8/23 & 8/24 Fishing Report - areas 10 & 11

Been prospecting in the big boat, waiting for the fish to show up so I can get after them with the Hobie.....

They ain't here yet.

Sat 08/23 - Lines in the water off Pt. Robinson at 6:00 am - 1st take down at 6:15, barely legal hatchery blackmouth (22-1/4") - C & R'd, turns out that was the biggest fish of the weekend.

Lost count of the number of shakers, couldn't keep the gear down for more than a few minutes without picking one up.  Gave up and headed N. to Pt. Beals - same story, did see one net out for a small 'ho.

Back on the beach by 11:00 am.

Sun 08/24 - got a free seat on a charter out of Shilshoal - mooching herring.  Pretty much the same again, lots of shakers, one or two sharks and a couple of sole.  Never saw a net on Sunday - back to the dock by noon, just missed the weather.

Slow going this year, hope to see some silvers in the next few weeks.

SC

Anyone giving the South Sound a shot?  When flying home on Saturday, we passed over the entire Sound from the south up over Seattle and back down to SeaTac.  There were a lot of boats fishing off the mouth of the Nisqually and much less in the typical haunts around Tacoma and Seattle.  Not that numbers of fishermen necessarily correspond to the quality of fishing.

I saw some reports of silvers already in the Puyallup, so they're starting to move through.

-Allen

Anyone giving the South Sound a shot?  When flying home on Saturday, we passed over the entire Sound from the south up over Seattle and back down to SeaTac.  There were a lot of boats fishing off the mouth of the Nisqually and much less in the typical haunts around Tacoma and Seattle.  Not that numbers of fishermen necessarily correspond to the quality of fishing.

I saw some reports of silvers already in the Puyallup, so they're starting to move through.

-Allen

As the 'nookies are almost through that was the plan. 

Z

FIshed with a buddy in the Arima Tues AM, landed a 14# nookie that was starting to darken---a mature male -- and lost a similiar size on e at the net. LOTS of little blackmouth and silvers in the 9-12 inch range, and millions of smolts in clouds on the depthfinder.  We tried jigging herring, and most of the concentration of "bait" was actually smolts.  The herring we did jig up were about 3 inches, good for tipping a hoochie, both kings were caught on sparkly gold hoochies at 75 feet.
   Quite a few boats at Gig Harbor, fewer at Dalco and Point Defiance.
Planning a trip to the Nisqually in a few days---anybody fishing there recently?  What's the best yak launch site??

I launched out of luhr beach.  Nice launch a bit of a paddle out of the mud flats area to reach the fishing, but not too bad.  I've been thinking of trying to paddle up the lower river to gain some better access to the river.  Let me know if you want to try that, it'll be an experiment...

Reports from out in front of the river haven't been very encouraging.  But that is just reports.  There are a lot of fish headed there, so at some point it should let loose.

what about launching from the refuge itself? i've been checking and dont see any restriction or prohibition on doing so.  would love ta join the two of you, would be my 1st time on the sound and on the water in that area. sad, i used to live on top of nisqually hill and never realized what was within 1 1/2 miles of me!

Just from what I've heard, is that they don't take kindly to fishermen at the refuge.  Wouldn't hurt to ask them though...

If you want to fish the salt, luhr beach would be as good of launch as any (no charge) opposed to the refuge which is a $5 entrance fee + they may have open and closed hours.

It would be an advantage for fishing the river itself.  There's another place where you could launch up further, but I wouldn't want to run the gauntlet of bank fishermen throwing lead!

It would be an advantage for fishing the river itself.  There's another place where you could launch up further, but I wouldn't want to run the gauntlet of bank fishermen throwing lead!

heh, yeh coworkers who bank fish the river in that area have alluded to it being a bit of combat at times.....

Takled to 2 of the POint D/Gig /Dalco regulars yest---one guy caught a 12# king and an 8# hooknose silver yest, the other had 3 silvers from gig Harbor area.

Quite a few coho around, but suffer from lockjawitis...

At the NIsqually flats???  Heard there are very few fish back at the hatchery, the net was out Saturday and the guy pulled in 1 king 25# or so, and a dark chum.