Saltwater Steelhead

speedbird

speedbird

Life of the Party
A while ago on the old forum I posted asking if anyone ever tried targeting Steelhead in the salt when the Puget Sound hatcheries were running, I didn't see much except a Steelhead caught incidentally at PNP on a clouser targeting coho. Well, I just saw this in my Instagram feed from Vancouver:



Not sure if he hooked it on gear or fly but good on him! Hope I am lucky enough to run into one in the salt.

I still wonder if I already have run into a Steelhead though, I didn't get a good look at him or a photo but at the end of September last year I remember releasing a 8-10 inch fish with white gums, and a square looking tail with tons of spots, but I am placing my money on it just being a really spotty resi
 
I've cought a lot of coho and pinks off that beach. Not surprised to see a steelhead landed there. One of only a handful of systems in the lower mainland that have summer runs.
 
the_chemist said:
I've cought a lot of coho and pinks off that beach. Not surprised to see a steelhead landed there. One of only a handful of systems in the lower mainland that have summer runs.
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I see a decent number of Steelhead landed in the river quite a lot, I need to fish it at some point for coho, the early May/June run fish are fascinating to me. Last time I went I hit cable hole, which if you are familiar with the area you know it is a literal 50 ft vertical drop cliff where people fish from the rocks. To be honest it is not an experience I want to repeat
 
speedbird said:
I see a decent number of Steelhead landed in the river quite a lot, I need to fish it at some point for coho, the early May/June run fish are fascinating to me. Last time I went I hit cable hole, which if you are familiar with the area you know it is a literal 50 ft vertical drop cliff where people fish from the rocks. To be honest it is not an experience I want to repeat
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Yup. It's a fun and unique fishery. That was the before/after work spot when I lived in vancouver.
 
i remember reading about a group of plunkers that fished off the shore of whidbey island for steelhead. if i remember right(im getting up there) they lost the oppportunity to continue fishing due to regulations. it was rare to catch a steelhead fishing herring out of Westport where i decked in the late 60's. Usually when we got one it was a fish over 10lbs. Most people fishing then didnt have a punch card to keep one. salmon punch cards were free then.
 
CRO said:
i remember reading about a group of plunkers that fished off the shore of whidbey island for steelhead. if i remember right(im getting up there) they lost the oppportunity to continue fishing due to regulations. it was rare to catch a steelhead fishing herring out of Westport where i decked in the late 60's. Usually when we got one it was a fish over 10lbs. Most people fishing then didnt have a punch card to keep one. salmon punch cards were free then.
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The west side of whidbey used to be reasonably productive for steelhead back when puget sound was planted with a couple million of them. Only saltwater steelhead fishery in the world I know of.
 
I have fished the west side of Whidbey for winter steelhead several times, reasonably recently. Like basically all my other WA winter steelhead days, I did not catch anything, but I wasn't alone out there either. And I was told by someone on the beach how they used to successfully catch winter steelhead off the beach, and also where to go on the east side.
 
CRO said:
i remember reading about a group of plunkers that fished off the shore of whidbey island for steelhead. if i remember right(im getting up there) they lost the oppportunity to continue fishing due to regulations. it was rare to catch a steelhead fishing herring out of Westport where i decked in the late 60's. Usually when we got one it was a fish over 10lbs. Most people fishing then didnt have a punch card to keep one. salmon punch cards were free then.
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Still legal to fish them! Just no fish to catch.

I considered hitting deception pass while the skagit was closed, never got out for it but may try it one of these days. Seems like that’s the only spot that has a non zero chance of catching one
 
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