So you heard the forecasts at the start of the year in the North of Falcon process, Pink Salmon fishing was supposed to be ho-hum this year. I think we can safely conclude that the prediction was a tad conservative.
The salt and now the rivers are stuffed with Pinks. If you read this blog early in the year, you know we predicted this to be the case.
To quote myself:
The other big headline is that with 2019 being an odd year, the pink forecast is just above 600k, which is one of the lowest projected returns going back to 1959. It’s still 100k more projected than what actually came back in 2017, which was an incredibly sparse return. Kyle’s bold prediction for 2019: We will get far more pinks back than what’s on forecast. I just think that the Pink’s tend to surprise people in how quickly their population booms when conditions are good. Conditions have been good since 2017 with other stocks rebounding from the warm ocean conditions, I think the Pink return will surprise people.
How about that for being right, eh? (too much time in Port Hardy 🙂 )
Here’s the situation that I’m aware of:
- My buddy just went out to Neah Bay and got multiple multiple limits of Pinks in just a few hours
- Read the Puget Sound Creel reports in the last week. The most pinks are being caught in Sekiu, Port Angeles, Area 9, and Area 8-2.
- Multiple credible reports of Humpy Hallow (the area in 8-2 just south of Mukilteo ferry docks) being just stupid with pinks. Multiple limits in an hour of fishing.
Combine the above with data points with the fact that the Puyallup is on fire for pinks, limits in 30 minutes of fishing kind of on fire… 🔥
Also, the best place to fish in MA11 right now is Redondo. Check out my recent post on that situation.
The bottom line is that there is going to be a steady stream of Pinks from the salt to the rivers for the next 2-3 weeks, followed by an increasingly high number of silvers mixing it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Pink actual return will be 3-4x the forecast at this point. The bottom line is that if you are thinking of picking up salmon angling this year, the time is right now! If you have a boat and want to target these fish in Puget Sound, take a look at my page dedicated to Puget Sound Salmon Fishing in the section on Pinks.
I will have a river fishing page up soon as we are getting into that season and promise to cover a lot of techniques there and some of the specific rivers to target these salmon.
Get out there and get the easy limits of Pinks!