Salmon for Soldiers is an amazing event where the recreational boating and sport fishing community get an opportunity to give back to the veterans who have proudly served our country. I highly recommend it for anyone with a boat and a desire to give back.
I also highly recommend it for any active duty, returning from deployment, or retired military. Words on a blog post and a few pictures do not adequately describe the range of emotions and the amount of positivity generated at this gathering.
You can read about my experience in 2018, attending Salmon for Soldiers for the first time. Also, checkout the quick video below on the 2019 event.
As I wrote about in my last update, we were going to be pre-fishing this event and getting a report out on how coho fishing is doing within the interior of Puget Sound.
You can almost just read the creel reports for the past few days and that will tell you what you need to know about Puget Sound coho fishing right now.
The South Sound is dead. Like very little going on right now and very few fish being caught. Though I’ve heard of some signs of life.
Maybe try Robinson Point on Vashon Island in Area 11. Area 10 is on fire! There’s a significant amount of angler pressure there and quite a few fish being caught. For whatever reason, these fish are not staging in the usual places north or south of Edmunds.
They are most certainly in the river systems though, folks who have it dialed in have been limiting consistently on the Puyallup on silvers the past week plus. So if you are waiting for your local saltwater haunts to turn on, don’t wait too long, it might be worth the drive and/or boat ride to target outside the oil docks at Edmunds like everyone else.
The primary goal of pre-fishing was to get our coho program dialed in to get the vets on as many fish as we could.
The side benefit is that fishing is a lot of fun! We got fooled a bit though this time. Last year, we absolutely killed it off of the Mukilteo ferry docks. Everyone went south to shipwreck or possession to scratch out a few fish and we did quite well staying put.
So where did we start pre-fishing? Mukilteo of course! Now, the creel reports and the social media sentiment have indicated that 8-2 and 9 have been pretty dead, but we had fast action right off the bat in both of our pre-fishing days.
We did solid in 8-2 and 9 both pre-fishing days, so of course we started there on Saturday, and of course it was dead!
So we got started in Area 10 a bit later then most boats and had to get it dialed in under very sub-optimal conditions. In marginal conditions like that, there are some critical details to be aware of beyond just wind speed to feel good about what you’re doing.
One of the bonuses is that the wind was coming out of the south. We could hug the eastern side to duck out of some of the worst of it. Also, you want to make sure you are going with the wind while not against strong currents to head back to safety or to your take-out location. It’s not a good situation to be in if you go fish an area that’s getting worse throughout the day and then you find you cannot run back and get out of it.
We had an easy run north after we called it.
The winning combo both in 2018 and this year, and especially this year has been the Bonchovie flasher with the Kingfisher cookies n’ cream spoon.
Yes, the purple haze hoochie has been producing as well, but when we ran both side by side, it wasn’t even close. Down in Area 10, you can get these fish to bite on just about anything based on what we heard over the VHF radio during the event on what people were catching fish on. You can read more about Puget Sound coho fishing and prior recent updates here.
So are you too late? Did you miss the run, since I’m writing about it? Not even close!
The talk during the event was the unreal numbers of coho out of Neah Bay and Sekiu. And looking at the creel reports the past few days after that big rain, Port Angeles has really turned on as well.
This run may not have peaked just yet, but it’s already providing great fishing for those who are on it. And on Saturday…there were 127 recreational boaters who took out 450 veterans, most of them down in Area 10 with another 125+ boaters who weren’t part of the event.
It was a bit nuts bobbing around in 2-4 ft wind waves with that many boats while attempting to go 4+ knots to keep the constant shakers off of the gear.
I cannot imagine how awesome the Everett coho derby is going to be on this run of fish!
Don’t have a boat?
Good news…the rivers are about to get stuffed with these fish too! Grab a pair of waders, a few spinners, twitching jigs, and maybe even some float/egg gear, and get out on the rivers to intercept these fish.
I’m about halfway through a “river fishing for salmon” article to provide some help on this topic. I know a lot of these fish get caught on drift gear, but seriously, as these rivers clear up, put away the corkies and feel the take of a coho attempting to destroy your spinner as it swings tantalizingly through the drift.
Keep an eye on the hatchery escapement numbers that WDFW publishes to figure out what rivers to target and get down there to put some time in on the water. Coho provides some of the best salmon fishing experiences on a river.
Wrapping up
The last thing I will say is, Steve and Ralph, the two vets my good friend Ash and I took out on Saturday were some really good dudes.
You show up to give and you end up being given to. It’s funny how that works, isn’t it? We’ve met some amazing dudes at this event both years and we look forward to staying in touch and being out there on the water together again.
