Northwest Fishing Reports

Hey all,

First off, great forum. I've read through older threads and am very impressed with the depth of knowledge, experience, and willingness to help out. The last point brings me to, well, me.

I've never, ever, fished salt water in all my breathing days. I've made a total of two trips now to the Shilshole marina pier. Net result is a five inch sculpin.



Reading the threads here has been reallllllllly useful as far as education and I'm going to throw this out to see if any of you wiser more experienced heads can comment or help.

The goal:

Catch pretty much any dang thing. Don't much care, but would prefer to be able to bring it home and eat it. If the sculpin had been bigger, he'd been a keeper. This is all brand spanking new so anything that comes out of the water on the end of my line is cause for celebration. Particular targets in mind right now are any and all perch, any and all flat fish, greenling, and when season starts it'd be nice to get Cabezon, rockfish, salmon, or (dare to dream) ling cod.

My stuff (all made for salt):

Whuppin' stick saltwater combo thingy from Cabelas with a spinning reel. I've got flourocarbon line and leader, 10lb test on the line (maybe too much, but...) and 25lb on the leader. Various fake wiggly rubber baits - silvery shads about four inches long, red sandworms about 6", shrimp, etc. Some slip bobbers. Size #4 and 1/0 hooks - red ones. Some more smelly type baits are on order and maybe getting here this week, along with some smelly jelly (shrimp flavor!) and some smaller jigs (chartreuse) with #6 hooks. I've put together a couple drop shot rigs (is my term right?) with #4 hooks set to have the bait sit about 1.5 feet off the bottom. Alternatively, I've got the bobbers and can try to guess depth to suspend the bait, or can just dump something on the bottom. So far this has resulted in Mr. Sculpin, and no other action whatsoever besides seaweed. The 1/0 hooks seem kinda big to me for fishing from a pier.

The locations:

Most likely Shilshole and Edmonds. I'm in North Seattle, time's scarce, no boat, and I need to be able to get somewhere, fish a bit, and get back all in about two or three hours.

So...all that in mind, do you guys have any particular suggestions? Criticisms? Laughing at my feeble attempt and bad gear? Thanks...

SGSeattle,
I too am a newbie to fishing in PS. Found this site just like you did and am amazed at the openness of people to share. Not sure if your just looking for saltwater or Fresh. But, if your bank fishing for fresh, I know that there have been many fish caught on lake sammamish by the boat launch. Trout, bass and perch. I have seen some pretty good size bass pulled right off the dock. Gotta get there before all the boats get going around mid morning though.
If I can think of anywhere else locally for a good time fishing, I'll let cha know. I'm sure Swede or one of the more exp anglers will have great tips for ya too.

i pretty much catch any thing in the puget sound but DONT!!! keep dogfish and ratfish! and bottomfish opens may 1st (11 days) i keep you posted!

Man you could use anything for flounder ie....herring,clam,shrimp. You should be able to use piling worms for perch. Check these out and let us know.

If you want to bring home a fish, and a few hours is all you have...... throw some power bait at green lake. good opprtunity to catch fish and great scenery this time of year. Also, I read where, some guys were caught poaching 39 bottom fish at , i think, the south entrance to Shilshole Marina. Bubba or Fishing boy may be able to tell you more exact locations. But it sounded like they found a bunch of fish at that spot. Hope that helps...


Starting to get really excited for the Butt opener this week

Thanks for the responses. Some replies:

1) I'm sticking to salt, so not really aiming to try my luck in Greenlake, Lake Washington, etc. Salt, salt, salt.

2) What do you guys think of the hook sizes? #4 seems like a good general purpose size, am I right?

3) Are my line and leader too heavy? Too weak? Should I just run out to the hardware store and use twine?

4) Do you folks think the drop shot rig thing is a winner? I like the idea - seems like a good way to keep the bait up and visible while also getting it into the zone where the fish are looking for something to eat. Is 1.5 feet too high off the bottom?

5) Do I ask too many stupid questions?

Thanks again

Usually you'd want to use a lighter leader line than your main line, size 2 or 4 is a good hook size. If you want to definitely catch something go to a live or used to be alive bait...shrimp and so on and so forth.

someguyseattle wrote: My stuff (all made for salt):

Whuppin' stick saltwater combo thingy from Cabelas with a spinning reel. I've got flourocarbon line and leader, 10lb test on the line (maybe too much, but...) and 25lb on the leader. Various fake wiggly rubber baits - silvery shads about four inches long, red sandworms about 6", shrimp, etc. Some slip bobbers. Size #4 and 1/0 hooks - red ones. Some more smelly type baits are on order and maybe getting here this week, along with some smelly jelly (shrimp flavor!) and some smaller jigs (chartreuse) with #6 hooks. I've put together a couple drop shot rigs (is my term right?) with #4 hooks set to have the bait sit about 1.5 feet off the bottom. Alternatively, I've got the bobbers and can try to guess depth to suspend the bait, or can just dump something on the bottom. So far this has resulted in Mr. Sculpin, and no other action whatsoever besides seaweed. The 1/0 hooks seem kinda big to me for fishing from a pier.

sounds ok. It really depends on the fishing you are doing,..ie...location, target species. I haven't fished from shore much, and am a greenhorn in the salt myself. Lots of members hit the piers, I'm sure there is a "standard rig" for Shilshole and Edmonds. I'm sure they will chime in.....

Personally, I just throw on 20 lb power pro braided (baitcaster reel)), and tie on jigs. I've got rocksole, kelp greenling, rockfish, lingcod, clams, and crabs.. (not to mention the less desirable) I usually use 1/2oz -8 oz leadhead jigs with some sort of plastic tail, and scent for sure. The scent doesn't always "attract" fish, but more commonly covers up us smelly humans!!! If you are going for smaller fish (herring, perch, ect) I'm sure you'd want some sort of smaller mono leader. Bobbers are kinda unconventional from what I gather.

someguyseattle wrote:
The locations:

Most likely Shilshole and Edmonds. I'm in North Seattle, time's scarce, no boat, and I need to be able to get somewhere, fish a bit, and get back all in about two or three hours.

So...all that in mind, do you guys have any particular suggestions? Criticisms? Laughing at my feeble attempt and bad gear? Thanks...

LOCATION. A lot depends on the particular spot/structure. You'll have to ask the guys who hit those spots regularly....

tommytitan08 wrote:Usually you'd want to use a lighter leader line than your main line, size 2 or 4 is a good hook size. If you want to definitely catch something go to a live or used to be alive bait...shrimp and so on and so forth.

Point taken on the bait. As far as leader, I thought leader was supposed to be heavier and stronger so as to take a fish bite and not break - am I wrong?

Heavier and stronger for BIG fish with teeth, smaller and lighter with small fish and no teeth!!! Just think, you wouldn't want to catch a sunfish on a steel leader, would you? Or a Tiger/pike on a 4lb mono leader?? (same for saltwater) Depends on your target species....

Some fish are line shy, some don't care really. Flounder/perch 6lb leader would be fine, lingcod/salmon....no way. Depends on terrain also. Rocks...you need heavier line....sand and mud....no nicks.

hehe you might see us may 2nd around shilshole bay pier we might show you some nice spots overall me and fishinboy are around there a lot of the time after may 1st as thats when lings/rockfish start to open. dont eat sculpins they have really soft meat i mean you can try them but i think they taste nasty there are some big sculpins around the shilshle bay marina. but they are usually my ling bait :D