Puget Sound

[DimeBrite]

Resident coho that have spent significant time feeding off Vancouver Island in the strait have a chance to reach 4 - 8 pounds. The more local Puget Sound resident coho are small, ending up 2.5 - 5 pounds if they make it through September. The 6 - 12 pound coho are usually "ocean" fish that have fed heavily on baitfish in much more productive waters. All are fun to catch, but those 6+ pound "ocean" coho are a blast on fly rods.

PS - I caught 2 more resident coho in MA9 this morning (20-22").
Early August usually brings the first wave of larger coho that have been feeding beyond Puget Sound.

 

[jasmillo]

Spent 4-5 hours on a couple of different beaches this morning. Overall 6-7…well, 6ish for 7. One fish was foul hooked . 3 unclipped fish, 2 clipped and one that was unclipped and the wrong species but was fun to catch nonetheless.

The better of the two fish kept.



Fresh salmon tonight.

 

[speedbird]

Area 10 on a boat was tough thanks to Area 9 closing. Guestimated around 500 boats. Started fishing at around 6:30. Lost a nice fish around 45 minutes in, and released what looked to be an undersized blackmouth. (Even if it was over 22 I'd rather let it grow for Spring). Nothing after that. I wanted to switch to mooching/jigging silvers but I just wasn't marking any later in the morning after tide change. Some bait around Edmonds, but not huge amounts.

Hooking good quality fish while seeing hundreds of boats hook nothing is definitely a good feeling, kicking myself for letting it run so much but the only way I will learn the right way to fight a fish is to loose some

 

[Stonedfish]

Much slower day for me today. 1 for 2. Bonk cookie cutter clipped fish for the bbq. Water didn’t move as nicely and not much bait compared to yesterday. Loved the cloud cover. Let’s order more of that for the rest of summer.
Back at it tomorrow but on a different beach due to the big minus.
SF

 

[Nick Clayton]

Very slow day today for @Irafly @GOTY and myself. We took a grand adventure throughout the north sound without much to show for it. Ran way more today than I ever have with this boat. Fuel meter says I burned just over 15 gallons.

In the end all we had to show for it is a single unclipped coho, a few lost coho, one pink lost and one pink landed.

Found a few pods of pinks finally later in the afternoon but it was tough to spot them and stay on them in the huge, choppy rips we were in.

Current was pretty amazing most of the day and I'm not sure I've ever seen more herring in a day on the sound. Just spoke to a charter buddy who said between all the group of charters there was like 6 fish landed. Weird day.

 

[jasmillo]

Very slow day today for @Irafly @GOTY and myself. We took a grand adventure throughout the north sound without much to show for it. Ran way more today than I ever have with this boat. Fuel meter says I burned just over 15 gallons.

In the end all we had to show for it is a single unclipped coho, a few lost coho, one pink lost and one pink landed.

Found a few pods of pinks finally later in the afternoon but it was tough to spot them and stay on them in the huge, choppy rips we were in.

Current was pretty amazing most of the day and I'm not sure I've ever seen more herring in a day on the sound. Just spoke to a charter buddy who said between all the group of charters there was like 6 fish landed. Weird day.

I think I saw you again today. If one of you was rocking some bright ass orange bibs . You all left about a half hour after I arrived along with the Whaler. Slower than expected out there. I did get my second unclipped coho though and another fish that put up quite the tussle . That said, not the action you’d expect considering the conditions.

 

[Nick Clayton]

I think I saw you again today. If one of you was rocking some bright ass orange bibs . You all left about a half hour after I arrived along with the Whaler. Slower than expected out there. I did get my second unclipped coho though and another fish that put up quite the tussle . That said, not the action you’d expect considering the conditions.

Yeah the conditions couldn't have been more ideal. We had plenty of shots at fish that just didn't seem interested in biting. Was weird.

We ended up a good many miles north of there at our furthest. Wasn't for lack of trying.

That's the second time I've seen those guys in that Whaler lately. Nice guys. Wonder if they're on this forum. When we talked to them they hadn't had any action, but did see them land one fish a bit later before we separated.

 

[jasmillo]

Yeah the conditions couldn't have been more ideal. We had plenty of shots at fish that just didn't seem interested in biting. Was weird.

We ended up a good many miles north of there at our furthest. Wasn't for lack of trying.

That's the second time I've seen those guys in that Whaler lately. Nice guys. Wonder if they're on this forum. When we talked to them they hadn't had any action, but did see them land one fish a bit later before we separated.

Yeah, super friendly. I’ve seen them off of a number of beaches the last few years. Always throw a wave at the beach fishers they pass.

 

[Stonedfish]

Yeah, yesterday was odd. Things looked like they were lining up properly with the marine layer, but it certainly was much slower than Friday.
Looks like @jasmillo found the only hot spot.
Pretty weak numbers out of Everett.


I saw this in some comments on another site.
Hilarious and I sure hope this isn’t true, but nothing would really surprise me….


SF

 

[Matt B]

Live from my canoe in MA 10 I’m finally out, and finally on the board. Gotta head home soon but that’s okay. This new to me, old rod is a line launcher.

 

[ThatGuyRyRy]

Yeah, yesterday was odd. Things looked like they were lining up properly with the marine layer, but it certainly was much slower than Friday.
Looks like @jasmillo found the only hot spot.
Pretty weak numbers out of Everett.
View attachment 75221

I saw this in some comments on another site.
Hilarious and I sure hope this isn’t true, but nothing would really surprise me….

View attachment 75222
SF

It's crazy where the creel guys come from. A lot are either in school or just off of school and coming from out of state.

DFW did a rockfish identification quiz a bit ago. Maybe they should have a salmon one and train their own staff.

 

[Nick Clayton]

I saw this in some comments on another site.
Hilarious and I sure hope this isn’t true, but nothing would really surprise me….

I've had this experience a handful of times in Westport. Mostly with rockfish, but twice with salmon. The last time it happened the fish checker tried to tell me I had kept too many coho. One of our crew chinook was smaller, but definitely legal, and she told me it was a coho. Had to show her the differences. It definitely made me panic. I was walking down the dock to talk to another captain when she hollered "Hey looks like you guys kept too many coho". Even though I keep a sharp eye on things and have never done that out there, it still made me panic until I put eyes on the fish she was referring to.

I can definitely give them a pass for a rockfish mix up, as there are so many different rockfish and many that aren't brought back to the dock very often, but who in their right mind can't tell the difference between a coho and a chinook

Some fish checkers are incredibly knowledgeable. Some can't even tell the different between a coho and a silver.

 

[SKYKO]

Overslept but managed a short session at a little road end beach close to home, 1/2 with the landed fish having an adipose and similar size as last week's. With outgoing up to slack beach had a decent seam and corresponding slight eddy. The amount of life in the water at this spot was impressive, starfish everywhere, various crab, sculpins etc. What appeared to me as 3 different types of baitfish pods: small 1" fish dimpling surface, medium 2-3" very thin snakey fish and the big momas at maybe 3-4" with black barring on sides and kinda plump, when these larger fish would break the surface enmasse it made a crackling sound like pouring milk over rice crispies which was cool. Based on the Pic @jasmillo posted a few pages back I thought maybe perch, does that jive? Thanks

 

[Wanative]

Yeah, yesterday was odd. Things looked like they were lining up properly with the marine layer, but it certainly was much slower than Friday.
Looks like @jasmillo found the only hot spot.
Pretty weak numbers out of Everett.
View attachment 75221

I saw this in some comments on another site.
Hilarious and I sure hope this isn’t true, but nothing would really surprise me….

View attachment 75222
SF

Spots on pinks and coho are a good identifier but for me the gold standard is scale size.
Pink scales are less rhan half the size of coho or any other salmon for that matter.
Most folks that have been around salmon very much have no problem correctly identifying them.

 

[duncansimpson0160]

Got my first pink this morning from the beach. 22 inches and thing kicked my ass. Fished for about 2 hours this morning with a pink comet and I hooked it about 30 mins in (around 7:45). Reminded me of some of my battles with stripers on the east coast. I’m new to the state from the Midwest and now I got to see a bit of what the craze for pinks is all about. These are some awesome fish.

 

[Divad]

Got my first pink this morning from the beach. 22 inches and thing kicked my ass. Fished for about 2 hours this morning with a pink comet and I hooked it about 30 mins in (around 7:45). Reminded me of some of my battles with stripers on the east coast. I’m new to the state from the Midwest and now I got to see a bit of what the craze for pinks is all about. These are some awesome fish.View attachment 75255

Nice thick pink! Welcome aboard the pink train. Now, a moment of silence for your reel kidding

 

[Merle]

View attachment 75237View attachment 75238
Live from my canoe in MA 10 I’m finally out, and finally on the board. Gotta head home soon but that’s okay. This new to me, old rod is a line launcher.

Nice! Love that fly pattern as well.

My go to beach rod for years was a 10’ 7wt IMX. It was for sure a launcher with an 8wt line.

Andy

 

[Jacob Watrous]

Pink Tail:

Coho Tail (not the best photo):

 

[Stonedfish]

Got to the beach at 6:00 and started fishing at 6:30. Nice quiet morning. All hell broke out about 10:00 when groups of people showed up along with about 10 or so dogs. Balls, and sticks were thrown, swimming dogs and the prerequisite beach loud talker. Called it a day at 11:00.
Ended up going 1 for 4, with a clipped coho released plus a king follow to the rod tip and one cutthroat. Just didn’t feel like dragging that thing back to the rig and dealing with it in the hot weather when I got home.

My hook to land ratio sucks lately with big or little hooks. That is how it goes sometimes and I’d rather hookup and lose them versus not getting bit.

Water was fairly clean and lots of sandlance around. Lousy pic of a school swimming by.


Something you don’t see out on the sound much let alone used for salmon, a pontoon boat. Maybe they forgot about WDFW Bass Week or the desire to catch a humpy was that strong.


Took my time on the mile plus walk back to my ride to look for beach glass plus I was way overdressed. I’m ready for some fall weather right now.

SF

 

[wanderingrichard]

Hey, they have a sense of humor. How many people do you know that have a jolly Roger insignia on their pontoons bimini ?