This week was a mixed bag for many anglers fishing for salmon in Puget Sound. There are kings rounding the corner and coming in, but success has been scattered over multiple locations and techniques.
As I mentioned in last week’s report, there is so much bait between the Strait and Sound, that these salmon are in no hurry. Let’s dig in!
I will break this down based on what I was doing each day and sum it up, spin it forward.
Monday, July 20th – Fishing MA10
I launched out of Pomeroy Park just south of Manchester and worked my way up Bainbridge Island. Fished the Wing Point wall, Yeomalt Point, and further north. We didn’t mark many (any?) fish or get bit by anything large enough to get excited about.
Tuesday, July 21st – Fishing MA10 and MA9
Fished with a couple of young men aiming to spend the entire morning on the water looking for kings, followed by coho and finishing with a swim near Blake Island. We hit a few spots near Bainbridge Island, and then went out to West Point and promptly hooked up with a nice 4.5 lb coho.
I was trying to pass the rod to my son’s friend who doesn’t fish for salmon hardly at all. I was shouting “Take the rod, take the rod!”…he was confused because he knew what a fishing pole was, but not a fishing rod…
What do you think? Fishing rod or fishing pole? See, I think there are fishing rods, and there are ski poles, but…next time he will be ready.
Thursday, July 23rd – Fishing MA10
One of the joys of running this blog and corresponding PNW Best Life YouTube channel is getting to meet some new people.
One of those people (Connor) met up with me and fished on his boat in Marine Area 10. We were a fish-killing machine out there as we had our limits of 3 coho and 1 king by 8 am.
Look, everyone is running around trying to find these kings in MA9 and MA10, but don’t sleep on the resident coho fishery.
The coho right now are almost the size of what was average in September 2019. Sure, target kings on the side of the boat, but leave some coho gear in the water. A limit of coho is a pretty awesome consolation prize if the Kings aren’t snappy on whatever day you are out there.
For the King pictured above, we hit it on the Cookies N’ Cream 2.0 spoon in 180 feet of water with 140 feet of wire. We also marked a lot of fish down 70 ft, down 120 ft, and deeper that had some decent size to them, likely kings.
If you want more background information on Puget Sound Salmon Fishing, follow this link.
Friday, July 24th – Fishing MA13 / MA11
Finally, to finish off the week, I got the opportunity to fish with another one of the subscribers to my YouTube channel. We connected via the comments section of a few different videos and got a chance to go out on my boat.
Eric was a great guy to meet and chat with. He’s also a really good beach salmon fisherman who puts some slabs on the bank when the fish are in. I cannot wait to film a session with him doing this later in August.
Unfortunately, though, MA13 was pretty quiet. We did find a nice mark just east of the green can on the Nisqually delta. Not a lot of marks anywhere else we fished. We visited Point Fosdick and Point Evans. No bueno.
The fish are due down here like any day now though. MA9 and 10 have yet to really go off, but when they do, MA11 and 13 will quickly follow suit.
When these fish do come in, they won’t be messing around. Best to find good intercept/traveling areas and cover water to connect with one of these pigs.
Summary and my plan next week
I’m excited to share that I’m headed up to the Peninsula for a week of fishing with a good friend. I’m even more excited to share that Area 5 and Area 4 should be open for the majority of next week. I will be camping up in Sekiu and fishing the crap out of whatever’s left up there.
Finishing the trip off with some time near Port Angeles and maybe even Port Townsend.
Given the record herring spawn in the Puget Sound this past winter, and what the fishing network has been saying, I would be running coho killers and 2.0 / 3.0 spoons. I would also target fish in deeper water. Between 140 and 225 ft and in the bottom 1/3rd of the water column in terms of how much wire.
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Until next time, good luck out there, this next week could be epic!
