Blackmouth from kayak

That's a great idea T13, a 2018 meetup sounds like a plan. Dawn Patrol and I have been tossing around the idea of getting you and other experienced members out for a brew or two to pick some brains about the puget sound kayak fishing program in general so you are among like minds. 

Yep T13 as Smoke said you beat us to the punch. Would love to meet up and compare notes and likely some laughs too. We're in West Seattle and Everett but work in Interbay so an early session after (or early coffee before) fishing or an evening meetup would be great. Let's check in after the New Year!

I'm down for an early 2018  blackmouth outing.

Sounds like a plan.  I tried to get something going in the south, maybe Auburn area and even have a microbrewery that will let us bring my kayak in to serve as a starting point to discuss setup, options, problems, etc.  Mines far from perfect and not set up for all, but if everyone brought ideas, it would be fun.  I would like tips on using my Lowrance and having it there in demo mode would be fun.

Don't need the kayak inside, just an option that would work at one place near Auburn and I'm sure there's options up north as well.  Looking forward to it and will be checking in while out of the area.  Sing out if someone knows a site.  Ravensfan had a good one where a few of us met last year, I think it was Hellbent @ 13035 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98125
Toss out some dates that work and maybe a time that makes the commute less painful.  I'm pretty good most weeknights with a little lead time and 7:30 lets at least some of the dust settle.  Open for other spots as well, just staring the ball moving.

Blackmouth updates! Over the last few weeks have made several forays, continuing to develop winter program by trying some new things and refining others. Have gotten snowed on last 3 sessions, have had sun too. Seems like finding the less windy windows has been the trick.

Yesterday Smoke and I saw some weather potential that paralleled a personal hall pass, and went for a longer session. The original plan was getting up into MA9 and try the Posession area, also testing various sources' recommending pushing north for more and bigger fish. Ended up scrapping Posession due to weather, and made a late call to try Three Tree Point and see what we found there. As of last month I have bailed on the kayak downrigger plan for the winter Blackmouth as getting it near bottom in 90'+, keeping it there a bit tricky and
laborious. The jigging program outlined earlier in this thread has become a stalwart, and over the last few sessions have folded in mooching with cut plug.

Got to 3T at 7am and saw birds hitting bait as we were unloading, got pretty pumped. Unfortunately that was the last sign of bait for the session. Fished for 3 1/2 hours mooching and jigging and caught a good number of flounder, a number of them big. Did see a PB roll though and hang at the point, then working the area N heading towards Normandy Park for a while so must have been something there. Smoke did get a bigger strike early, possible salmon. At 1030 we elected to pull up stakes and head to Golden Gardens where we figured it would be more productive with the target species.

Hit the water again at noon, went to the current spot off of the corner of the marina jetty a bit north. Spent the afternoon working 70-190' depth mooching and then jigging. Steady stream of flounder, zero trout or salmon. Weather and tide at first a bit more spicy but then actually worked out great, often in opposition so holding us in place or minimally drifting while line angle stayed good. By later afternoon wind was minimal and it was some pretty relaxing jigging. Was using the Pearl Pt Wilson dart (with a stinger hook added to top), hooked what I thought was another flounder. As it got close realized it was a salmon, and it got a little wild at the boat. After a minute or so of comedy trying to get it to the net, expecting it to pop off, pulled in a hatchery blackmouth, just legal and a bit fatter than recent ones. Hooked on the stinger hook. Then for final hour hooked into some more flounder, probably 25+ on the day.

A couple of thoughts from recent sessions:

- Southern areas I have fished have been pretty lean on bait. Lincoln Park, now 3T fun to be out but not feeling productive
- Golden Gardens continued to be productive, but yesterday was surprising. Two of us fished hard for 4 1/2 hours using methods that have been successful recently, and only 1 confirmed salmonid
- Followed some birds at end of day to a small bait ball of herring that a young seal was corralling. The herring were jumping to avoid the seal, good sized, probably green label or better. I had tried some of the smaller sized herring this time due to what I had found in the stomach of my last keeper, but will be switching back to green label next time
- Going to try to figure a time and place to test MA9 & 8 status. Looking at a couple of spots that look more kayak friendly in wind, open to suggestions
- The Point Wilson dart Pearl 3-4 oz continues to be the go-to jig
- Mooching has been fun on the kayak. I had first started doing it last summer but caught only dogfish and other bottom fish, but haven't seen a single dogfish this winter. That said still looking for good bait and fish conditions, but have had some salmon success

Between the jigging and mooching, program is getting rounded out nicely. Super easy to have that tackle on board, and as gaining skill with the techniques including how and when to deploy them, will be good to have in back pocket in summer to intersperse between trolling sessions. The winter fishing hasn't been gangbusters but it has been good to stay in shape, and try new things. Still hopeful for it all to come together here some time in the next month or two and land some big ones! Would love to hear any success stories, advice that folks have for this season.

Way to go guys.  It's not a Portland springer, but looks outstanding to me, lol.  I've had the crude and then a visit from our daughter and grandson who left Saturday.  Will have a fish/pass for Saturday and/or Sunday if anyone is inclined.  I stuck this in another post as well, but it's important to watch for line nicks on the mooching lines.  It's been a bit of a pain rolling out a new set of snelled hooks with cold fingers.  Tried this and in the living room it worked great.  Cut about a 2 inch washer and slice in on one end, marking it with a pen.  Start on the other end, engage the hooks and wind toward the slice and bury the double ball swivel inside the tube.  Repeat up to three times.  Unwind from the slice.  I can stick two of these in the PDF pockets and with a couple of jigs in my center tray, I'm ready.

Hope to see you guys next week, I'll be heading to Shilshole unless someone has a better plan, then I'm in.

Looks rough fishing during the big flush in the morning, but maybe a launch about 10AM and fish the low slack until 2 pm or so?

Frustrating as it is, I’m out for Saturday for sure and likely out Sunday. This crud has me by the short-hairs and every time I tease it with some activity it’s rough. Good luck if you’re out there.

Frustrating as it is, I’m out for Saturday for sure and likely out Sunday. This crud has me by the short-hairs and every time I tease it with some activity it’s rough. Good luck if you’re out there.

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well. I was hoping to be out at Shilshole today, but a variety of scheduling conflicts resulted in me needing to do taxes today. I'm sitting here now taking a break from that staring out the window at the sunny weather, wishing I was fishing... 

Nice job. A fish a trip would keep me coming. I would like to take a shot Sunday but somewhere some common sense jumped in. Really hoping for a shot next weekend. Nice write up. Curious to know if you have any tip tangles when jigging with a faster tipped rod.

Nice fish, DP! About what time did you hook up with that fish? Most of my luck at Shilshole has been right there near the mouth of the little sheltered harbor. Where was that one?

I couldn't believe I didn't lose i

If all you were after is a fish dinner, this wouldn’t be something you’d remember for a log time. Well done. I agree the clip provides a break in continuity from the jog and helps. I’m not sure a salmon biting a shiny metal jig can be afraid of a little bling on the jigs head lol.
Hate to say I might be leaving the Trident group, and won’t unless some wants a really great ride.  Peddling in reverse back into the wind/tide would be one of the only reasons why.
There are some new local guys joining in. Hope they hookup soon.

I couldn't believe I didn't lose i

If all you were after is a fish dinner, this wouldn’t be something you’d remember for a log time. Well done. I agree the clip provides a break in continuity from the jog and helps. I’m not sure a salmon biting a shiny metal jig can be afraid of a little bling on the jigs head lol.
Hate to say I might be leaving the Trident group, and won’t unless some wants a really great ride.  Peddling in reverse back into the wind/tide would be one of the only reasons why.
There are some new local guys joining in. Hope they hookup soon.

John, did you bite the bullet and get a Hobie?  Just saw your pedal comment.

Great to see some of you guys catching Blackmouth out there. I always carry a white Point Wilson Dart - Candlefish. You can't go wrong have a couple different sizes.  With fish up top I've used a 3/4" Mack's Sonic Baitfish (same inventor of the Crippled Herring)

I was able to rearrange some things and did get out to Shilshole Bay yesterday. I was on the water fishing by about 7:20 or so and fished until just after 3:00. I was there not long after the high tide and until well after the low tide. I never hooked up with a fish the entire time. There were two times that I felt a tiny bit of action on the line, but both times I think I had just foul hooked a herring or had them bumping into the line. There was never any real resistance to me pulling up whatever it was above the resistance of the jig and 150+ feet of line.

I launched off the boat ramp and started fishing at the mouth of the little sheltered harbor by the beach. I never saw a bait ball in water less than 150 feet deep the entire day. Most bait I saw was in water between 180 and 210 feet deep, with the bait between 150 feet deep and the bottom. I saw one bait ball that was from 130 to 150 feet deep, but all others were deeper. I also tried trolling in the shallower water, also, but never got so much as a nibble. Either there was nothing larger chasing that bait or they just weren't interested in what I was offering. I threw everything in my tackle box at them. I spent the most time with crippled herring jigs, white Point Wilson candlefish, and Shimano butterfly flat fall jigs.

Since I had previously had the most luck in shallower water close to the rock wall by the harbor, I alternated between the deeper water and the shallower water by the beach/harbor approximately every hour during the day. I covered north to south at all depths from the beach to 200+ feet of water from the rock wall of the harbor to the green buoy, both straight north/south runs and zigzagging back and forth. All of the water less than 100 feet deep was just barren, with nothing showing on the fish finder the entire time. It was just completely empty. I have never seen it like that. I was wishing that I had brought a rig for catching some of the bait in the deep bait balls that found, both to be sure what the bait was and to try to drop it down to different depths to see if that would work better than the artificials I was using. Maybe I could have caught a bottom fish or some new species like a dogfish that I haven't caught before.

The wind started to be a bit of annoyance from about 9:00 up until about 1:00 or so. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. With the bait so deep, having the wind push me along while trying to jig so far down was frustrating. I was worried that even with the line counter reel that I wasn't getting to the depth that I thought I was where I saw bait on the fish finder. The wind down finally die about 1:00, so I could jig straight down around the time of the low slack. It didn't help, though. Still not a single nibble.

On the bright side, I did get quite a bit more practice using the fish finder, including adjusting sensitivity and marking waypoints for the biggest bait balls. That let me see that  almost all of them were right along the line where the depth levels out around 200 feet deep. I don't have enough experience to understand what was going on or what I could have done to catch fish. I pedaled many miles trying to find the fish, most of which fighting wind. I was truly thankful that I had a pedal kayak.

John, you need to get over that crud. This newbie clearly needs some help. 

Unless I'm missing something, 10 is closed now.