Ditto for Bellyburg
Puget Sound
- Thread starter Stonedfish
- Start date
Fun day out on the water with @Steve_S
Thank you for the invite.
There isn’t a lost and found forum that I could find, so I’m asking for members help.
If anyone happens to catch an approximately 5 lb male humpy with a slight case of diaper rash that has a small pink fly in its mouth, 8’ of 12 lb Maxima Ultragreen and 3-6” of a Airflo 40+ fly line, I’d appreciate getting my leader back.
Thanks
SF
Thank you for the invite.
There isn’t a lost and found forum that I could find, so I’m asking for members help.
If anyone happens to catch an approximately 5 lb male humpy with a slight case of diaper rash that has a small pink fly in its mouth, 8’ of 12 lb Maxima Ultragreen and 3-6” of a Airflo 40+ fly line, I’d appreciate getting my leader back.
Thanks
SF
Dang! Your 40+ failed? Clean break? Truly shows the power of the pink salmon. Nothing can stop a humpy
Chris Bellows
Steelhead
If this is the type you’re thinking of it was in a tide pool along Dungeness Spit. Probably about eight inches across.
speedbird
Life of the Party
Slow afternoon tide on a whidbey beach, lots jumping but too far to fast to, called it when the wind picked up. Got to use a fly @Stonedfish kindly gave me a while back though!
Denwor54
Life of the Party
Yes Chris, I have never seen so many this year and they really screwed up the fishing. The trollers were not catching anything and when went to water were they clear we had good fishing. My last day they were gone and the fishing was awesome. Also we saw some jellyfish that were huge. If you were trolling and got down more than a foot you’re mono would be covered with brown slime. I have seen when the small clear jellyfish were around and the fishing was not impacted.
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Interesting observation, @Denwor54. The clear jellyfishes, likely Aequoria victoria (crystal jelly) and Aurelia aurita (moon jelly), feed on very tiny plankton such as small copepods, ctenophores, and smaller jellyfish (see here and here). The nematocysts (stinging cells - tiny harpoons) on their tentacles are equipped with a toxin to help disable prey. But neither the harpoon nor the toxin is very strong, reflecting their feeble prey. You can handle them without any effect as the harpoons are not large / powerful enough to penetrate your skin.
On the other hand, the red jellies are likely lion's mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata). These very large jellies (largest jellyfish species in the world with tentacles up to 100+' long) feed on larger crustaceans and small fishes. The lion's mane jellyfish have stronger nematocysts that can penetrate through the dead layers of the human epidermis. And their toxins are far more powerful (including neurotoxins), reflecting the punch necessary to subdue more active prey. I imagine that salmon and other fish would avoid waters that have many lion's mane jellies just as we would avoid walking through a patch of stinging nettles.
Lion's mane jellyfish are a bane of purse seiners because the jellyfish get caught up in the nets and their tentacles can fly through the air as the nets are lifted. You really don't want a tentacle fragment in the face or eye. Contact with the tentacles can cause welts, skin irritation, and pain that lasts for a few hours, as well as allergic reactions. No one has been known to die from their stings (except in the Sherlock Holmes short story "Adventures of the Lion's Mane" by Arthur Conan Doyle).
Steve
In honor of Stones' fish hierarchy- shaker coho, sculpin and three pinks off the beach. Lots more pinks from the kayak, MA 9. I'll confess though, the wind had me switching to gear when over deeper water. All the beach fish were early in the am, wind shifts and tide changes from about 10 AM on had the rest of the pinks moving through water deeper than 30 feet.
They hugged the shore when the porpoise was lurking and when the seals showed they were off deeper. Then again the porpoise didn't hang for long, nor did the seals so maybe that observation is worthless.
Ended up basically waiting for a show up current, paddling to an anticipated spot where the school might be heading and casting ahead of the pack. White jellys and weed minimal, no red jellies, good vis water. When the hoochie was close, I'd let line out, so fun to watch the fish chase it down, typically three or four pinks would be vying for it. I didn't really bother much with any kind of aggressive set from the kayak, if you got a bump and wound up a little and there was nothing, you could just stop the wind, wait a little, jig it a little, and a bunch of times, not always, but enough to play around with that method, fish would be on.
Anyone else notice when you first hook a pink it takes almost an unreasonable amount of time to realize they might as well start fighting?
They hugged the shore when the porpoise was lurking and when the seals showed they were off deeper. Then again the porpoise didn't hang for long, nor did the seals so maybe that observation is worthless.
Ended up basically waiting for a show up current, paddling to an anticipated spot where the school might be heading and casting ahead of the pack. White jellys and weed minimal, no red jellies, good vis water. When the hoochie was close, I'd let line out, so fun to watch the fish chase it down, typically three or four pinks would be vying for it. I didn't really bother much with any kind of aggressive set from the kayak, if you got a bump and wound up a little and there was nothing, you could just stop the wind, wait a little, jig it a little, and a bunch of times, not always, but enough to play around with that method, fish would be on.
Anyone else notice when you first hook a pink it takes almost an unreasonable amount of time to realize they might as well start fighting?
speedbird
Life of the Party
Thoughts as to why they moved off deep with the wind shift and tide change?
This image was taken Wednesday, H/T Cliff Mass blog
I came home from Idaho this morning. Yesterday the smoke from the Bear Gulch fire pushed up the river valley we were in.
That looks like where I was fishing. I fought the wind for about an hour waiting for the fish to move in range. Finally I figured I'd prefer to get skunked on a different beach. It was even windier there, but then it died down and my evil plan was foiled.
Semper_Fly
Steelhead
Came here to ask the same question. Experiencing the same on multiple MA9 beaches this last week. The only reasoning I could think of was that maybe it was still a bit early.
Went to Whidbey Island on Monday for a 3-day getaway. Every beach we visited the fish were jumping out of casting range. All the buzz bomb folk were doing okay, but all the fish were still pretty well out in the distance.
I did manage to pull in two pinks on the first night but those were on spinning rods that I ended up releasing. Day two + three produced no fish. Personal highlight though was my 4 year old figuring out how to cast (spinner). She was so ready to bonk a fish but they just were not in reach the day we headed back home.
I think they were just loving the 5 foot backeddy dropoff along the beach that otherwise would be too shallow with the tide drop, plus it was gloomy and some very light drizzle that basically cleared by 11 am. A backeddy meeting the regular tide on drop-from-high can be a very productive site for any predator
Divad
Whitefish
1 for 2 yesterday morning in northern MA9. Kept the chrome pink. Then went a little south and saw two coho caught immediately upon arrival then nada on the outgoing.
Tried a small bay nearby and found cutties everywhere filled with hitchhikers. Then back north for a fishless evening.
I will say if you bleed, gut and ice a pre staging pink immediately they lack the fishy flavor.
Tried a small bay nearby and found cutties everywhere filled with hitchhikers. Then back north for a fishless evening.
I will say if you bleed, gut and ice a pre staging pink immediately they lack the fishy flavor.
I am sure I missed opportunities last weekend as I was trying to fill the cooler because I was bleeding and gutting a fish instead of casting again while the passing sporadic schools were still in the vicinity. That is how important it is to me to properly treat a pink to eat. If you do it right, they're good. If you do it wrongly, they're not so good.
I did try to address this issue of missed opportunities by making a cast with a bleeding fish still in the net and with the net handle balanced in the canoe. I hooked up again immediately and lost that fish, and then the school moved on and I got back to gutting the fish in the net.
Divad
Whitefish
@Matt B im the same way! The school followed my fish to the beach, I wanted to recast so badly but my mind is bonk > bleed > gut > ice. Pamper it so my pink tastes close to coho 
Folks give them bad rapport but they also bonk and stringer them for hours. For whatever [scientific] reason, this doesn’t work for pinks so well like you notice.
Folks give them bad rapport but they also bonk and stringer them for hours. For whatever [scientific] reason, this doesn’t work for pinks so well like you notice.
