Some weird day today...

Hi Guys! I went today as usually to do some flounder/sculpin fishing. Launched from Golden Gardens beach around 1PM. Awesome weather, no waves, no wind. First I observed that my fishfinder doesn't work. I do not know what is happened it just doesn't turn on, battery should be good, maybe it is gone, still do not know. So I decided to fish without fishfinder, went to Green Buoy and started some bottom jigging with simple drop-shot rig, caught maybe 3-4 medium flounders, released all of them. Still fishing and then I see a hell big boat right behind me, it is marked "WDFW Police" and I became hell scared, still thinking what rules I broke. They caught my kayak with big hook and asked to show tackle and fishing licences. I showed all stuff then they did searching all hatchets and hull and cooler, nothing, no any fish on board, but they got me with barb hook, usually I make them barbless, but seriously just forgot so I guess will get a ticket and I am ok with it because my fault. Then they asked me to move close to shore because I was at something 180 feet instead of allowed 120, so I did. Then I caught few more flounders, kept couple of big ones and 1 sculpin. Then I am getting next bite, striking, fish-on and I am realizing that something wrong here - my line is moving hell fast back and forth like zig-zag action, absolutely doesn't look like flounder or sculpin, I thought maybe small doggy, but not, pulled it up to the top of the water- it was jumping like hell around the kayak and I am realizing that it is some kind of salmon. How??? I was bouncing bottom with drop-shot, it is 3 oz sinker then hook maybe 1 feet from it, size 2/0 Gamakatsu EWG barbless with freshwater 4" Gulp! minnow on it. I didn't expect to catch any salmon so I wasn't prepared and had not idea what kind and how big I can keep, I just remember that I can't take it from water, so it was jumping for a while and then gone. I only remember it was somewhere around 20 inches with black nose, white belly and dark back with lot of round spots on it, very nice looking. Any idea gays who was it? I think it is easy to catch them with some heavy spoon by jigging it near the bottom. What do you think? Thank you in advance!

Likely a small king, or a coho. It's not unheard of for them to take small plastic on the bottom like that. It's not a good way to consistently target them though. Larger metal jigs like Point Wilson Darts or Crippled Herring that mimick candlefish and herring take lots of kings each year.

For your FF; inspect all of your connections thoroughly for corrosion. If you've not be using a good dielectric  grease, than you likely have some build up somewhere. If your lucky it'll just be on your power cable which is inexpensive to replace. Worst case is it got into the head unit. Liberally grease them periodically to prevent this.  Also, put a meter on your batt. They can sometimes lose their capacitance long before what should have been the life expectancy. It could very well just be dead or possibly shot.

Also, put a meter on your batt. They can sometimes lose their capacitance long before what should have been the life expectancy. It could very well just be dead or possibly shot.

How do you put a meter on your battery, and where can you buy an appropriate meter?

Polyangler - thank you! Yes, I already found, it was poor connection to battery, fixed and ordered some boat power connectors from eBay and also bought that recommended waterproof case from Walmart - will put it all together as soon they arrived. About salmon - I never caught any kind of salmon, no king, no coho, but in my looks this salmon was pretty similar to trout, maybe it was cutthroat trout?

Also, put a meter on your batt. They can sometimes lose their capacitance long before what should have been the life expectancy. It could very well just be dead or possibly shot.

How do you put a meter on your battery, and where can you buy an appropriate meter?

A lot of them for sale on ebay or aliexpress, just perform search for "marine battery meter" I guess an average price is ~$15-20, for example http://www.amazon.com/Automotive-Authority-LLC%C2%AE-Trolling-Indicator/dp/B00CULEO9A

Larger metal jigs like Point Wilson Darts or Crippled Herring that mimick candlefish and herring take lots of kings each year.

Thank you! I think exactly the same way. Some time ago I bought few Shimano butterfly jigs, flat-falls as well as slidends and contervortex, still never tried them, but I think they should work and I will try them next out to this area

Sometimes in the fall, the salmon forage on juvenile rockfish and can be caught mooching and jigging near the bottom in both shallow and deep reefs. I usually fish salmon legal tackle even when targeting other species like rockfish and walleye just in case I hook one. I like Point Wilson Dart jigs because they are not too expensive and their finish is more durable than most others. You can still get Megabait jigs on Ebay and they are also very durable. Chinooks are suckers for shiny metal lures. On the Sacramento River they use 2-3 oz metal jigs on the fall run and they can be fairly effective.

Scott

Also, put a meter on your batt. They can sometimes lose their capacitance long before what should have been the life expectancy. It could very well just be dead or possibly shot.

How do you put a meter on your battery, and where can you buy an appropriate meter?

Didn't mean that so literal. I meant just use a multi-meter to check that its reading 12v DC or better.

Guys, thank you all for responses! I still have some misunderstanding about salmon rules. Please help if you can. So species rules page 102 say "Handling Rule: in Areas 5-13, it is illegal to bring a wild SALMON or a species of SALMON aboard a vessel if it is unlawful to retain those SALMON." and MA10 rules for current period say "Oct 1 - Jan 31 CHINOOK - min. size 22". Other SALMON species - no min. size. Daily limit 2 (combined). Release wild CHINOOK." I just want to summarize what exctly and how much I can keep - hatchery king salmon any size, hatchery coho salmon any size, hatchery chinook 22+ and hatchery pink any size - any of them up to 2 in total - right? Please tell me if I miss something! Thank you in advance!

King and Chinook are names for the same species of fish.  I don't think the regs ever use the word "king".

King and Chinook are names for the same species of fish.  I don't think the regs ever use the word "king".

Snopro thank you! How about wild coho and other wild salmons? Are they allowed to keep or not? Accordingly to regs looks like they are not, but accordingly to recent reports for MA10 I checked in net looks like they are.

Thank you, guys, never mind - I found by myself, wild salmons are allowed to keep except king, but you have to identify them without bringing to vessel. So maybe tomorrow I go to try flat-fall jigs to catch some salmon. Just interesting in your opinion - which color is better for salmon? I have two options - phantom squid and chartreuse white. Thank you in advance!

White/chart hands down. This time of year you'd be better off fast trolling (3mph or so) a herring in the top 20' of water for coho. save that jig for next Aug.

Polyangler - thank you for the response! Unfortunately, I do something wrong with trolling, spent 10 days - caught nothing, so I realized that trolling is not for me I will try jig tomorrow if weather be good.

What was the issue with the 180' and having to move to 120'?