Meat Fishing

Dekartes · Feb 10, 2022

I don't start posts much, but curious what favorite techniques you all have for filling the freezer. I don't have a boat, so my meat fishing is typically walking style. I don't meat fish in the NW anymore, but in Alaska I almost solely use custom spinners. It's amazing what that immediate action will do when casting to an edge for Coho. The catch rate on being able to cast to an edge and have immediate action on whatever you are using is so much better when walking a small river.

Love my Sage gear rods. Wouldn't ever sell them. My favorite remote gear rod is a Sage 3 piece 2 power SP travel rod. Perfect for travel and Coho. Super sensitive tip, but enough power to get them in. Love their drift rods too. Guess that's for another thread.

Evan B · Feb 10, 2022

Oh boy, do I have a long list

Close to home: walleye and salmon trolling in my boat. Plus a few sneaky Columbia River walk/bike-ins where I launch spinners out to some shelves and get chinook. Plus a few Sandy River floats with the jig twitching. (no people pictured are me)

Ocean: TUNA! And I absolutely love dropping jigs down on light tackle for bottom fish.

Dekartes · Feb 10, 2022

Love it! Never caught a tuna. Caught a Marlin once when I was a much younger Marine on Oahu. That was cool. Those look tasty.

Evan B · Feb 10, 2022

Dekartes said:
Love it! Never caught a tuna. Caught a Marlin once when I was a much younger Marine on Oahu. That was cool. Those look tasty.

Albacore is the best. It's so, so good, but so so easy to go bad if you don't take care of it properly. It's not one that holds up well through mass fishing/market cold chain, which is why it's mostly canned for market. Having a boat plus friends with boats that can go after them is so awesome. And as much as I love running my own boat for them, I plan to go fish with Capt. @Nick Clayton this summer to get a whole new experience, mostly on the fly rods. Fly rods are a step or two under an afterthought on my boat when it comes to those trips.

Dekartes · Feb 10, 2022

You'll have to report on how that goes! Those suckers dive, right? Would be a great fight on a fly rod. I met a guy this last summer in Dillingham who held the world record for catching Halibut on a fly rod. He made his own lines for this. Wish I remembered his name.

Evan B · Feb 10, 2022

Dekartes said:
You'll have to report on how that goes! Those suckers dive, right? Would be a great fight on a fly rod. I met a guy this last summer in Dillingham who held the world record for catching Halibut on a fly rod. He made his own lines for this. Wish I remembered his name.

Yeah they dive super hard, we call it "sounding." Had one almost spool me on one of my jig rods last year. a good 600+ feet or so. Sweated that one a bit.

Really hoping for more opportunities this year. I usually get out 4-6 times for tuna. Last year there were hardly any weather/ocean windows, and I happened to hit the absolute best one of the year and we plugged the boat by lunch. It was such an awesome day.

Tom Butler · Feb 10, 2022

We do put-n-take trout, my wife likes them.

Dekartes · Feb 10, 2022

Been a while since I have used Power Bait - but that @!$# works! In my teen years, this was the way I learned to fish by myself. Bullet weight above a swivel. Leader with a small treble hook. Power bait. Caught lots of hatchery trout. I guess it makes sense as that is pretty close to what they feed them in captivity. I haven't even used power bait with my daughter as she sometimes likes to release them and eating a treble hook isn't real conducive to that. I'll never forget her first hatchery fish as a 3 or 4 year old. She told me she wanted to eat it, so I bonked it. Then about 30 minutes later she decided it should go back to it's family! First lesson in mortality. Lol.

Tom Butler · Feb 10, 2022

Dekartes said:
Been a while since I have used Power Bait - but that @!$# works! In my teen years, this was the way I learned to fish by myself. Bullet weight above a swivel. Leader with a small treble hook. Power bait. Caught lots of hatchery trout. I guess it makes sense as that is pretty close to what they feed them in captivity. I haven't even used power bait with my daughter as she sometimes likes to release them and eating a treble hook isn't real conducive to that. I'll never forget her first hatchery fish as a 3 or 4 year old. She told me she wanted to eat it, so I bonked it. Then about 30 minutes later she decided it should go back to it's family! First lesson in mortality. Lol.

When my wife and I go it's worms, and then power bait. So almost every fish it's break their neck to bleed them and retrieve your hook. Meat fishing.

Chadk · Feb 10, 2022

My kids love catching at eating fish. And I love that they love those things. So we do it often. Flies, gear, doesn't matter.

We also like to bring home other groceries:

Chadk · Feb 10, 2022

A few more...

Pink Nighty · Feb 10, 2022

Chadk said:
A few more...

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Those are some badass kids!!

Chadk · Feb 10, 2022

Chadk · Feb 10, 2022

Rob Allen · Feb 10, 2022

Dekartes said:
I don't start posts much, but curious what favorite techniques you all have for filling the freezer. I don't have a boat, so my meat fishing is typically walking style. I don't meat fish in the NW anymore, but in Alaska I almost solely use custom spinners. It's amazing what that immediate action will do when casting to an edge for Coho. The catch rate on being able to cast to an edge and have immediate action on whatever you are using is so much better when walking a small river.

Love my Sage gear rods. Wouldn't ever sell them. My favorite remote gear rod is a Sage 3 piece 2 power SP travel rod. Perfect for travel and Coho. Super sensitive tip, but enough power to get them in. Love their drift rods too. Guess that's for another thread.

If I still lived in WA my meat fishing would consist of.
Drift fishing in mixed stock winter steelhead rivers focusing on areas above hatcheries. So that I am removing hatchery fish that will spawn in the wild.. yes there is some sacrificing meat quality.
Tide water Bobber and egg fishing for hatchery fall chinook in a small coastal river or two. This coincides with harvesting lobster, bolete and Chanterelles in the woods.
Using a variety of methods for hatchery coho. Flies and spinners mostly.

mooseknuckles · Feb 10, 2022

You all are eating and living well! I find I eat better when trolling and jigging. Another one here who has never been out for tuna, the sushi thread keeps me up late at night dreaming of offshore fishing and what lies beneath.

Chinook Angler · Feb 10, 2022

I am very traditional when it comes to filling the freezer, so trolling the Columbia for chinook/coho is what I do. The fish pretty much is fresh from the salt.

Evan B · Feb 10, 2022

Chinook Angler said:
I am very traditional when it comes to filling the freezer, so trolling the Columbia for chinook/coho is what I do. The fish pretty much is fresh from the salt.

You and me both

well, i go beyond that, but I love the lower Columbia meat fishery.

Evan B · Feb 10, 2022

And for all of you salivating over tunerfish:

PNW FF Albacore Trip w/ Capt. Nick Clayton

While I typically run my own boat for tuna, I am not Capt. @Nick Clayton. And I have a very comfy program that consists mostly of trolling with baitstops where we drop jigs. My boat is not very conducive to the fly rod, and I'm just too busy doing everything the captain does to do much besides...

pnwflyfishing.com

Evan B · Feb 10, 2022

One of my favorite fishing pictures from last year. A shot between stops on my father in-law's boat last August. My good friend here getting a fish ready for ice.