Northwest Fishing Reports

hookemdanno wrote:Ok, I've read a recent post on Whidbey Island and also Sam K's reports. I have the opportunity next weekend (5-6th) to be on a house right on the beach in Area 9 around Admiralty Area. They do catch Coho off the beach there, but the people I'm going with have never tried fishing it. I've been in WA 8 yrs now, and have yet to catch my first Salmon. Help. It's going to be my first try, and I want to be WELL prepared.

I'll get some buzzbombs in pink/green/blue with white. I can get some spoons and also use some of my larger trout and bass spoons. Do I need silver and gold? Silver and Blue? Just plain silver? What jigs?

What else, if anything, will I need? The area has a VERY strong current, and the water looks pretty swirly. The water just rips along the beach. Is there a specific way to fish this type of water from shore? Also, do I fish just in the morning, or do I fish a specific tide?

Also, do Coho bite swimbaits? I have plenty of those with lots of different colors.

Thanks for any and all help,
Suzanne

Sam Kafelafish wrote:

hookemdanno wrote:Ok, I've read a recent post on Whidbey Island and also Sam K's reports. I have the opportunity next weekend (5-6th) to be on a house right on the beach in Area 9 around Admiralty Area. They do catch Coho off the beach there, but the people I'm going with have never tried fishing it. I've been in WA 8 yrs now, and have yet to catch my first Salmon. Help. It's going to be my first try, and I want to be WELL prepared.

I'll get some buzzbombs in pink/green/blue with white. I can get some spoons and also use some of my larger trout and bass spoons. Do I need silver and gold? Silver and Blue? Just plain silver? What jigs?

What else, if anything, will I need? The area has a VERY strong current, and the water looks pretty swirly. The water just rips along the beach. Is there a specific way to fish this type of water from shore? Also, do I fish just in the morning, or do I fish a specific tide?

Also, do Coho bite swimbaits? I have plenty of those with lots of different colors.

Thanks for any and all help,
Suzanne

I'll do this the best I can.

I don't know where your beach is, I don't know if its something your trying to keep secret, but some beaches have certain shelves where you can only fish on low tides.

Buzzbombs work. But they aren't the only thing I'd pack with ya. Spoons work well, any of the colors you mentioned. Jigs aren't something I've fished for Coho, I've used 1/2 oz pink leadhead jigs with a 3 inch pink worm and slayed the Pinks last year off the boat off of Bush Point. So I don't know why a Pink or Chartreuse Jig wouldn't work, I'd assume it would, and well.

Strong water can often hold fish. Rips=Coho. Find em, fish em. They (rips/current) push bait around and bunch it up in the rips, Coho aren't far behind. Often times there is a bit/lot of seaweed in there, but keep fishing them. Just cast and retrieve out off the shore. Vary lures/retrieves until you find something that works.

Tides: Daylight, Dusk, and from 2 hours before leading up to a high tide, and an hour afterwards. So if it's like a 7pm high tide, anytime from 5pm on would be a good time to fish, ideal fishing seems to be from 6-7:30pm, but every beach is different, but I'm giving an approximation for the normal beaches I fish, some are goofy and you need a low tide to fish em.

Swimbaits=pass. Unless you have a herring swimbait, then pass on em.

Anyways, just let me know if you have any remaining questions. Thats about what I can pull off the top of my head right now.

Here's my report from the weekend: Saturday=slow. 5:45am lines in (trolling) fished until 11am, nothing but shakers.
Today was better. Catching was good, keeping wasn't. Got a late start (7:30am) fished until 11:30am, hooked a heck of a fighter within 5 minutes of lines in water, released it, a good 7-8lb wild fish, found an 4-5lb eager blackmouth around 9am, released, next up a smaller (4lb hatchery silver) which I released since it was an easy flip of the hook, and finally around 11:15 a 5-6lb hatchery fish which put up no fight, but made a decent dinner on the bbq. Lots of bait, lots of fish on the electronics, just a bit slower fishing then we'd all love.

hookemdanno wrote:
Thanks for the reply Sam and for all the great info. Especially the tide stuff! I think that's going to be key. It also didn't occur to me that different beaches would need to be fished differently. Looks like the beach I'll be fishing is Lagoon Pt. which is in Mutiny Bay I think. I wasn't trying to be secretive, I just didn't know exactly where I would be fishing Are you familiar with this beach/area? Have you fished it? There are lots of rips, and lots of birds, but also seals swimming around all the time.

I picked up a book: Saltwater Fishing Journal by John Martinis and he suggests using Luhr Jensen, Coyote, Coho Killer and Trixee spoons. He also says down in the south South (Olympia area) they use Hot Shots or Wiggle Warts on a leader with a swivel and one or two oz weight. But I think he means to troll these. For casting off the beach, do you know about what size spoon(s) I should use? I am supposed to mimic the candlefish right? Should I try to throw plugs too?

Btw, your above report sounds awesome to me. I'll be thrilled if I can even do half as well in the three days I'll have to try.

Suzanne

Sam Kafelafish wrote:

hookemdanno wrote:
Thanks for the reply Sam and for all the great info. Especially the tide stuff! I think that's going to be key. It also didn't occur to me that different beaches would need to be fished differently. Looks like the beach I'll be fishing is Lagoon Pt. which is in Mutiny Bay I think. I wasn't trying to be secretive, I just didn't know exactly where I would be fishing Are you familiar with this beach/area? Have you fished it? There are lots of rips, and lots of birds, but also seals swimming around all the time.

I picked up a book: Saltwater Fishing Journal by John Martinis and he suggests using Luhr Jensen, Coyote, Coho Killer and Trixee spoons. He also says down in the south South (Olympia area) they use Hot Shots or Wiggle Warts on a leader with a swivel and one or two oz weight. But I think he means to troll these. For casting off the beach, do you know about what size spoon(s) I should use? I am supposed to mimic the candlefish right? Should I try to throw plugs too?

Btw, your above report sounds awesome to me. I'll be thrilled if I can even do half as well in the three days I'll have to try.

Suzanne

Lagoon Point is actually just north of Mutiny Bay. I haven't fished it much, but know some homeowners who have places on the beach there who do well casting buzz bombs and similar stuff for fish. I've fished it off the beach only, without much luck, but that has no real meaning since I've only been out about two times off of that beach, most of my beach fishing is done further south on the island.

Any of those lures would work. Coyotes, Coho killers, just remember, they are trolling spoons so you'll need to put some weight on, a swivel and a leader tied to the lure. They could work well too, I've never experimented much with them off of the beach, I usually troll them.

Size of spoons: Anything from 2 inches up to 5 inches can work. If your using buzz bombs, the 2 inch, 2.5 inch or 3 inch work well.... I heard from someone that the 2 inch holographic blue buzz bomb off the beach at Lagoon was doing well for the Coho a couple of weeks ago. For weights of spoons like Little Cleos and other spoons: 1/4 oz, 2/5 oz and 1/2 oz. 50/50 is my favorite color out there. (Half silver half gold)

Regarding the Hot Shots/Wiggle Warts: I guess you could try them. Why not. I've never thought of trying them, never seen them used, but if they matched the color of a baitfish, it could work well. I know people like throwing cranks/plugs in rivers for Coho, and some folks like to troll them in the prop wash while trolling in the early morning for Coho, as well as for steelhead in the blackmouth months. So it could be worth a shot off the beach. But make sure to have a few rods ready. Often times the fish can come rolling in schools and if you see folks next to you hooking em and you aren't, your going to want a second or third option (lure) to throw at them. I usually have two rods strung up and ready when I'm out there. A buzz bomb on one (or two, different colors) and a spoon rod. Also, using some scent out there is also advised, I'm always armed with Smelly Jelly, and put it on my lures/flashers....

About mimicking candlefish: I'm doing this because this is the predominant bait where I'm fishing. I don't know if they are what the Coho are foraging on up there, but it could be.

Again, if there are any remaining Q's, let me know. Above all, good luck, have fun and let us know how you do.

hookemdanno wrote:

Sam Kafelafish wrote:

hookemdanno wrote:
Thanks for the reply Sam and for all the great info. Especially the tide stuff! I think that's going to be key. It also didn't occur to me that different beaches would need to be fished differently. Looks like the beach I'll be fishing is Lagoon Pt. which is in Mutiny Bay I think. I wasn't trying to be secretive, I just didn't know exactly where I would be fishing Are you familiar with this beach/area? Have you fished it? There are lots of rips, and lots of birds, but also seals swimming around all the time.

I picked up a book: Saltwater Fishing Journal by John Martinis and he suggests using Luhr Jensen, Coyote, Coho Killer and Trixee spoons. He also says down in the south South (Olympia area) they use Hot Shots or Wiggle Warts on a leader with a swivel and one or two oz weight. But I think he means to troll these. For casting off the beach, do you know about what size spoon(s) I should use? I am supposed to mimic the candlefish right? Should I try to throw plugs too?

Btw, your above report sounds awesome to me. I'll be thrilled if I can even do half as well in the three days I'll have to try.

Suzanne

Lagoon Point is actually just north of Mutiny Bay. I haven't fished it much, but know some homeowners who have places on the beach there who do well casting buzz bombs and similar stuff for fish. I've fished it off the beach only, without much luck, but that has no real meaning since I've only been out about two times off of that beach, most of my beach fishing is done further south on the island.

Any of those lures would work. Coyotes, Coho killers, just remember, they are trolling spoons so you'll need to put some weight on, a swivel and a leader tied to the lure. They could work well too, I've never experimented much with them off of the beach, I usually troll them.

Size of spoons: Anything from 2 inches up to 5 inches can work. If your using buzz bombs, the 2 inch, 2.5 inch or 3 inch work well.... I heard from someone that the 2 inch holographic blue buzz bomb off the beach at Lagoon was doing well for the Coho a couple of weeks ago. For weights of spoons like Little Cleos and other spoons: 1/4 oz, 2/5 oz and 1/2 oz. 50/50 is my favorite color out there. (Half silver half gold)

Regarding the Hot Shots/Wiggle Warts: I guess you could try them. Why not. I've never thought of trying them, never seen them used, but if they matched the color of a baitfish, it could work well. I know people like throwing cranks/plugs in rivers for Coho, and some folks like to troll them in the prop wash while trolling in the early morning for Coho, as well as for steelhead in the blackmouth months. So it could be worth a shot off the beach. But make sure to have a few rods ready. Often times the fish can come rolling in schools and if you see folks next to you hooking em and you aren't, your going to want a second or third option (lure) to throw at them. I usually have two rods strung up and ready when I'm out there. A buzz bomb on one (or two, different colors) and a spoon rod. Also, using some scent out there is also advised, I'm always armed with Smelly Jelly, and put it on my lures/flashers....

About mimicking candlefish: I'm doing this because this is the predominant bait where I'm fishing. I don't know if they are what the Coho are foraging on up there, but it could be.

Again, if there are any remaining Q's, let me know. Above all, good luck, have fun and let us know how you do.

Thanks for all the help Sam. Thanks to you I might have some luck out there. I usually read books a lot for new info, but couldn't find a good "how-to catch salmon" book. Gotta love WL.com. and the members with their local know-how.

I think with all the info you gave me, I'll be dialed in. I just hope the fish are there and feeding. I'll pick up a few different lures/spoons, some smelly jelly and some terminal tackle. I just have to not go crazy and buy too much. Oh wait. Weight? What size weights typically do I need off the beach when say throwing a trolling spoon? I think that might be the last question