vertically have put more than a few coho in the net.

curt
 
Smalma said:
Abrupt speed and/or direction changes have long been successful strategies in trigger strikes from following coho.

I typically rely on spped changes during the bulk of the retrieve but as the fly nears the boat sudden sweeps of the rod - to either side or vertically have put more than a few coho in the net.

curt
Click to expand...


Yep this is solid advice. I always like to compare coho to cats and a laser pointer. If the cat is laying there and you slowly drag the laser near it, it might kinda reach out and half ass swat at UT, but you start zipping the laser around in front of its face, changing directions and speeds, and most cats just can't resist.

I think my most successful method I use when those fish follow up to the rod tip is just to dead stop, let the fly drop and then hang in the current. This results in a surprising amount of grabs. Solidly hooking those fish can be difficult, but I have found the best hook set for those scenarios is to do nothing. If I'm on my game I just let the fish eat and take off with the fly. Keeping the rod tip low I'll wait a second or two once it taks off and then just apply pressure as smoothly as I can with my line hand which will basically let them hook themselves. Not always easy to accomplish as its natural to react in other ways, but when I can put it all together it works very well and is an extremely fun way to hook a fish.

This technique works quite well off the beach as well.
 
Chucker said:
Funny how different people’s approaches to flies for PS salmon are. The only thing I have fished this year is this:
View attachment 74542

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…..
Click to expand...
I gotta say I am more partial to the "Dazed and conefused" name for that fly, sounds almost the same but describes both the cone and the "fusing" of the reverse-tied materials when inserting the cone. I have to say that fly works great, only a bit dangerous to self and fellow anglers, boat windshields, ouboard cowlings, rod tips, etc, don't ask me how I know...
Below a couple coho fouled by one of those flies recently, and the green label sized herring they were trashing at the surface.
1690402551519.png
1690403888057.png
 
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@Chucker my favorite rod for the salt is a little under-gunned for a 5” fly, I’ll do anything to use it over the 7wts. Which usually means a smaller fly, yours is definitely matching the bait I saw.
 
Chucker said:
Funny how different people’s approaches to flies for PS salmon are. The only thing I have fished this year is this:
View attachment 74542

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…..
Click to expand...

Love that fly. I have had a lot of luck fishing big all white stinger clousers. I can see why that fly has been successful for you for sure.

Dammit I need to stop reading this thread
During the week. Now I think I need to get out tomorrow and Friday before work, as well as Saturday, then maybe Sunday from the boat. Errr, my wife is going to ban me to the couch with all these 3:30 am alarms. :).
 
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