Puget Sound
- Thread starter Stonedfish
- Start date
Divad
Whitefish
@beckermj others have gave you great input on your debacle, the one thing I’d suggest is to bring a spinning rod, with some generic 1/2oz or more spinner. Counterintuitive to our fly goal it can help you prospect water faster and hit areas you cannot reach as you learn the casts.
Plus with others fly fishing it can be a confidence booster to see fish landed. On new water I tend to bring one along with a fly rod, not always using it but it’s nice to have the option. Especially if you are trying to grab a meal or two.
Plus with others fly fishing it can be a confidence booster to see fish landed. On new water I tend to bring one along with a fly rod, not always using it but it’s nice to have the option. Especially if you are trying to grab a meal or two.
Nothing at all wrong with this recomendation, but if you want to catch fish on the fly, leave the spinning rod at home. Having the spinning rod there makes it too easy to make the switch when fishing gets hot and you are not the one getting bit.
As @Divad said though, If your purpose is to simply catch to put a few in the freezer, by all means, bring everything in your arsenal to the beach. Different methods are more productive than others some days for whatever reason.
If you want to catch them on the fly though, stick to the fly through thick and thin. Even if you’re not the one catching, you’ll be learning a lot.
This X1000
The ONLY way to get confidence at consistently catching Puget Sound Salmon on the fly is to spend as much time with your fly in the water as possible. If you truly want to learn, the best way is to do so by doing. Having a crutch to fall back on leads to too much time not fly fishing and missed opportunities
Divad
Whitefish
I beg to differ somewhat, not all beaches are great salmon beaches and we only have so much time to fish with jobs. 3/4 of the battle is timing and location. Then I saw he was out of Wenatchee and that’s a trek and a half ontop of a casting game that might not be up to snuff.
*insert some cool saying* “Even a doctor prescribes crutches when you are limping” Did I do it?
Ditto all of the above advice. A few things that have been only been alluded to (or that I missed):
(1) Whatever your typical cast distance, work on hitting that with an absolute minimum of false casting. This is all about maximizing the amount of time your fly is moving through likely water in a likely way (fast, erratic two-hand strip 90% for me).
(2) Keep sharing info with those grannies in lawn chairs and other gear anglers. Information shared on the beach between anglers of any persuasion can be a big part of things coming together, especially when trying to dial in a specific location.
(3) Did you see any fly anglers outside your group being successful? If not, some more exploring or visits to the same spots at different tide stages might be in order.
All that said, I agree with the folks that have said that most likely you just had the bad luck to be there when there were less aggressive deeper swimming fish about, it certainly happens.
(1) Whatever your typical cast distance, work on hitting that with an absolute minimum of false casting. This is all about maximizing the amount of time your fly is moving through likely water in a likely way (fast, erratic two-hand strip 90% for me).
(2) Keep sharing info with those grannies in lawn chairs and other gear anglers. Information shared on the beach between anglers of any persuasion can be a big part of things coming together, especially when trying to dial in a specific location.
(3) Did you see any fly anglers outside your group being successful? If not, some more exploring or visits to the same spots at different tide stages might be in order.
All that said, I agree with the folks that have said that most likely you just had the bad luck to be there when there were less aggressive deeper swimming fish about, it certainly happens.
VMP
Steelhead
I do! I use a 1-cm knotted mesh net in Puget Sound! Not used it often, and not recently so I am innocent! This is my 1-cm herring net (don't ask me how often I catch herring with it...
), see below pics of said net and of @skyriver's tattooed pink.
My hypothesis is that someone caught that fish trolling, netted the fish, kept the net in the water while boat was still moving therefore the pressure marks of the poor fish compressed over a stretched net (horizontal and vertical marks), then fish either jumped out of the net or they let it go, either way the horizontal striations seem not compression marks but scratches of a partially stretched net mesh as the fish escaped, before being caught again by @skyriver. A very unlucky fish, I rest my case!
Short, last minute mid-morning solo outing today but plenty of action. Quite a few pinks and a coho caught on a new-to-me 6-7 wt vintage St. Croix glass casting a 5-inch pink and white stinger clouser fly to surface jumping/rolling fish. Everything released (using a de-hooker, no marks left on fish
), except the coho and a bleeder pink.
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I get what you're saying, but I stick to my belief. There's nothing wrong with adding options to your arsenal, and I certainly don't turn up my nose at gear fishing. I don't blame anyone for wanting to maximize their time and opportunity. However, for anyone looking to truly learn this fishery with the fly rod who wants to build confidence and consistently produce fish the best way to do so is to bite the bullet and commit to the fly. Over a season or more you'll learn just as much from all those fishless days as you learn when you catch, but you'll also start to recognize that there are far more opportunities to consistently catch Salmon on the fly that one might think. I see lots of folks who want to learn it but lack confidence so they often fish gear (boat or beach), and bring the fly rod for those obvious scenarios where Salmon are suddenly within range and crashing bait etc. That's great, but if one dedicates all that time to sticking with the bug rod they will start to see how many other opportunities there are to catch fish and that it can be a very productive way of targeting them even when those dream scenarios aren't available.
Just wrapped up a whirlwind 3 days of fishing. Sound for coho and pinks Monday, a turn and burn trip to Westport yesterday for tuna, and then back out on the sound today with @Wiznet to give him a salmon send off before he moves to Sacramento.
For pathetic tides we had good coho action in the morning. We landed probably 6-8 nice coho between us, and I in particular lost way too many. Lost one really hot, really nice fish when it took a hard run and a loop of loose line wrapped around the first two fingers of my stripping hand. Felt it come tight then snapped me off right below my leader loop knot. First coho I've had break me off in longer than I can remember, but it was totally user error.
When it got brighter out things slowed quite a bit so we spent the rest of the day playing in pink land and it didn't disappoint. Very good pink action and we both landed a nice coho mixed in as well. I made my last coho my final fish of the day somewhere around 4 or so this afternoon.
The number of pinks today was less than Monday for sure but there were plenty of fish, and today they were much more bitey.
I also landed the biggest pink I've caught all season. Photo doesn't do it justice, it was a toad.
Super fun day hanging with @Wiznet
What an incredible season its been on the sound.
For pathetic tides we had good coho action in the morning. We landed probably 6-8 nice coho between us, and I in particular lost way too many. Lost one really hot, really nice fish when it took a hard run and a loop of loose line wrapped around the first two fingers of my stripping hand. Felt it come tight then snapped me off right below my leader loop knot. First coho I've had break me off in longer than I can remember, but it was totally user error.
When it got brighter out things slowed quite a bit so we spent the rest of the day playing in pink land and it didn't disappoint. Very good pink action and we both landed a nice coho mixed in as well. I made my last coho my final fish of the day somewhere around 4 or so this afternoon.
The number of pinks today was less than Monday for sure but there were plenty of fish, and today they were much more bitey.
I also landed the biggest pink I've caught all season. Photo doesn't do it justice, it was a toad.
Super fun day hanging with @Wiznet
What an incredible season its been on the sound.
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I used to always take a fly rod and gear rod with me, but in the end I decided to pick one when I am going out. Having a bunch of different rods with me complicates the day, and it means I am not really getting good at either technique. If I start gear fishing and only bust out the fly rod when the fishing is good, just means all the time I spent gear fishing when the bite was off really didn’t accomplish anything, and I put it away just before I had a multi fish day. I don’t improve my fly fishing either, because I am spending less time casting.
I think that suggestion is good when you are just starting to fly cast, as I can tell you from experience flailing line around 20 feet away from you when you were bombing perfect 60ft casts in the park while dozens of fish jump in front of you, is painful. But in that case you are less “fly fishing” as much as you are practicing your fly casts on the water.
I got out on my kayak today and had a pretty interesting sighting... Water was glass and I looked up to see a small v-wake just in front of me. I thought it was a finning pink at first but as I got closer I could see that it was a fish towing a big green flasher right at the surface. The fish was clearly very tired so I was able to follow for a while and finally got a glimpse of what turned out to be a fairly large King. Over 10LB I guess. I made a few attemps to snag the flasher by hand but wasn't able to really get close enough. A hungry seal was following me and slapped the water a few times as if to tell me to get out of its way so it could put this fish out of its misery. I was able to keep track of the fish for close to 5 min before it dove down a bit and I lost interest.
As for the fishing... the pinks were thick, and running very close to shore (pretty sure nearly every guy on the beach limited out). Either there were no coho around or I couldn't get past the pinks to find-em. Super fun morning on the water and the cloud coverage made for a spectacular sunrise and was ideal for fishing conditions.
As for the fishing... the pinks were thick, and running very close to shore (pretty sure nearly every guy on the beach limited out). Either there were no coho around or I couldn't get past the pinks to find-em. Super fun morning on the water and the cloud coverage made for a spectacular sunrise and was ideal for fishing conditions.
VMP
Steelhead
Great that you found some fish! Two years ago, almost to the day, I posted the text below on the "Lost, Found & Stolen" section of the old WFF site...I am still waiting for the rightful owner...Based on replies from other members about similar sightings, it must happen quite often, as crazy as it seems when you see it.
Found flasher towed by Chinook in Central Puget Sound, August 14, 2021
Found a nice trolling flasher going southbound at the surface in about 150 feet of water while sight casting for pink salmon, from a boat in central Puget Sound this morning. Upon careful approach it was determined that said flasher was being towed by a large chinook salmon, and at a good pace. It was also determined that trying to hook the flasher with a 6wt and lighter tippet, although sporty, it could be foolish. Instead, a couple of attempts were made to approach the flasher from different angles and either use a boat hook on the flasher, or outright net the fish. However, the fish managed to match and outmaneuver all attempts, including the help of a fellow boater that passed by and found all the commotion, net flying, crazy boat turning.... intriguing and who did not want to miss on the fish wrangling. Eventually, I remembered we had my kid's spinning rod outfitted with a buzzbomb stowed in the boat. Half a dozen casts later we managed to hook the leader between the flasher and the king salmon, play the fish (which still had a lot of energy left!) and get everything to the boat.Please provide a description of the brand, size and color of the flasher and type/color of lure, as well as type of mainline and all efforts will be made to return the missing gear to the rightful owner. We regret to inform that the king salmon will not be returned. A story of how and where this flasher was lost will be extra credit.
I think anyone who has fished the sound long enough has a good story about chasing a king that is towing broken off gear.
Our was from the late 60’s or 70’s. We were fishing the mouth of the Puyallup. Anyone who has fished there in the summer knows the bay water is dirty, but it tends to only be near the surface. As we are trolling along, a good size king surfaces that is dragging a shovel and rudder flasher set-up. We chased it around but it soon disappeared under the murky water. Awhile later we saw it again, but still couldn’t get it as it.
This went on several more times during the day but my dad ended up finally getting it.
I know for sure he was way more excited about getting a free flasher set-up then the 12 lb king, as that was one of his favorite set-ups to use on our meat line rods.
I think @Kfish if I recall correctly has a fairly recent story about getting fish with a flasher.
SF
Our was from the late 60’s or 70’s. We were fishing the mouth of the Puyallup. Anyone who has fished there in the summer knows the bay water is dirty, but it tends to only be near the surface. As we are trolling along, a good size king surfaces that is dragging a shovel and rudder flasher set-up. We chased it around but it soon disappeared under the murky water. Awhile later we saw it again, but still couldn’t get it as it.
This went on several more times during the day but my dad ended up finally getting it.
I know for sure he was way more excited about getting a free flasher set-up then the 12 lb king, as that was one of his favorite set-ups to use on our meat line rods.
I think @Kfish if I recall correctly has a fairly recent story about getting fish with a flasher.
SF
DKL
Steelhead
Several years ago I saw one dragging a flasher near the pipes at LP. On my first cast I actually hooked the flasher and brought the chinook in. Of course the hook was barbed. I unhooked the gear from him and released him and offered the gear to my neighbor. He had a boat and gear fished for salmon as much as possible. He was so thankful for the gear, said it was probably worth something like $50.
Buoy 10 - This salmon rod and reel rests somewhere on the bottom? Four of us were unable to cross the bar in Jim's 21' Seasport so we trolled around the buoy. Jeff had the drag set so tight that when a big Chinook hit, it snapped the pin of the rod holder (50# leader didn't break, the pin did??) and the rod went sailing out the stern of the boat. The big Chinook circled several times, Jim got close to the fish and I was able to get my rigging over the line (between Chinook and the rod) but to no avail: the big fish sounded. Sayonora Chinook, rod, reel, diver, flasher.........
The only fish catching this day:
Wiznet
Steelhead
As @Nick Clayton said, what a fun day on the water! Always a blast to fish with him.
Yep, a few years ago I was fishing and saw something swimming slowly in the water, more like a small wake. I didn't know what it was so made a couple of cast and hooked into a trailing flasher being towed by a big king. That clipped king was gassed so I took it home, talk about mana
Fished a bit this morning locally, 2/3 pinks all released.
Fished a bit this morning locally, 2/3 pinks all released.
Skunk city for me this morning at my Area 11 secret spot
. Low tide coupled with a stiff wind from the north made fishing tough. I found some relief from the breeze on the lee side of the point but was pulling up salad on every cast. Saw a couple small fish caught by one of the gear guys.
Seemed to be a dearth of sea life too today, no bait, birds or seals for entertainment .
. Low tide coupled with a stiff wind from the north made fishing tough. I found some relief from the breeze on the lee side of the point but was pulling up salad on every cast. Saw a couple small fish caught by one of the gear guys.Seemed to be a dearth of sea life too today, no bait, birds or seals for entertainment .
I also went 2/3 this morning on pinks. Landed the first two within 10 minutes of hitting the beach. Then a north wind picked up, and they faded outbound within the hour.
Lots of jumpers again. I kept one nice buck for the bbq.
Spent some time afterwards just sitting on a log taking it all in.
Lots of jumpers again. I kept one nice buck for the bbq.
Spent some time afterwards just sitting on a log taking it all in.
