Puget Sound

We came damn close to a skunking for sure, then found the spot where they were congregating and it was game on. @jasmillo had the hot hand today while I was afflicted with lostfishitis. Landed a few and lost some good ones. Of all the fish landed two of them had clean cuts on their bottom, they must have been feeding on oyster beds? Did not see any worms though in the crystal clear water today.

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Tough day today for me. Four hours of flogging without a bite. Fished 10:00 to 2:00.
Saw seven risers, six of which were well off shore out of casting range. All the fish I saw rise were in about a 20 yard wide area. Tried numerous flies and no love on any of them. The tide moved like shit.
All is not lost though in my skunking. 😂
Turned out to be a nice day, got to break in a new pair of wading boots and any day spent on the canal isn’t a waste.
SF
 
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Hit a local MA 10 beach today. A couple, non picture worthy fish to hand. MA 10 is always a good bet to break a losing streak and get yesterday’s skunk 🦨 off.
SF

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Hit the beach Friday evening for a little over an hour. Switched to and orange fly and went 6 for 7 on a mix of coho and Cutts. Nothing over 14”. Thanks for the heads up on using orange flies.

Took the boat out Sunday morning and covered a decent amount of water. Fished hard for two hours and got completely skunked. No follows, no tugs, no sign of fish.
 
J-ham said:
Hit the beach Friday evening for a little over an hour. Switched to and orange fly and went 6 for 7 on a mix of coho and Cutts. Nothing over 14”. Thanks for the heads up on using orange flies.
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Jham, JasMillo and Kfish the only guys to report resident coho this winter? not seeing a lot of reports though presumably cold keeping lots of folks away. AS Roger Stephens would say, is "Puget Sound Resident Coho Action Heating Up?"
 
Fished 12 and 13 today. Not sure how they determined it would get close to 50° today. 😂
Got fish in both areas. Lost one nice fish but other then that not much size wise.
A orange shrimp pattern worked the best, but I did manage one fish on a rubber legged chum fry pattern I tied last night. Saw a couple other attacks that looked like fry getting chased which is promising.

@Wadin' Boot
Haven’t fished 13 as much as I usually do but haven’t caught a resident coho yet this year. I’ve been fishing 12 more and they are rarity there. In my opinion, the resident coho fishing has been way off in recent years compared to how it used to be.
SF

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Definitely not gang busters. Wanted more from that tide but is what it is. 2-4 for me with a bump or two more that did not result in a hookup.

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@Wadin' Boot. I’ve been out at least once a week since November and we’ve only run into them a handful of times. Only once where we landed more than two. Not sure what’s been happening the last few years. Still seems to be plenty of adult rezzies around come summer time.
 
Fished my local beach from noon to two with pretty good tidal flow. Went two for four on coho and maybe a little chinook (see first photo). Really clear water, I was Abe to watch the takes from around thirty or forty feet standing knee deep. Actually remembered my net this time. Really fun fishing today!IMG_5856.jpegIMG_5858.jpeg
 
Stonedfish said:
@Wadin' Boot
Haven’t fished 13 as much as I usually do but haven’t caught a resident coho yet this year. I’ve been fishing 12 more and they are rarity there. In my opinion, the resident coho fishing has been way off in recent years compared to how it used to be.
SF
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Here's a testicle sorry testable hypothesis, maybe since the herring spawns really got bigger, the residents are keying in on that same herring spawn.... so.... if you're not in or close to the jizz filled water....

Years ago I was fishing a beach with a definite cloudiness to it. I figured it was just cliff substrate that was making the water muddy, but, certain mid tide, this spot went absolutely nuts with coho and cutts- clear water to the north, south and west..... it occured to me later that maybe I was smack dab in the middle of a herring orgy....Never saw this spot fish as well, always a late Jan- mid Feb sorta deal....it was weird too, on for about 60 minutes, so a little longer than you often see with resident coho just blitzing and gone. In those moments it was game on with any fly that was silvery or white-ish, no euphasid sips, this was full-on kill-speed fast retrieve stuff

...So a little aerial recon could be useful here. If the waters start from winter green to turquoise....
 
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Wadin' Boot said:
Here's a testicle sorry testable hypothesis, maybe since the herring spawns really got bigger, the residents are keying in on that same herring spawn.... so.... if you're not in or close to the jizz filled water....

Years ago I was fishing a beach with a definite cloudiness to it. I figured it was just cliff substrate that was making the water muddy, but, certain mid tide, this spot went absolutely nuts with coho and cutts- clear water to the north, south and west..... it occured to me later that maybe I was smack dab in the middle of a herring orgy....Never saw this spot fish as well, always a late Jan- mid Feb sorta deal....it was weird too, on for about 60 minutes, so a little longer than you often see with resident coho just blitzing and gone. In those moments it was game on with any fly that was silvery or white-ish, no euphasid sips, this was full-on kill-speed fast retrieve stuff
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I really haven’t done a dedicated trip just for them in a while. Might be worth a trip
to Galloping Gertie’s gravesite near the old Doc’s place on a good tide to see if any happy jumpers are around. 😉
SF
 
Wadin' Boot said:
Jham, JasMillo and Kfish the only guys to report resident coho this winter? not seeing a lot of reports though presumably cold keeping lots of folks away. AS Roger Stephens would say, is "Puget Sound Resident Coho Action Heating Up?"
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I think it’s getting better for Resident coho down here. Looking at my notes and pictures over the years, it seems like I have to sort through coho to find some cutthroat starting around the end of January until early April. And I rarely catch coho if I don’t spot them jumping first. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take whatever bites my fly.
 
Stonedfish said:
I really haven’t done a dedicated trip just for them in a while. Might be worth a trip
to Galloping Gertie’s gravesite near the old Doc’s place on a good tide to see if any happy jumpers are around. 😉
SF
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Brian, If you are testing that hypothesis, specifically that waters full of herring milt and eggs are going to attract resident coho, and it works out.... then the next hypothesis is if your waders + boots should be rinsed prior to the next trip or not.

I would vote not, no rinsing. Might be the best sort of burley there is.

Plus, when you pack up for the day, moving out of the milt and egg dip- see, that's gonna dry and age a little in the back of your rig. Like cheese, mold, or a bucket of prawns in the sun. You know the general interior musk would compliment the exterior patina of your vehicle....

"well I agree, it doesn't exactly have a new car smell, no....."

Later, on your next journey, when you wade back into the water and all the crusty herring love starts dissolving again, I'm picturing a sort of a powdery, friendly and ghostly shadow following you around, all kinds of sculpins and winter crabs hustling against the tide and necking with your boots to see where the party's at...call that shadow Herring Dan's Essential Essence....

Also, more shoutouts to those who have gone before, I'm picturing Les Johnson, neoprene waders soaked in this stuff, his usually monkeyshit brown hodgman's come February damn well nearly turquoise from the impregnation of the neoprene updating us on why PFAS and gore tex waders ruined this very same herring dip tip....Meaning he had figured this out in like 1977 but knew that no one was ready to hear it and sure as hell never inked it in FF for Pacific Salmon I or II (alternatively Frank Amato's editorial pen took it out "Les- Everything else is a go, but this, this.... this borders on pornography...and I run a family-friendly press")
 
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A couple weeks ago, I checked a spot that almost always has at least a rezzie or two not far from one of their net pens, and nobody was home. This is Deep South sound in the Squaxin vicinity. So there’s a data point for you.
 
FYI
SF

wdfw.wa.gov

WDFW invites public participation in annual salmon season-setting process

Washington’s North of Falcon process kicks off Friday, Feb. 28 with hybrid statewide salmon forecast meeting in OlympiaOLYMPIA – Fishery managers with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) have scheduled opportunities for the public to provide input in 2025-2026 state-managed...
wdfw.wa.gov wdfw.wa.gov
 
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