Puget Sound

[DimeBrite]

Photo and net assist by: @Stonedfish & @Wanative

3 for 3 this morning with one other good strike missed. The salmon I landed were all prime migratory coho (6-8 pounds), which were just gorgeous. After a season catching predominantly 3 pound coho, today was a great reminder of why I fly fish Puget Sound. The scenery this morning was incredible with the golden harvest moon setting, a misty sunrise, and fresh snow covering the high mountain peaks.

 

[Burt Dagger]

View attachment 84015
Photo and net assist by: @Stonedfish & @Wanative

3 for 3 this morning with one other good strike missed. The salmon I landed were all prime migratory coho (6-8 pounds), which were just gorgeous. After a season catching predominantly 3 pound coho, today was a great reminder of why I fish Puget Sound. The scenery this morning was incredible with the golden harvest moon setting, a misty sunrise, and fresh snow covering the high mountain peaks.

Nice! Finally getting out again for a quick session tomorrow morning. You’ve ensured I’ll sleep like shit in the meantime.

 

[Greggor]

View attachment 84015
Photo and net assist by: @Stonedfish & @Wanative

3 for 3 this morning with one other good strike missed. The salmon I landed were all prime migratory coho (6-8 pounds), which were just gorgeous. After a season catching predominantly 3 pound coho, today was a great reminder of why I fish Puget Sound. The scenery this morning was incredible with the golden harvest moon setting, a misty sunrise, and fresh snow covering the high mountain peaks.

Gorgeous is the the right word for sure! What a beautiful, pristine specimen!

 

[SurfnFish]

View attachment 84015
Photo and net assist by: @Stonedfish & @Wanative

3 for 3 this morning with one other good strike missed. The salmon I landed were all prime migratory coho (6-8 pounds), which were just gorgeous. After a season catching predominantly 3 pound coho, today was a great reminder of why I fly fish Puget Sound. The scenery this morning was incredible with the golden harvest moon setting, a misty sunrise, and fresh snow covering the high mountain peaks.

uh, that net...lol

 

[Stonedfish]

uh, that net...lol

Are you making fun of my net?
SF

 

[SKYKO]

View attachment 84015
Photo and net assist by: @Stonedfish & @Wanative

3 for 3 this morning with one other good strike missed. The salmon I landed were all prime migratory coho (6-8 pounds), which were just gorgeous. After a season catching predominantly 3 pound coho, today was a great reminder of why I fly fish Puget Sound. The scenery this morning was incredible with the golden harvest moon setting, a misty sunrise, and fresh snow covering the high mountain peaks.

Beauty of a fish!

 

[Mossback]

Are you making fun of my net?
SF

Small nets make fish look big...
Should be long-arming that net too...

 

[Tallguy]

3 for 3 this morning with one other good strike missed. The salmon I landed were all prime migratory coho (6-8 pounds), which were just gorgeous. After a season catching predominantly 3 pound coho, today was a great reminder of why I fly fish Puget Sound. The scenery this morning was incredible with the golden harvest moon setting, a misty sunrise, and fresh snow covering the high mountain peaks.

Nice fish. It was nice to see the rain bring in a nice push of wild fish, I was worried they would run right to the rivers and it would be quiet beaches. I found the bite was on/off/streaky this week, but with some periods of great aggressive healthy fish when the water and tide and fish all aligned.

Yesterday was my last day of the season for MA 9 beach coho, I cleaned out my fly vest this morning. My best year so far (moved here in 2014) for solid numbers of fish, start to finish without any serious dead spots. Didn't land anything of size this year, but I had some chances. Also learned some new ways of catching coho on small pink and green things, so had some progression this year too. Very fun year.

This week reminded me that people who think hatchery and wild fish are the same are on some sort of crack cocaine/fentanyl combo. Sometimes I sort of forget that too, but wild fish just have another gear to them. I got bossed by some fish this week that were not nearly as large as they felt when they took off down the beach. Also very fun.

I do wish we would get October beach fishing in 9, but I am not sure my marriage and body could survive it. It might be for the best to end it now, at least for me.

Got a serious Puget Sound grin going this morning. Hopefully I can add a Westport grin to that this coming week if the tuna boat runs. It will be a long winter and spring waiting for next years coho.

 

[Stonedfish]

Small nets make fish look big...
Should be long-arming that net too...

I’m bringing my 40” hoop Beckman with a 4’ handle which will be firmly wedged in my ass crack as I wade around today. Don’t want to be under gunned and seems like the appropriate tool for 3lb coho.

Last day in 9 to get it done. Good luck to everyone who gets out today.
SF

 

[Divad]

Nice fish. It was nice to see the rain bring in a nice push of wild fish, I was worried they would run right to the rivers and it would be quiet beaches. I found the bite was on/off/streaky this week, but with some periods of great aggressive healthy fish when the water and tide and fish all aligned.

Yesterday was my last day of the season for MA 9 beach coho, I cleaned out my fly vest this morning. My best year so far (moved here in 2014) for solid numbers of fish, start to finish without any serious dead spots. Didn't land anything of size this year, but I had some chances. Also learned some new ways of catching coho on small pink and green things, so had some progression this year too. Very fun year.

This week reminded me that people who think hatchery and wild fish are the same are on some sort of crack cocaine/fentanyl combo. Sometimes I sort of forget that too, but wild fish just have another gear to them. I got bossed by some fish this week that were not nearly as large as they felt when they took off down the beach. Also very fun.

I do wish we would get October beach fishing in 9, but I am not sure my marriage and body could survive it. It might be for the best to end it now, at least for me.

Got a serious Puget Sound grin going this morning. Hopefully I can add a Westport grin to that this coming week if the tuna boat runs. It will be a long winter and spring waiting for next years coho.

Just remember some of those intact wild fish are actually hatchery fish to add to the confusion. All hatchery fish should be legally required to have their adipose clipped. Okay off the soap box.

Glad you had a good year out there as well!

 

[Mossback]

I’m bringing my 40” hoop Beckman with a 4’ handle which will be firmly wedged in my ass crack as I wade around today.

View attachment 84081

TMI...

 

[jasmillo]

Wrapped my 2023 MA 9 season this morning as well. It was a great year overall. Lots of adult fish landed. Though no monsters, some solid fish as well as tons of fish in the 2.5lb - 4lb. I am still learning a ton when it comes to this fishery. Every year I pick up a few things I wish I knew when I started seriously targeting coho from the beach in 2017. For all you new folks just getting started, keep at it if success elude you this year. It’s an amazing fishery but it’s not trout fishing your local river or stocker lake either. It’s also not steelhead or musky. Effort wise, it’s somewhere in between. To give you an idea of the effort, here are some numbers for you to chew on from my 2023 salmon season to date (7/21 - 9/30). For reference, I would consider my self a solid beach fly fisherman. Most days fishing, there will be some folks on the beach better/more experienced than me and some that are not.

Number of Outings (range from a couple hours before work to full days): 44

Number of Hours Fished: 197

Minutes Fished: 11,820

Estimated Casts: 20,685

Adult salmon hooked: 253

Adult salmon landed: 157 (111 coho, 44 pinks, 2 kings)

Casts per hookup: 82

Casts per landed fish: 132

That’s nearly 21,000 double hauls to land 157 adult salmon . My back and hands are reminding me of this daily. Now imagine if this wasn’t a pink year. In the end, this is not a numbers fishery for most of us, most days. It’s a unique and incredibly enjoyable one though. Plus, salmon are delicious.

Some pics from the year…

Last coho of the year. Caught this morning. Not a bad way to cap off the year in MA 9. 7-11 overall today.



Some other solid fish landed this year.













Lots of great sunrises.







Coho is not 100% over for me yet though. I’ll still fish them a bit in MA’s other than 9 for another 2-3 weeks. Then I’m going to catch up on some sleep and reintroduce myself to my wife and dogs .

 

[speedbird]

Despite having access to a boat where ten coho in a day is easy, I keep going back to the beaches because I find the experience more meditative, especially early in the morning on beaches with few people around. A lot of the more popular beaches don't offer solitude, so next year I am going to have to do a bit more exploring. Gorgeous fish, especially those Kings. Were those on a 6 weight by chance?

I did the math, good to know the PNW offers both the fish of a thousand casts, and the fish of 80 casts. Interesting you caught more coho than pinks though, so far I am of the opinion that pinks are some of the less aggressive fish we have. I think the reason we catch so many is just a function of their numbers. In the fresh when presented with good numbers of chum I found them much easier to hook than similar numbers of pinks, and in the salt I would say I catch coho at the same rate as I catch pinks when I find good numbers of them

 

[jasmillo]

Despite having access to a boat where ten coho in a day is easy, I keep going back to the beaches because I find the experience more meditative, especially early in the morning on beaches with few people around. A lot of the more popular beaches don't offer solitude, so next year I am going to have to do a bit more exploring. Gorgeous fish, especially those Kings. Were those on a 6 weight by chance?

I did the math, good to know the PNW offers both the fish of a thousand casts, and the fish of 80 casts. Interesting you caught more coho than pinks though, so far I am of the opinion that pinks are some of the less aggressive fish we have. I think the reason we catch so many is just a function of their numbers. In the fresh when presented with good numbers of chum I found them much easier to hook than similar numbers of pinks, and in the salt I would say I catch coho at the same rate as I catch pinks when I find good numbers of them

All fish were caught in 6 or 7 weights. I only specifically targeted pinks twice. Most of my pinks were bycatch targeting coho. When I did target them, I found them to be quite aggressive. Seemed like if you got a fly in front of a pod, you’d get eaten. I have never targeted them in estuaries or fresh water though.

 

[DimeBrite]

I stumbled across this Dan Chen silver salmon print 22 years ago in the back of a Friday Harbor art gallery. To me it perfectly captured the dynamic energy and striking beauty of these salmon. This image launched my quest to catch the perfect >10 lb wild buck coho in the salt water with a fly rod in MA9 Puget Sound. A smarter person would just fish for them in B.C. or SE Alaska where they are much larger, stronger, and far more plentiful. But for some reason fishing for the perfect coho in Admiralty Inlet has more allure, I guess because of the greater challenge. Over the years I have caught fly rod coho off the beach 10 pounds and bigger in MA9, but the search for that perfect salmon keeps going. I'm missing MA9 salmon fishing already!

 

[Wanative]

View attachment 84203
I stumbled across this Dan Chen silver salmon print 22 years ago in the back of a Friday Harbor art gallery. To me it perfectly captured the dynamic energy and striking beauty of these salmon. This image launched my quest to catch the perfect >10 lb wild buck coho in the salt water with a fly rod in MA9 Puget Sound. A smarter person would just fish for them in B.C. or SE Alaska where they are much larger, stronger, and far more plentiful. But for some reason fishing for the perfect coho in Admiralty Inlet has more allure because of the greater challenge. Over the years I have caught fly rod coho off the beach 10 pounds and bigger in MA9, but the search for that perfect salmon keeps going. I'm missing MA9 salmon fishing already!

A couple of those coho you caught Friday met the perfect specimen criteria
though not quite the 10 pound mark.
I was impressed.

 

[Stonedfish]

I took Thursday and Friday off to finish up coho fish in MA 9. Fished with @DimeBrite and @Wanative
Great company, good banter and a few swear words starting with the letter F may have been expressed when a nice coho was stuck and lost.
I ended up going 3 for 4 on Thursday and 2 for 4 the past two days. I also went 1 for 1 on broken rods.
The grade of fish improved the past few days over the obligatory 3 lbers everyone has been catching. I sure wish we had October, or at least the first two weeks. I’d like to catch a Halloween beach coho again from MA 9 in my lifetime.
It was great meeting some members out on the beaches as well as seeing and fishing with some familiar faces. The cast of characters, idiots and potential Darwin Award winners, especially on a pink year are always entertaining.
My hands and shoulders are tired, but I’d go again tomorrow if it was still open. It isn’t, so I’ll do my first cutthroat trip of the fall tomorrow. Tossing little flies and fishing at a more leisurely pace will be a nice change up.
A few pics from the past few days. Fish photos courtesy of @DimeBrite
SF

 

[Phil K]

Lots of nice Coho being caught.

I had to help a friend who lives down on Oyster Bay and got a quick MA13 morning session in. I only caught a few shaker Chinook, and this mondo styrofoam log. I hauled it out and left it where a state employee is likely to find and properly dispose of it. A quick and dirty calculation estimates it contains about 5,000,000 styrofoam beads that would eventually have ended up on the beach.



I'm going to need a bigger stripping basket.

 

[Wanative]

Brian, I totally enjoyed the outings with you and Tim.
I never fail to learn things that improve my beach fishing game. Including preparing tackle, casting angles, hook sizes and types(@DimeBrite )
tide effects on fish and fisher people. Gotta be P.C. ya know.
I've even learned I can survive from 5 am to noon without coffee, water, cookies and a muffin. Although I'm working on proper hydration.
I know I waste way more time than you guys with tangles, potty breaks, changing flys, and saving Darwin award winners from themselves.
It's been fun and I'm happy to end the MA9 season with this little guy which fought well beyond his weight class
after going 1 for 5 yesterday and 1 for one today.
Can't wait until next coho season.

 

[DimeBrite]

Brian, I totally enjoyed the outings with you and Tim.
I never fail to learn things that improve my beach fishing game. Including preparing tackle, casting angles, hook sizes and types(@DimeBrite )
tide effects on fish and fisher people. Gotta be P.C. ya know.
I've even learned I can survive from 5 am to noon without coffee, water, cookies and a muffin. Although I'm working on proper hydration.
I know I waste way more time than you guys with tangles, potty breaks, changing flys, and saving Darwin award winners from themselves.
It's been fun and I'm happy to end the MA9 season with this little guy which fought well beyond his weight class
after going 1 for 5 yesterday and 1 for one today.
Can't wait until next coho season.
View attachment 84238

Nice work with the coho today Fred, that fish fought well. I will always remember those 4 big coho that exploded out of the water after you hooked them up. Next time... NO ESCAPE!