Show Us Your Humpies !!!

Well in that case who am I to tell a fish what they are. It's a safe space for Salmonids here, and all are welcome.
😁
 
Humpies thinned out this morning, fewer and smaller pods moving through. Hooked one and landed it. Sea lice covered its face and I wisely decided not to touch the humpy.
 
Just goes to show, even when there's a paucity of Pinks, perseverance prevails.
:)
 
1755890926660.pngI've been dawn patrolling for urban humpsters too, but unfortunately only from the office window. 3rd time this week I've seen something like this. Too far away to tell if it's a humpy, pink, coho, rezzie, etc. To paraphrase the Bridgekeeper, what's the air-speed velocity of a salmonid-laden osprey?
 
IHFISH said:
View attachment 164305I've been dawn patrolling for urban humpsters too, but unfortunately only from the office window. 3rd time this week I've seen something like this. Too far away to tell if it's a humpy, pink, coho, rezzie, etc. To paraphrase the Bridgekeeper, what's the air-speed velocity of a salmonid-laden osprey?
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Clearly photoshopped or stupid AI since it is impossible for a ferry to fly over a flying osprey, duh!!! Also what is that, a toy ferry? It’s so small!!!
 
IHFISH said:
To paraphrase the Bridgekeeper, what's the air-speed velocity of a salmonid-laden osprey?
Click to expand...
Ok I will bite.... but let's just be clear I know full well these next lines land me squarely in boring man's club territory and I am not ashamed
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from an 80 foot dive to water surface, mostly straight down we are talking 50 MPH at water impact, without salmonid
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Average weight of preferred prey
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So flying bird speed with carrying a fish up to 1/4 body weight.... (thank you @Stonedfish )

Is going to be between 0-50 mph

Zero if hovering or arriving at nest. 50 MPH if avoiding kleptoparasite predator e.g. bald eagle in a vertical dive (typically they won't do this, opting instead for frequent direction change and modest altitudinal change (osprey can turn a tighter circle than a bald eagle, but bald eagle is a better upside- down attacker. Most times when serious and unremitting challenge from an eagle the Osprey will drop their fish given both talons are stuck in the fish and it has no defense. More on this point, to fly with a live fish, to fly efficiently and quickly and to lift it from water, the bird needs both talons in the fish and to orient the fish head to bird head and tail to bird tail, one foot in front needs to go in front of the other like a snowboarder. So let's say the osprey failed to orient, and carried the fish like a weightlifter starting a pull, fish oriented 90 degrees to bird body, you're going to have a way slower flight speed and be super vulnerable to kleptoparasite attack and Darwinian selection. So your bird is a survivor let alone enough of a predator to pull good food out of Elliot bay.)

I'm thinking this guy, with salmonid, has a 20-25 MPH cruising flight speed with a +/- of 5mph due to conventional august wind speeds at 100 foot Elliot Bay altitudes on August 18-21, 2025. @Smalma @Cabezon might have a differing estimate.

So, the chances that your bird is carrying a 5 lb returning Pink are zero. For a 5lb returning Humpy, probably also zero.
Given there are virtually no SRC in Elliot bay, suspect that's not a ClarkiClarki, plus it just don't look like a cutt...
BUT...the fish still looks salmonid, for sho' ... so... resident coho... or outmigrating estuarine Duwamish 1 year salmonid....now we're talking


What's a really interesting question to me is where is this fish's nest? 3X per week sounds like they are bringing food to their babies. There were a bunch of Osprey two years back hanging down by the concrete plants, so presumably a few nests up around there, but that bird looks like it might be going north, so maybe interbay? Lower Queen Anne someplace? Discovery Park? There was a cool nest at Home Depot Bitter Lake but that's a bit of a haul for a feed out of EB. There was one guy hanging at the Ballard Locks about two weeks ago, that's more of a doable range. Maybe I got the angle wrong though, maybe your office is up in west Seattle, and they're heading to Concrete Canyon...probably going to suss out the fishing there this weekend anyway, so can hopefully update this.....
 
I was hoping @Wadin' Boot would weigh in. In all honesty the fish seemed noticeably too small even for a undersized humpy, so young rezzie was my real guess. You got the angle right - office is downtown near Pike Place. Maybe the unlucky fish is from one of the Elliott Bay net pens and made a bad decision to stick close to home.
 
TLDR....
😁
Where's all the Humpies ?

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rooftop said:
Anyone try nymphing for humpies? I'm used to streamers or dick nites.
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I got to watch a nice bright silver humpy buck eat my fly today. The fly isn’t really a streamer; it’s closer to a bonefish or a shad fly. Whatever kind of fishing that is, that’s what I was doing. And it was fun!

But do you mean like with an indicator and everything? I can guess who has…
 
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