Puget Sound

[Kfish]

Met up with @jasmillo stupid early this morning and started in the dark with GITD clouser. Fish started to hit when it got light, hard to tell when first light was with that marine layer. It was pretty decent action for a period of time with a nice clear current until it died down and the salad came to town. We fished some other beaches and caught fish at every one of them.

Last beach shortly before I had to reel it in a hot coho hit my fly and zipped off for the deep just as I was about to lift for another cast. It hit it hard and took off before I had a chance to give it some slack. There was much strain on the line as my rod tip was pointing at the fish in an instant, it snapped off at the tippet ring junction and the line/leader sling shot right back at my left cheek with a smart snap. At first I thought I was hit with my own fly, but the fish still hooked gave a jump between the two of us.

Much cursing ensued.

We got a good look at it and it was solid, jasmillo estimated about 5-6lb range.

Fishing wise, 4 out of 5 this morning, all unclipped.
Seeing jasmillo going insane with his OBS massive tangles, I lost count

 

[Stonedfish]

Which of course was one hundred percent inspired by @Stonedfish

Nice work! That'll definitely cook up nicely. Next to spring chinook I'm not sure there's another salmon I'd rather eat. (Ok, sockeye are amazing but I have never fished for them). Kinda kicking myself for not taking one yesterday. Didn't really feel like dealing with it after a long day, but a fresh rezzie for dinner is sounding pretty dang good today.

Nick,
Thanks for the mention.
I certainly can’t claim the clouser, as Mr Clouser himself rightfully gets that honor.
I think everyone who fishes the beaches a lot around here kind of incorporates things from others patterns they see. I use Krystal flash over the top of the wing on my clousers all the time now based on your suggestion.
SF

 

[jasmillo]

Decent day across multiple beaches. 8-12 for the day…but it was a full day. 1 clipped coho, 1 clipped pink and 6 unclipped coho. Starting the year off just like I did last year…

Kept the pink because I have never purposely eaten one before. Thought I’d give it a shot. Let the clipped coho go because it was small/average and was the first fish of the day. That always comes back to bite me!

My numbers were inflated by action the last 30 minutes of the day. Was actually headed back to the truck when I came across a giant salad patch stuffed with bait. Went 4-4 the last half hour of fishing but all had fins.

Great to be back after coho though!

A couple saved by the fin. Had to beach the one to untangle him from a giant salad ball….







Poor @Kfish probably heard me curse more today than in all the days we have ever fished together. F&*c$i!g POS line. It was some variation of this or worse ever 2nd or 3rd cast ALL day. Even after obsessively stretching….Rio….

 

[IHFISH]

Tell me about eating a pink by accident. Nice talking with you and Lou today and I’m glad that you got into some fish later in the day.

 

[Stonedfish]

Poor @Kfish probably heard me curse more today than in all the days we have ever fished together. F&*c$i!g POS line. It was some variation of this or worse ever 2nd or 3rd cast ALL day. Even after obsessively stretching….Rio….

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Those are some “premier” tangles.
I’ve given up on Rio.

Nice job on the fish. I think cussing and beach fishing just go together. There is just so much that can go wrong. @Kfish was likely entertained.
I had some choice words after getting snapped off yesterday.
I heard “fuck me” after someone lost a nice fish today.
SF

 

[Nick Clayton]

You should have seen the running line tangle I created yesterday! It was absolutely professional level if I do say so myself. I messed with it for probably 20 minutes before Ira jumped in and it still took the two of us working together and eventually taking off the reel to thread it through the tangle to get it undone. I was so proud.

The most shocking part of the ordeal is that coho didn't start crashing all around the boat while I was out of commission.

 

[jasmillo]

Those are some “premier” tangles.
I’ve given up on Rio.

Nice job on the fish. I think cussing and beach fishing just go together. There is just so much that can go wrong. @Kfish was likely entertained.
I had some choice words after getting snapped off yesterday.
I heard “fuck me” after someone lost a nice fish today.
SF

Ha, I think he was entertained but he also mentioned suffering from a bit of sympathy annoyance watching me untangle line all day.

I think Rio accidentally used 12 gauge wire for the core material on this batch of lines . Needs a tad bit more suppleness…

 

[VMP]

Slow morning for me and an avid river fly fisherman (neighbors dad) trying his hand at saltwater coho for the first time, bait was either too deep or just too happy stupid early. Around sunrise a flurry of frenzied bait at the surface but little showings of coho slashing them, some purpoises around. Conditions looked great, some wind, nice marine layer, except for the weak morning tide. I went 2 for 7, my friend I think went 0 for 10, fish were a bit timid, short strikes, looks and rejections, follows and escapes. Quite the change from last week! Surface bait scattered either by oblivious boats cruising or trolling through them, we looked at other places but action died down between high tide and the burning of the marine layer early into the ebb. Used some weird combination of my first fly rod (a very noodly 7wt Wright & Mcgill), an 11 wt Ugly Stick (some as of yet unsuccessful attempt to dredge the depths for a keeper size king) and the usual two 8 wt suspects I have been using all season. Happy to see others found some fish!

 

[speedbird]

Just based on pics I've seen and what all my Westport friends have been telling me it's been a great chinook year on the coast in terms of numbers but especially in terms of size of the chinook. I've already seen more 30s landed on the coast than I have in possibly any season, at least in a good many years.

2020 was a great salmon year out there with the average size of the fish caught being significantly larger than what one could usually expect, but everyone tells me that this year has been much better.

I have no idea what would account for a bigger grade of chinook on a particular season, but its sure cool to see.

Personally I enjoy catching the smaller coho on fly rods to catching big chinook on gear, but man there is something about seeing a large, hooked chinook near the boat that sure gets my blood pumping!

Opening week on the Cascade I saw three Springers over 20lbs landed, and the photos I am seeing for Puget Sound are showing very high quality fish. Me and my dad went out at dawn today, but we were only able to pick up a Blackmouth, I am hoping we still get to fish that last weekend.

I also hooked into a nice silver around 22". The fish had darker shading on its back, and a pronounced hook nose that I usually associate with maturing fish. Could it have been an early ocean fish?

 

[Dave Westburg]

Morning coffee at my families cabin at agate pass. Was someone from pnw flyfishing out on the beach at old man house throwing a fly last night?

 

[Kfish]

Morning coffee at my families cabin at agate pass. Was someone from pnw flyfishing out on the beach at old man house throwing a fly last night?

Not me, but did you see fish being caught?

 

[Vandelay Industries]

The one fish I kept had very small stickleback in its stomach. They are a little bigger than the width of a thumb

 

[Dave Westburg]

Not me, but did you see fish being caught?

Didn’t see any fish caught. It’s hard to catch fish amidst kids splashing at the shore

 

[Gary Knowels]

When you say "bonk" are we talking a blow to the back of the head with an appropriately sized rock from the beach?

 

[Nick Clayton]

When you say "bonk" are we talking a blow to the back of the head with an appropriately sized rock from the beach?

Pretty much. Mostly "bonk" is just referencing the harvest of a salmon. One quick, sharp rap to the noggin to stun the fish and then cut the gill and let it bleed. When you do bonk a fish keep in mind the goal is to stun it, not kill it, so smashing its head into oblivion as I see so often accomplishes nothing. You want the heart to keep pumping for as long as possible to help get the blood out.

 

[Gary Knowels]

The day didn't quite go as planned. I didn't finish my chores until 3:30 so I got a later start that desired.

I got to an MA10 beach about 4:45. I think it could be a decent spot, but there were so many people there that I didn't fish. The number of children was surprising and I didn't really want to pay attention to all the people that could be in backcast range. The water was also pretty churned up, cloudy, and full of salad. I need to return on another day.

The next place on my list was a bust with nowhere to park (private property) for a mile. On to the next. The 3rd access looked good on a map, but when I got there is was VERY steep rock bluff dropping into deep water, no beach to stand on.

The 4th beach looked to be ok but after picking seaweed off my fly EVERY cast for 30 minutes I got pissed off and left.

I stop at an MA13 beach close to home and went 0 for 2 on trout size fish as well as watched a small pod work in front of me for 45 minutes without any luck.

It was a nice day to be out and I learned some things for next time. I think I'll be able to get out again on Thursday, probably to MA9.

 

[ThatGuyRyRy]

Yesterday I fished Jeff Head. I trolled most of the day but during the slack I was able to get a stop on some herring busting of the surface. Was able to get a few plucks but no commitment.

I did catch a big native fish that had a tussel with a sea lion. Poor fish had a huge bite mark and a hole on the side of his body. It's amazing that the fish was still on the feed.

 

[SKYKO]

Went out at dawn even though the tide was crummy, just wanted to fish in the rain which I did and it was nice to get wet. First beach for an hour or so, just felt dead, no grabs, no hookups, did see a couple river otters, at least they sure looked and acted like river otters. Went to second beach which has some current even on a so so tide and was blanked again but good and rained on, saw a lot of pods of small baitfish swimming up current right in front of me, even saw a couple tiny sculpins in the cobble as I stepped and swung/stripped. Lots of jellyfish floating in the current as well. No hookups at second beach either.

All in all a really nice morning.

 

[dep]

I fished from my boat out of Shishole on Saturday. had to stay on the east side of the water as the fog was down to the water. when I decided to shoot across to Jeff Head, my motor started acting up, so I stayed close to port.
did some much needed maintenance on the motor and went to Lincoln Park yesterday (motor ran WAY better). people were fishing from the shore. no action on the north section of the water so I moved south of the point and worked the water between and point and the ferry landing. while I didn't get any keepers, I did have steady action for 90 minutes on many smaller fish.
I'll be back out next weekend as I hope to the freezer.

super story on that large king Nick. as you said, it probably had the extra fin.

 

[Scudley Do Right]

Saturday saw a humpback up on the bar slapping it's tail for about 20 minutes. Never seen it in person before. Didn't stop fishing for pictures but it was pretty cool.