Chambers Bay

Haha well I was taking a tactical pause to get breakfast, and now they kicked me out to put the epidural in.

These are the actions of a true yakbum!

I was scouting Chambers Creek area yesterday and ran into a tribal wildlife officer...He was checking on the guys netting and said that there has been ONE fish brought out of the water via net so far so nothing has shown up yet. However this was at 3:30 yesterday afternoon before it rained again last night and this morning - that might have helped. There were two boats out in front of the bridge and they were checking pots...So pretty much nothing yet but it has got to be pretty much any day now. Parking stinks down there though. I did check Solo Point on the base and there were quite a few people fishing down in that area off the south tip of that island (forgot the name). Lots of yaks out there too.

I was scouting Chambers Creek area yesterday and ran into a tribal wildlife officer...He was checking on the guys netting and said that there has been ONE fish brought out of the water via net so far so nothing has shown up yet. However this was at 3:30 yesterday afternoon before it rained again last night and this morning - that might have helped. There were two boats out in front of the bridge and they were checking pots...So pretty much nothing yet but it has got to be pretty much any day now. Parking stinks down there though. I did check Solo Point on the base and there were quite a few people fishing down in that area off the south tip of that island (forgot the name). Lots of yaks out there too.

Newbie question here, but what are the rules regarding interactions with tribal fishermen?  I searched the WDFW site and the fishing rules booklet and found nothing.  Are we supposed to keep some minimum distance or anything like that?  Chambers is close enough and seemingly less current-sensitive than other spots, so I would love to give it a try, but not sure about it...



Jim

Just don't mess with their gear. Plenty of room in the creek to paddle around it. Fishing at Chambers doesn't actually happen in the creek though.

http://www.salmonuniversity.com/pss_chambers.html

Yeah just stay away from all their stuff and you are fine. The natives have their nets between the railroad bridge and the fish ladder...You can launch in the area or the park and then fish out front like the salmonuniversity link that Ravdakot posted. They net during the week and then, according to the officer  , they pull out the nets at 12:00 noon today and don't put them back in the water until Monday so you basically have the weekend. The bank fishing can be pretty good with Buzz Bombs.

Yep,  they always pull their nets on the weekends at chambers.

Just don't mess with their gear. Plenty of room in the creek to paddle around it. Fishing at Chambers doesn't actually happen in the creek though.

http://www.salmonuniversity.com/pss_chambers.html

Thanks.  That was one of the places I found with info on the location. 

Yeah just stay away from all their stuff and you are fine. The natives have their nets between the railroad bridge and the fish ladder...You can launch in the area or the park and then fish out front like the salmonuniversity link that Ravdakot posted. They net during the week and then, according to the officer  , they pull out the nets at 12:00 noon today and don't put them back in the water until Monday so you basically have the weekend. The bank fishing can be pretty good with Buzz Bombs.

Cool, thanks very much all.  Looked at it in Google Maps, and looks like there is a decent pull-off about halfway to the dam, was thinking put in there if there's room for my Honda :-).  I'm in a paddle boat, and so far no rod holder installed, so trolling would be 'interesting' if  I did actually hook up with one... 

Jim

If you go out in the bay, try mooching with herring or jigging a Dart...There is that shelf a couple hundred yards off shore where they stack up...Provided the things are there...

A white point Wilson all the way laced with herring oil. Going out at first light tomorrow. I will post report

Yeah, my challenge is finding the shelf...  Until I get around to having a FF to mount, I have to judge it by landmarks.  I like the imagery on http://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/bathymetry/, but they skip over the shallowest zones due to size of their boats.  I figure that if I try out about where the yellow lines are on the screenshot I should be close 

Jim (hoping for a kitchen pass)

Just look for the dilapidated boat docks north of the creek. The depth drops to 120' plus really quick in front of those docks. Plus last year pre FF the guys in boats right there were very helpful to those of us in Kayaks. Looking forward to first King of the year!

Start your drift roughly 50-100 yards off, but just south of center of the first dock north of the creek. As you drift north you'll get deeper and deeper. Once 50-100 yards north of the dock reel up and restart your drift. Repeat process until you limit or you've wrecked your shoulder from repetitive jigging.

Cool, looks like I will be able to give it a whirl tomorrow morning.  I'll be on a yellow 12' Elie Gulf, orange bicycle flag and a hopeful grin :-) 

Jim

Arrived and was in the water by 630.  Launched out of the muck puy that is the creek. Fished for a little over 4 hours with 3 other aka takers and 5 boats. Unfortunately none of us had so much as a sterile wether jigging or mooching.  I also never saw anything in my FF or in the creek on my way in. Oh well give it another whirl next weekend. Still beats the heck out of the river circus 
Tim

I was out there yesterday for 3 hrs or so, did not get any strikes out in the salmon zone that everyone was working.  I did however get in a lot of practice jigging, and the drift/fish/return to start/repeat cycle that tides kinda create…  Met HomeBrewer and chatted a while, paddled around a little and explored the estuary up to the fish dam, got some nice pics of the railroad bridge, had a great day even without a keeper fish.

I did spend some of my time targeting flounder on the sandy shelf out front.  It was kinda fun drifting along, bouncing a jig along the bottom, and watching the herd of little flounder following it to see if it was edible.  There were a bunch of small fish darting in and out with the same question.  At one point I counted 5 flatties and a half dozen of what turned out to be sculpins…  I did entice one sculpin and one little Starry to take the hook and come visit the boat - so it wasn't a complete skunking  But fun for sure!