Puget Sound

Gary Knowels said:
I split 5 hours across 2 beaches this morning, going 0-1 at each. The second one really pisses me off. I notice a rip 50 yards down the beach, reallocate and hook up on my 5th cast. By far the most solid feeling hookset yet. Had him pinned, stripped in about half the line fist over fist as I backed out of the water, got good side pressure on him and had the fish less than 10 feet from shore when it went airborne, did 2 full cartwheels in the air and stayed right all the way back in the water only to come undone 2 tugs later. He left a chunk of flesh and scales on the hook. I thought that was the one... to be honest, it was tough to stay motivated after that, but I fished another hour before heading home to do yardwork.

The quest continues another day.
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Just sounds like rotten luck at this point!
 
Looking at the WDFW checks in the straits the last few days there appears to be very few coho being caught, much lower catch rates we are seeing here in central sound. Suspect that the majority of the "ocean" coho being caught are resident fish that had a chance to grow to a larger size. Those fish grow better fast, especially when they get larger enough (say above 18 inches) to switch diet of those larger herring. Any of those 14 to 16 inches coho in June that were spending their time in MA 9 had the chance to reach that 4 to 6# range. Quite a few of those fish were caught during that July Chinook opener and again in early August. The fact their numbers seem to be declining again supports the idea those fish were resident fish. If they were ocean reared fish we would expect their numbers to be increasing.

All the above doesn't mean their are a few of those ocean fish around but typically we don't see a push of them for another couple weeks. Over the last 20 years the vast of majority of the 4# plus coho that we kept in July and most of August had that red flesh typical of our resident fish instead of the more typical orangish flesh of the later ocean fish.

Curt
 
Smalma said:
Looking at the WDFW checks in the straits the last few days there appears to be very few coho being caught, much lower catch rates we are seeing here in central sound. Suspect that the majority of the "ocean" coho being caught are resident fish that had a chance to grow to a larger size. Those fish grow better fast, especially when they get larger enough (say above 18 inches) to switch diet of those larger herring. Any of those 14 to 16 inches coho in June that were spending their time in MA 9 had the chance to reach that 4 to 6# range. Quite a few of those fish were caught during that July Chinook opener and again in early August. The fact their numbers seem to be declining again supports the idea those fish were resident fish. If they were ocean reared fish we would expect their numbers to be increasing.

All the above doesn't mean their are a few of those ocean fish around but typically we don't see a push of them for another couple weeks. Over the last 20 years the vast of majority of the 4# plus coho that we kept in July and most of August had that red flesh typical of our resident fish instead of the more typical orangish flesh of the later ocean fish.

Curt
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It's a good sign that people are getting rezzies that look like ocean fish this time of year. Might mean there is enough food for the kamikaze ocean fishing coming in September to get nice and football shaped. Last year were the smallest and skinniest coho I have ever seen in my part of MA13. Didn't get one over 4 lbs, but two years ago didn't get one less than 8 lbs and even one just shy of 15lbs.

Interesting you see a difference in meat color. I've never noticed that in my big hooknose fish. Probably just never paid enough attention. :sleep:

On a different note, I also noticed the chinook I've been seeing are pretty small and skinny this year in my MA10 beach nook spot. Usually get a few in the 20-35lb range come through, but nothing over 18 so far that I have seen pulled by anyone there.
 
Rule of thumb is that Ocean runs don’t show up in the Sound in good numbers until Labor Day weekend, give or take a week.

I would expect that to be the case this year. We just gotta cross our fingers for cooler weather and rain.
 
Went out with my 80+ year old father for kings on the downriggers. The resident coho encountered this past weekend were still on the small end, but all of them had incredibly distended bodies, presumably full of food. I joked that once they digest all that food they'll be keepers, but until then, they go back.

Dirty gear report: We assumed we were done king fishing by 7AM on Sunday, and continued to catch a number of small beer belly coho. There was not a thought in my mind to check the 13 pound "king" we landed other than for the missing fin. Lo and behold, when I opened up the cooler to revel in our success, I saw a shiny silver tail and whitish mouth. 13 pounds on the boga grips, pictured next to a 6 pound king.IMG_4027.JPG
 
I’ve encountered a few nice rezzies so far this year but he majority have been on the small side. This weekend was slow. 1-2, 1-1 before work Thurs/Fri. 0-0 Saturday and Sunday, though the majority of the time Sunday we jigged for kings in 10. I did catch a lot of dogfish, rockfish, flounder and cod (a first for me).
 
jasmillo said:
I’ve encountered a few nice rezzies so far this year but he majority have been on the small side. This weekend was slow. 1-2, 1-1 before work Thurs/Fri. 0-0 Saturday and Sunday, though the majority of the time Sunday we jigged for kings in 10. I did catch a lot of dogfish, rockfish, flounder and cod (a first for me).
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Glad it wasn't just me. Went 0-0 on my first trip out on Saturday. Saw a couple nice fish jump at a couple spots, just nothing on the end of my line.
 
BigBubba said:
It's a good sign that people are getting rezzies that look like ocean fish this time of year. Might mean there is enough food for the kamikaze ocean fishing coming in September to get nice and football shaped. Last year were the smallest and skinniest coho I have ever seen in my part of MA13. Didn't get one over 4 lbs, but two years ago didn't get one less than 8 lbs and even one just shy of 15lbs.

Interesting you see a difference in meat color. I've never noticed that in my big hooknose fish. Probably just never paid enough attention. :sleep:

On a different note, I also noticed the chinook I've been seeing are pretty small and skinny this year in my MA10 beach nook spot. Usually get a few in the 20-35lb range come through, but nothing over 18 so far that I have seen pulled by anyone there.
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Last year the ocean fish were so small that I couldn't believe I wasn't just catching resis. Definitely a trend that beach fish were smaller than boat fish too. The Blackmouth biomass at Jeff head was incredible June-July, as well as the amount of bait. I could definitely believe that improved herring in the sound are just making the resis bigger now. I started fishing resis in 2020, and assumed the blogs talking about "6-8lb" resis mixed with ocean fish in September were just lying. I also assumed "8-12lb average" on ocean fish was another fish tail, but hope I am proved wrong this season. I've been expecting 3-6lb resis and 4-8lb ocean fish the years I've fished
 
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Greg Armstrong said:
Mine were set up like this on the starboard side of my Montauk 150 (since sold). They were relatively out of the way, but still required a degree of mindfulness to avoid damage.

There was a company that fabricated really nice rod holders specifically meant for fly rods that were a direct replacement for Boston Whaler's stock versions (that were made for bait casters and spinning rods) that came mounted in front of the console on their boats from the factory. I don't recall the name of the company that made the modified version, but they were very well well designed. Maybe they'd work on our Scout. View attachment 123110
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You might be thinking of the Blue Water Design rod holders. I had 'em on my boat (when I had a boat) and they worked great. Pics borrowed from the interwebs...
 

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Smalma said:
Looking at the WDFW checks in the straits the last few days there appears to be very few coho being caught, much lower catch rates we are seeing here in central sound. Suspect that the majority of the "ocean" coho being caught are resident fish that had a chance to grow to a larger size. Those fish grow better fast, especially when they get larger enough (say above 18 inches) to switch diet of those larger herring. Any of those 14 to 16 inches coho in June that were spending their time in MA 9 had the chance to reach that 4 to 6# range. Quite a few of those fish were caught during that July Chinook opener and again in early August. The fact their numbers seem to be declining again supports the idea those fish were resident fish. If they were ocean reared fish we would expect their numbers to be increasing.

All the above doesn't mean their are a few of those ocean fish around but typically we don't see a push of them for another couple weeks. Over the last 20 years the vast of majority of the 4# plus coho that we kept in July and most of August had that red flesh typical of our resident fish instead of the more typical orangish flesh of the later ocean fish.

Curt
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You may be right - the three fish that we got had very orange flesh, sea lice, were shedding scales like glitter from your favorite drag queen, and were over 5 pounds. All of that says ocean, but there’s still no certainty that they were actually ocean fish. They might just have switched to eating herring earlier than the others from the cohort. No coded wire tags in them, so we will never know.
 
Been a slow week of fishing for me. I lost one on Thursday and had a few bites on Friday. I caught a nice cutthroat today, (16” or so. No picture because I didn’t have my net on me) my first one on this very popular MA9 beach. I wasn’t very pleased when an individual fishing herring next to me beached a coho and then proceeded to dispatch it by letting it flop around in the sand and kicking it in the head 5-6 times. Have a little respect for the fish.
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My dad found this drifting past him
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Lots of sand lance around!
 
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