NorthWest Kayak Anglers
Kayak Fishing => Let's Talk Kayak Fishing => Topic started by: Dawn Patrol on November 20, 2017, 05:56:55 PM
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Hi All,
Have made a couple of initial forays for blackmouth around the MA10/11 borders, looking for some ideas. Haven't targeted blackmouth before, from what I am reading you want to be at or near bottom in 120+ FOW ranges. As I'm on the kayak and downrigger currently only goes to 100' (and hand cranking from that depth is more involved than 30-60'), I have tried some jigging too but so far only bottom fish that way. Have done some downrigger to 80' but slow or shakers. Any thoughts on general approaches?
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Try a little shallower early am. Bottom is good but I’ve had luck at 75-90 especially in overcast days, which might work till next May?
Try to stay a little further from the bottom with a jig, although I’ve picked up rockfish in 30 fow this fall. Seems they are shallower more often than I remember. Not exactly sure where you are, but drop offs can be good, study a depth cart and make a good plan. Try sliding weight like uplander does for Kokanee and try a smaller flasher/dodger?
Otherwise, enjoy the paddle lol.
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Thanks T13, good tips. I'll try a bit less deep and work a jig up a bit higher off the bottom. Was trying the Metzler mooch-a-jig Saturday, I like the idea of it and the weight and shape seem to be helpful keeping it where I want it. My second jig option is Point Wilson Darts. Still have yet to catch a salmon on either due to mainly sticking to other techniques but want to develop the capability as an option to downrigger with spoons or cut plug.
I like those sliding sinkers too, did well with them earlier season but then felt like I wasn't staying deep enough in some conditions so got on to the downrigger.
At/pre dawn are they up higher like the summer fish or do they generally stay deeper regardless?
In the end all of the time on the water is good and leads to improvement, happy to be able to get out and learn more. I am mostly around Lincoln Park and then south of the ferry, though spent some time around Golden Gardens late season. Fun to dial in my local areas. I saw the advice you were giving Smokeonthewater who is a coworker and buddy- my other "off season" goal is to get more dialed in on terrain and currents. All of your advice is well appreciated!
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Good thread. I’m in the process of rediscovering jigging for winter springs. I did it a lot in the 70’s and 80’s with my father in his power boat but then moved on to trolling with the rigger. I plan to do more jigging out of the yak this winter and based on my experience from way back when, there are a few points to keep in mind. First, find the feed and look for salmon arches within those feed balls. The big advantage we have over the old days is accurate fish finders. These springs are much more active feeders than summer fish so if you can find the fish, your chances of success are better than in the summer. Keep in mind that jigging is a relatively static method— you don’t cover a lot of ground, so knowledge of fish holding zones in your area is key. The second point is getting your jig to the exact depth of the bait ball. Over the past year I’ve been experimenting with depth marked line—braided line in 25 foot coloured sections (4 colours) that are even marked within each section by white marks every 5 feet. What this means is you can dial in what depth your jig is at. For example, if you see a herring ball from 70 to 90 feet, you let four sections out and jig up one section(25 ft) and then repeat. Finally, Theother thing this marked line does is enable you to get your jig down close to the bottom when the fish are feeding there without losing a lot of gear from snagging, since you know exactly how deep your lure is. You do have to take into account how much angle the current is slanting your line but experience will help with that. This bottom fishing can be important because in my area there are places and times when the springs are keying in on sandlance which are right on the bottom.
Let’s keep this thread going and see how we do over the winter.
T2
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Thanks T2, this is great info. Starting to get a better picture now, will be sure to add some details if/when I get some results!
A few basic questions: do you guys use scents (smelly jelly etc.)? I laid off of it this year with most of my trolling and had good results, but wondering if more important to consider when less action. Another question, on a point Wilson dart, thoughts on hook placement? I am hearing either standard placement or rigging it off of a sampo off of the head. And any other recommended jigs? My only other jigging experience is with buzz bombs and squid jigs, which have helped with technique and feel. Open to any suggestions, thanks!
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I've had great luck jigging a dart in 40-90' of water. You'll be in for a ton of shakers and jacks when you find schools of herring.
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I don’t think scent can hurt, that’s for sure but I’ll repeat my point that these winter fish are more active feeders so scent may not be as important as summer fishing. As far as jigs go, I’ve had some success with Shimano butterfly jigs.
Here’s a pic of one of my go to colours with a fall coho.
T2
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Been curious if anyone has been using the butterfly stuff on salmon - nice work tsquared.
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really excellent to see some jigging success on salmon! I haven't seen many people trying this method, but I know it can be successful. We used candlefish and point wilson dart jigs on chinook.
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Tsquared, is that the Shimano® Flat-Fall Butterfly Jig or flat side. Looks like the flat fall?
Interesting that at a price of $10+ the flat side doesn’t come with hooks from cabelas. Nice looking jig and just a quick check suggested marine west might have the best $ at about $11
Thanks.
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You got it—it’s the flatfall.
T2
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T2, if you see someone out without a shirt, it's likely me after buying two of the Shimano Butterfly jigs. Sportco had a full rack (if we can still say that) while most others were out. Since the chances of loosing things is in direct proportion to the cost, I picked up two of the $12.50 ea jigs. Will followup with a report after Sunday, which is still looking good for a morning run out of Shilshole at Meadow Park.
The picture makes them look a bit stouter and shorter than reality.
I saw comments that the double hook set up looked questionable, but seems to hold well, any thoughts or experiences?
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White Point Wilson Darts in the 2 to 3 oz will catch about everything in the Sound - in my experience. Kandlefish is another one that looks like the dart made by the inventor of the Crippled Herring.
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Trident: I haven’t lost many fish from these jigs but I’ll repeat— I’m still in the experimental stage. I’ll have more experience over the next few months.
T2
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I heard those Canuck fish were easy,lol. Still planning a Sunday romp at Shilshole Bay. Will be a jigging day with the butterflies and have plenty of Pt Wilson darts and even a thick jigging spoon. Will post up.
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T2, well, the jigs catch fish but I can’t say I’m a fan of the double short hook that comes with them. Caught lots of shakers of coho and black mouth at shilshole I’m the butterflies. Have to admit I might not have given the 3oz Pt Wilson equal time, but I’d say the butterflies were ahead. That said one will immediately be converted to a single barbless siwash. Ended up keeping 2 small coho, 17+19 inches. I’m pretty sure it happened after the initial hookup each time, but the second hook made a “would have been fatal” 2nd hook up through an eye. On the 19 I watched it happen right at the boat. Otherwise I liked the jig. Did loose a few (shakers were all over) and have to wonder if the shape of the stockier style provided some leverage. Something to consider.
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I've switched one of the Shimano butterfly jigs to a single 4/0 siwash. Right now there's lots of immature coho/blackmouth and the double hook increases bad hookups and I'm sure mortality. Here's a picture and I'm hoping the single larger hook will reduce hooking smaller and provide an easier process to release them. I've also found that a 2 foot leader with a backward snap swivel that connects to an O ring tied off to the mainline allows for very quick swaps. To avoid tangles each jig gets it's own zip lock to avoid tangles. I really suggest mono about 10 lbs under the mainline, especially if you're using braid. Untangling braid in any case is almost futile and with cold wet hands in ways, not so easy as on dry land. You get a little bit of stretch which can really help as well. Again, even without strong record keeping, I think the butterflies did outfish the darts, but who knows, I might have been working them harder. We had a light tide and I could have dropped to 2 ounces. I had more luck hooking up by going low, waiting for marks and then reeling up to the fish about as fast as I could with an direct drive knuckle buster:-0 Jason found that practice good and said the line counter he had was really nice. There's no need to set the hook on that type of retrieve, just be handing on...even with smaller fish.
Please be aware the picture seems to be getting squeezed. In real life the jig is longer/more narrow.
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I'll definitely be interested in the hookup results after the change to a single siwash hook. I really need to work on my jigging game. I only hooked up on a small portion of the bites that I got and I lost two fish for every one that I got to the kayak. I've been brainstorming today on jig and hook setups that might increase my hookup percentage and, more importantly to me, greatly increase the number of fish that I hook that I actually get to the kayak. I'm considering adding an assist hook on the front to help hookups or running the line through the top and bottom eyes on the jig with a bumper like on a buzz bomb to reduce lost fish. I think the two are mutually exclusive or I'd try them both. :)
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Peddle kayaks cheat and are able to sustain pretty consistent speeds hands free while us paddle folks can't (couldn't help it, no offense, just jealousy). As Jason mentioned, we trolled a bit looking for bait with one pole and were ready to drop jigs ASAP with another pole once we found some. Tide, wind, current and if you're a paddler, the ability to chew gum and juggle all come into play. On my next trip I'm going to move away from traditional spoons/plugs and try this left over from a WI trip. It's just over 6 inches and wiggles pretty good at even a slow speed, down to >1 MPH. Just wondering if anyone has gone this route hunting for the winter blackmouth? Three trebles from WI to 2 single siwash here...
For those who are allowed rockfish or even small halibut, if you're trolling low for blackmouth, it would seem this would work as a combo?
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I've done zero blackmouth fishing thus far so clearly I haven't targeted them with such baits, but coming from bass fishing I have a ton of them at my disposal and have been thinking about how I can incorporate them into my salt/salmon fishing (and whether they are even viable or not).
For those without downriggers, there is a rig I've seen done a lot on the lakes where you run a 3-way swivel off of the mainline, with a leader+weight hanging down and the minnow bait on a leader trailing back. This will allow you to run your bait a lot deeper than it would normally dive and using a suspending or even floating bait can help keep your crank from hanging on the bottom.
I've also a ton of soft plastics, many which resemble candlefish to a T (laminate senkos for example anyone?). The problem is how to get them and keep them in the strike zone of these guys...
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Peddle kayaks cheat and are able to sustain pretty consistent speeds hands free while us paddle folks can't (couldn't help it, no offense, just jealousy).
Yep.. that jealousy is why I sold my previous kayak and now have the pedal kayak. It's nice to actually be able to fish the whole time that I'm kayak fishing. ;D
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Thanks again for all the help on Sunday!
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Great info. That double hook set up on the butterfly looked unappealing/dodgy to me, and the reported foul hooking/injuring fish that might get returned seals it. I did buy some of those single stinger hooks with the mini leader; may try those or at least one on the head when I (hopefully) get out this coming weekend.
Will hopefully have some useful actual feedback to report! Though did get a useful tip that was new to me from one of the guys at Outdoor Emporium when buying the gear, regarding jigging action on a kayak. He said he had successfully used a technique where once the jig was in position in the water column, using one hand as a fulcrum and the other hand would move the butt end of the rod up and down, kind of like a see-saw. Said he had had plenty of hook ups and it was a lot less tiresome/crampy. Looking forward to trying it.
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Though did get a useful tip that was new to me from one of the guys at Outdoor Emporium when buying the gear, regarding jigging action on a kayak. He said he had successfully used a technique where once the jig was in position in the water column, using one hand as a fulcrum and the other hand would move the butt end of the rod up and down, kind of like a see-saw. Said he had had plenty of hook ups and it was a lot less tiresome/crampy. Looking forward to trying it.
I actually ended up doing that exact thing out of necessity once my computer engineer bicep refused to jig the normal way anymore. The guy who gave you the tip was right. It worked fine and was much less tiring. :)
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Most tropical vertical jigging is done with a similar double-hook setup, but with the hooks above the body of the jig. They work amazingly well for tuna, mahi, and wahoo.
That shimano jig looks nice, especially around schools of herring. I've had a lot of luck with 3+" white darts whenever I've gone out this winter, but I'm not opposed to trying out another jig. Also, scent DEFINITELY helps in the winter still. Especially in drawing the keeper sized blackmouths. Without scent I haven't hooked one over 22". When I've added scent, it seems like on average I hook up with bigger ones.
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Is it a secret scent:-)? WD-40? Shrimp oil?
As for the double hook setup, I have to wonder if you have hits on either ends with a flat-falling fluttery jig vs more on the bottom with a dart that's more vertical? I'm going to stick a siwash on each end and see how many times I can foul hook my line.
With the doubles on last weekend I had two small coho hooked through the back. While it might have made good ling cod bait, I can't use them for salmon with that likely mortality rate, especially when the odds are good of small jacks
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Though did get a useful tip that was new to me from one of the guys at Outdoor Emporium when buying the gear, regarding jigging action on a kayak. He said he had successfully used a technique where once the jig was in position in the water column, using one hand as a fulcrum and the other hand would move the butt end of the rod up and down, kind of like a see-saw. Said he had had plenty of hook ups and it was a lot less tiresome/crampy. Looking forward to trying it.
I actually ended up doing that exact thing out of necessity once my computer engineer bicep refused to jig the normal way anymore. The guy who gave you the tip was right. It worked fine and was much less tiring. :)
I have used this method on boats when going deep with big jigs (16+ ounces). Keeps you jigging longer. Only downside is you can't reel immediately when you feel a bump. You can also decrease the effort of jigging when using the "tip lift" method by putting a little weight at the butt of the rod. Also a shorter rod makes a difference.
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Is it a secret scent:-)? WD-40? Shrimp oil?
As for the double hook setup, I have to wonder if you have hits on either ends with a flat-falling fluttery jig vs more on the bottom with a dart that's more vertical? I'm going to stick a siwash on each end and see how many times I can foul hook my line.
With the doubles on last weekend I had two small coho hooked through the back. While it might have made good ling cod bait, I can't use them for salmon with that likely mortality rate, especially when the odds are good of small jacks
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hehe.. I would go with whatever scent you prefer to be honest. I've got a go to, but I haven't tested changing out different scents.
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Got out Saturday morning early Lincoln Park area, and Sunday for a 5+ hour session at Golden Gardens. Had some success and wanted to make a shout out to all as the advice in this thread was useful and effective. Now have a starting point for both winter blackmouth and jigging for salmon.
Used the shimano butterfly only Saturday. Went 10-30' up off of the bottom. Used the fulcrum technique, scent on the jig (salted herring sj). Put a siwash on the bottom of the jig and a stinger hook slung on the top of the jig. Quiet, foggy morning; enjoyed a slow drift and working the jig. For a while all I attracted was squid (3, see pic) and bottom fish, then at the end of the session got a nice strike and brought in a 19" blackmouth. Great start to the day and fun to get on salmon again.
Sunday hit Golden Gardens 8-1:30. Cold start turned into a warm, sunny day and a more thorough session. Started with the butterfly jig and crossed some bait on the way to the green can and hooked up with a cutthroat, then caught two salmon (both 19-20") on the butterfly. Shifted over to trolling with a flasher and a larger coyote cop car spoon, and hooked up with a nice fish that was giving more fight. Then, suddenly a lot more fight. For the next 30 minutes I had a pre-holiday sleigh ride thanks to a seal that had been dogging me all morning. I was amazed my 20# mono didn't give, but I kept workin the drag and retrieve hoping if would just bite off a chunk and I'd get my tackle back. Each time it came up for air it would look at me with the keeper salmon held across its mouth, looking like a dog with a bone. I finally cut the line.
Switched back to the butterfly, quickly picked up another salmon. And just as quickly the line suddenly picked up speed and direction and I was on my way to another tackle donation.
Rounded out the day with some more jigging using a couple of sizes of white point Wilson darts and got another short, another that may have been just legal right to the kayak, a couple of more cutthroats, and 3 solid (and bigger) hookups as well as a bunch of bumps. All of the post-seal encounter hookups suffered due to the fact that I was horsing the fish in to beat the seals that were constant companions.
No keepers but great times on the water. A few personal takeaways:
- Both jigs used had a good bit of success throughout the days. Will be reloading on those
- Several hookups to the stinger hooks on the head of the jigs
- The two hooks did result in a couple of nastier foul or second hookings
- Only a couple of boats out, so for the seals we were the only game in town. Pretty challenging, and costly!
- The fulcrum type method worked great, both for energy conservation and ability to convert a strike
- That zone 10-30' off the bottom was productive. Usually in 50-100 FOW. Often caught on transitions too (shifts of depth after having been at one for a bit)
- Working with the current charts from Trident13 was a nice evolution. Less paddling, more fishing
- No bait seen in WS, saw a good bit through the day at GG. All visual and birds only as I still don't have a fish finder. Last couple of forays in WS have not seen bait
I'm psyched for more winter salmon- now need to find some big ones! Thanks to all for sharing advice and tips.
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Shifted over to trolling with a flasher and a larger coyote cop car spoon, and hooked up with a nice fish that was giving more fight. Then, suddenly a lot more fight. For the next 30 minutes I had a pre-holiday sleigh ride thanks to a seal that had been dogging me all morning.
If at first you don't succeed, just get an even larger (livelier) coyote cop car spoon and start writing tickets. :police:
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Smoke
I've also a ton of soft plastics, many which resemble candlefish to a T (laminate senkos for example anyone?). The problem is how to get them and keep them in the strike zone of these guys...
I’ve been thinking about your note for a few days. We’ll be traveling thru the holidays, but I’d buy a brew or two to see some examples of soft plastic candle fish. Whether it’s a fish and breakfast or evening brew meetup I’d sure like to see one after the 1rst some time. Raven knows some good spots, maybe him, Jason and some other new folks from the north end.
Showa posted a note about crappie type fishing and the chance of a Seattle area crappie shoot out, maybe combine the two issues.
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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.
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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!
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I'm down for an early 2018 blackmouth outing.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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... ::)
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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)
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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. :D
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Unless I'm missing something, 10 is closed now.
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Nice catch Gnom (some pun intended) 8-1, 8-2, 9 and 13 are still open. In 13 you can use two poles if you have a 2-pole endorsement.
This might require some planning... :pottytrain3:
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Unless I'm missing something, 10 is closed now.
I think you may be right, now that you mention it. I do remember that there would be a limited time for me to get back out there and try Shilshole Bay for salmon. I had it in my mind that it closed at the end of March, but that might have been end of February. I admit that I was reading the posts from more experienced fishermen on this thread and didn't actually go check it myself. I should have time to do it after work today, but based on the fact that you posted this I can already guess what I'll find.
On a related note, I did see two power boats out fishing yesterday that looked to be trolling. I assumed they were trolling for salmon. Hmm.. ???
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Thanks Gnomodom! Had been checking emergency rules & regs daily, but had been a while since going on the main page.
Need to adjust approach this month. Will likely make a maiden foray into MA9, and may head back into closer 11. Keeping an eye peeled for recent reports in 11 as didn't see much sign when fished 3 Tree Point last week.
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Nice job gnom. I also thought it was 3-31 for some reason. I called region 4 that is responsible and the gal thought there was a special season opening, but sg said nada. 8-1, 8-2, 9 and 13 seem open.
The lesson learned is listen, read and confirm all the time. It’s a light morning tide this weekend and I’d love a shot at point no point. Salmon and flounder. The area I know in 13 are good on a slow tide and it’s legal to use two poles if you paid. Not sure what parts of deception pass are open but that’s a spectacular paddle fish when it is.
I can’t commit to anything right now. Still really frustrated with this crud. I even have a weekend pass I might have to bank.
Very nice group to fish with...also on revo patrol...
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I would be up for a Saturday Point no Point run if there was interest.
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Talked with Justin and a trip to Point No Point Saturday is looking like a good bet. I’ll post a PNP post.