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Puyallup River Salmon Fishing 2025 - SIMPLE Setup
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Aug 22, 2025
Interested in heading down to do the Puyallup in 2025? You should consider it! The Pink run is epic, there's coho and chinook in the river as well and it can provide a bit of bank fishing relief from running the boat! Yes, it can be crowded, but the place I fished had plenty of room. If you think you might want to start salmon fishing the rivers, you can't find a much better starting place than the Puyallup River! I explain my simple drift gear setup, and talk about getting "bit" and how to detect it.
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0:00
Hey everybody, just a quick video here
0:02
on fishing the Pop River. It opened last
0:06
weekend and fishing has been fantastic.
0:09
This is a great pink run. Plus, you got
0:12
coho, you've got Chinook. I actually got
0:14
into a coho this morning.
0:25
Finish out my limit for the day with a
0:27
with a non-pink is pretty awesome.
0:30
uh didn't see any hook kings hooked
0:31
where I was, but but again it's
0:35
again there's a lot of fish in the river
0:37
and it is a lot of fun to go down there
0:39
and just hook up and have many many fish
0:42
on your line for for you know maybe a
0:44
couple hours work. I just want to show
0:45
you my gear real quick. This is really
0:47
really simple. It's called Drift Gear.
0:49
Uh this is a size 12 Corki. Looks like
0:52
it's got some damage on it from this
0:54
morning. Um no worries. I've got a
0:57
little bit of yarn. This is a size one
1:00
hook barbless for the regulations. I
1:03
have I like to use these bow uh drop
1:06
sinkers here. You know, this is kind of
1:08
an expensive weight system. You could go
1:10
a lot cheaper with like just a pencil
1:12
lead. Um but just, you know, I like to
1:15
keep it simple. I like the slinky
1:17
material for rolling over rocks. I don't
1:19
do a lot of drift fishing, so I don't
1:21
really need a lot of this supplies. I
1:23
don't lose much gear. Uh this is a
1:25
quarter ounce. I started out fishing
1:27
with a half an ounce where I was and I I
1:30
looked and right away I could tell I had
1:32
too much weight. It was dragging and I I
1:34
just want you you want to be you want to
1:36
have some contact with the bottom every
1:38
second or couple seconds. Uh but you
1:40
don't want it to just be dragging. So I
1:41
went down to a quarter ounce immediately
1:43
hooked up on a nice pink and got my day
1:47
going. Uh this is how I like to tie my
1:49
leader, you know, on the this part of
1:52
the swivel. There's other swivel systems
1:54
that work, but just letting you know
1:56
what I'm doing here. You know, you can
1:57
use four to 5 foot leader. Um, you know,
2:02
uh, you get the idea. You know what
2:04
we're doing here. The the tricky thing
2:05
is always, uh, really detecting the
2:07
bite. Uh, that's something I'll talk a
2:09
lot more as we go through the some of
2:11
the footage from this morning. Couple
2:13
other things I want to show you though
2:14
about the rod. This is an Akuma
2:18
Guide Select Pro 96. it. It's I like
2:22
this rod for, you know, it's a medium
2:25
light. I'm sorry, it's a 99. Um, a lot
2:29
of versatility, a lot of backbone to
2:31
this rod. And really, you know, there's
2:35
times where you might hook a king in the
2:36
river, you might hook, you might end up
2:38
foul hooking a fish and you want to get
2:39
it off. Uh, you need something with a
2:41
little bit of backbone. Don't go out
2:43
with your ultral light gear. um unless
2:46
you plan on breaking some fish off that
2:48
um you know maybe are foul hooked or
2:50
something like that or a lot of times
2:51
those foul hooked fish just come free
2:52
anyways. But um yeah, this this is
2:56
really simple really really simple
2:58
system to get down there and hook some
3:00
fish and nice change up from running the
3:02
boat uh on a bunch of trips in the salt
3:04
water and and fishing is really good.
3:06
Nice people down there. Don't uh there's
3:09
plenty of places to get away from
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crowds. You don't have to be intimidated
3:11
by the crowds. cuz you might have to
3:13
walk a little further down the trail and
3:15
and uh find some nice folks or maybe
3:18
some spots where there's no one fishing.
3:20
Um check out pwbslife.com/pual-
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river-fishing for more tips and
3:27
upto-date um river flows, hatchery
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escapement reports, run timing, what to
3:33
use, how to fish, all that stuff will be
3:34
up is up there. Uh as well as up-to-date
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regulations for the 2025 summer season,
3:40
fall season. All right, we got to talk
3:41
real quick about the issue of how to
3:43
detect the drift fishing bite. I've done
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some content on it. You know what I
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generally like to see is my line, my
3:50
main line kind of stop moving, kind of
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slow down in the drift that you combined
3:55
with a lot of times I stop feeling the
3:57
bottom. You kind of got to visualize
3:58
what's going on because your your weight
4:01
is is kind of coming up off the bottom
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when that line's going through a fish's
4:05
mouth or fish bites it. your weight is
4:07
is gonna just suspend and your main
4:10
line's going to slow down a little bit.
4:11
But that's not the only way you're gonna
4:14
find a bite. You know, you could also
4:16
see you could you could feel a thump
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thump, something different in the drift
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that tells you like there's something on
4:22
your line. Sometimes it's a much harder
4:24
pull. Um there's a variety of things.
4:27
What I always tell people is you you
4:28
know what the bottom feels like on every
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drift. Anything that's sort of different
4:32
than that might be a fish, right? So, so
4:35
keep you want to be dialed in to that.
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Uh, we're not using bait. Hook sets are
4:40
free. You don't want to be hook setting
4:41
the hook all throughout the drift.
4:43
You'll get a ticket for that. Um, that's
4:45
not a good strategy. You'll end up foul
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hooking a lot of fish. I see people do
4:49
these mighty hook sets. The guy next to
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me was doing it. And it's like, you
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know, you only need to do that mighty
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hook set if you're okay with snagging
4:56
fish. Uh, a lot of times I'll do a lift
4:59
of the rod and realize, oh, there's no
5:01
fish there. or I'll feel a fish, but I
5:03
know like, okay, that fish is foul
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hooked. It'll immediately get off and I
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keep fishing, right? You don't want a
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foul hook fish. One, you can't keep
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them. Anti- snagging rule and not very
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sporty. You know, it's not ethical.
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Don't don't keep foul hooked fish.
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You're going to spend like a minute
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trying to get that thing off your line.
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You're going to get it in the way of all
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the other anglers. You know, the fish on
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coming down. Oh, it's a big one. No,
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it's foul hooked in the tail. Uh you
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don't have control of a fish when you
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hook them in the tail. So, you don't
5:29
need a big mighty hook set. just just a
5:31
just a lift of the rod, you know, steady
5:33
kind of lift of the rod. You'll you feel
5:35
that fish, you reel down, then, you
5:37
know, give them the hook set. When you
5:38
when you've got contact with the fish,
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um, you know, we're not trying to snag
5:42
fish here. U, we're trying to get them
5:44
in the mouth, get them legal, and and
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uh, you know, at times they even bite,
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so that's a that's a plus.
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I think it was foul hooked. I think it
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was foul hook.
6:01
You know, some people ask about
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etiquette, like, you know, casting
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etiquette. Hey, I don't want people to
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yell at me. It's really about downstream
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angler cast first. Pack your patience.
6:10
There's a lot of fish in there. You
6:12
know, I showed up 30 minutes after
6:14
sunrise. Chill, get in line, you know,
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say hi to the person next to me.
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Actually, fan of the channel, you know,
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really cool guy, Matt. Shout out to
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Matt. And like just, you know, make a
6:26
friend. It is a little more social than
6:29
uh the some of the fishing I like to do
6:31
on the coast where I want to be the only
6:32
guy out there or whatever. But, you
6:35
know, just practice some good etiquette.
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Next time, you know, I forget every
6:39
year, but I only do really only hit the
6:41
pew up on pink ears, but you know, I'm
6:43
going to bring a trash bag down, pick up
6:45
some trash. There's trash all over the
6:46
river bank. Like, you know, let's let's
6:48
let's try to try to do our part and
6:51
hopefully everyone has a great season.
6:53
If if you're a newbie, you haven't done
6:55
it before, just take the plunge. Not
6:58
literally in the river, but like take a
7:00
plunge. Like like you know, uh drop me a
7:03
comment if you got a question about
7:04
anything here. The Pop River Pink
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Fishing is about the easiest salmon
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fishing you will find anywhere. So, it's
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a great place to get started. A great
7:12
year to get started. And yeah, uh hit me
7:15
up if you've got more questions. Uh hope
7:17
you enjoy this video. Good luck out
7:19
there. Tight lines clip. It's a It's got
7:21
a clip fin, dude.
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Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's to Oh, nice.
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I'm like here. Like,
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yeah. Do you want me?
7:28
Sure. Make sure we get him. I don't want
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you to lose that one. Thank you. Yeah,
7:32
you are, sir. Thank you.
7:33
You got it.
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