Puget Sound

Chucker said:
I have just realized the grand plan behind the way that WDFW is managing PS salmon fishing. It’s a grand social experiment to increase connectivity between people in these days when we are all too isolated by social media and cellphones. What could be better than getting together with 600 people with a strong common interest and doing a fun activity together! I got out two of the days, and had some great conversations with people - well, at least the volume was great, you have to shout a bit to be heard over all the motors. We also got to compare the gear we were using - admittedly, this was when someone trolled a bit too close and snagged my gear on their downrigger ball, but still. Heck, we even handed off a rod with a hooked fish to someone… in another boat… is that even legal? There was a lot more socializing at the boat ramp, in the launch line and during the hour long wait to take out. That all went really well and I am sure some great friendships were formed! I can’t wait until the next time!

🤪
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It wasn't that crowded today. Might of had something to do with the 20knt gusts.
 
SeaRunner said:
How does the bait turn out for you? I've heard if you don't starve them there's issues with their bellies being soft.
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I use them whole if smallish or cut bait strips if too big and put them in salt to tip hoochies for trolling.
 
Hit it again today. Only king landed had one too may fins and was sent packing.

Fly fishing for rezzies was good again though. 8-9 over a two hour period. Thank god for the wind protection of points though…yikes. Bumpy out there today when I was out in the open jigging for kings.

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Two of the others landed.

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Stuffed with what appear to be sandlance. They were busting them in the shallows which is a fun way to catch them!

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SeaRunner said:
How does the bait turn out for you? I've heard if you don't starve them there's issues with their bellies being soft.
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Once a herring or other fish dies the acids in their stomachs continue to work on what is in the stomach resulting in what often is referred to as belly burn. By holding the herring alive in holding nets until the gut is emptied before processing as frozen bait the highest quality bait is assured..

By getting live jigged bait on ice as quickly that ongoing digestive process can be slowed down. By cooling/icing the jigged herring as quickly as possible the resulting cut plugs are acceptable.

After decades of mooching my preferred cut plugs are freshly jigged herring. I keep them in a live well as cut as needed. The second choice if no live well is to cut the herring as they are jigged, pull the guts and get into a chilled brine, on board in a small ice chest with frozen block to keep the brine cold. When herring is abundant and I'm fishing regularly at the end of the day once at home (after 5 or 6 hours in the brine) I like to pat the left-over herring with a paper towel as I remove them from the brine and roll them in borax and place a dozen or so in baggies and refrigerate. The borax bait will keep for a couple weeks in the refrig or they can go into freezer where they will keep for a month or so. A number a years ago for a couple summers the boat fished freshly jigged and cut herring side by side with borax bait. At the end there was no difference in the effectiveness of the two baits.

As an aside just as with the freshly jigged herring where the best quality is achieved by removing the guts as they are cut and for the best table fare any salmon that is still actively feeding benefits greatly by immediately bleeding, cleaned, and on ice as quickly as possible.

Curt
 
Chucker said:
I have just realized the grand plan behind the way that WDFW is managing PS salmon fishing. It’s a grand social experiment to increase connectivity between people in these days when we are all too isolated by social media and cellphones. What could be better than getting together with 600 people with a strong common interest and doing a fun activity together! I got out two of the days, and had some great conversations with people - well, at least the volume was great, you have to shout a bit to be heard over all the motors. We also got to compare the gear we were using - admittedly, this was when someone trolled a bit too close and snagged my gear on their downrigger ball, but still. Heck, we even handed off a rod with a hooked fish to someone… in another boat… is that even legal? There was a lot more socializing at the boat ramp, in the launch line and during the hour long wait to take out. That all went really well and I am sure some great friendships were formed! I can’t wait until the next time!

🤪
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Look, I’m mostly friendly, but also not afraid to take charge and use my voice, no one questioned that we docked three boats earlier than we likely should have, just saying. 😂
 
Smalma said:
Once a herring or other fish dies the acids in their stomachs continue to work on what is in the stomach resulting in what often is referred to as belly burn. By holding the herring alive in holding nets until the gut is emptied before processing as frozen bait the highest quality bait is assured..

By getting live jigged bait on ice as quickly that ongoing digestive process can be slowed down. By cooling/icing the jigged herring as quickly as possible the resulting cut plugs are acceptable.

After decades of mooching my preferred cut plugs are freshly jigged herring. I keep them in a live well as cut as needed. The second choice if no live well is to cut the herring as they are jigged, pull the guts and get into a chilled brine, on board in a small ice chest with frozen block to keep the brine cold. When herring is abundant and I'm fishing regularly at the end of the day once at home (after 5 or 6 hours in the brine) I like to pat the left-over herring with a paper towel as I remove them from the brine and roll them in borax and place a dozen or so in baggies and refrigerate. The borax bait will keep for a couple weeks in the refrig or they can go into freezer where they will keep for a month or so. A number a years ago for a couple summers the boat fished freshly jigged and cut herring side by side with borax bait. At the end there was no difference in the effectiveness of the two baits.

As an aside just as with the freshly jigged herring where the best quality is achieved by removing the guts as they are cut and for the best table fare any salmon that is still actively feeding benefits greatly by immediately bleeding, cleaned, and on ice as quickly as possible.

Curt
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Thank you. I've fished fresh jigged and caught on them, but like you haven't noticed a huge difference in effectiveness with brined. I've always thought about trying to preserve some that I jigged but held off for the burn out concerns
 
VMP said:
I only had a couple hours before family obligations and there was a small craft advisory, but with only 3 days open for king salmon in MA10 (if quota lasts that long), this is no time for caution...
Launched at dark-o-thirty, spent a good amount of time looking for bait once on the fishing grounds, saw a good amount of surface bait with birds on it, was tempted to use my 8wt over them but bait looked "happy", no signs of salmon on it and I was trying to maximize chances to get a chinook so I continued to search for better bait.
Eventually I did and by 7am I had an almost 4 lb coho and a 12 lb king both on a heavy jig, both males on empty stomachs, king was a butterball, only 29 inches long but huge shoulders and girth, fatso!. Should have left then but wanted to catch some herring, boat traffic got progressively really busy after sunrise.
I eventually left for home after several close encounters (I even broke the boat horn switch I installed last year after almost being run over several times while casting or jigging) and after loosing my favorite sabiki to some oblivious fancy boater downrigger lines (they were trolling that close to each other, weaving in an out of the drifting moochers and jiggers, not following depth contours, not looking ahead on the direction of travel, ugly). At least the sabiki died after landing about 3 dozen herring of various sizes, some of them as sextuplets, hopefuly it made a mess of those fancy Scotty downriggers they were sporting. The return against the wind and chop was pretty snotty, was supposed to be 15 knots, gusting to 21 knots, looked more like sustained 20s. Fish tasted great on the cast iron griddle.

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Great post! Would you mind sharing your herring technique? I'd like to try that. My dad and mom were dutch and we always ate pickled herring :)
 
Not my fish, but a nice chinook being cleaned that was caught on a jig from the Edmonds pier while I was out in my walk this morning.
SF

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