Have you ever wanted to make a trip to fish for Salmon in the Strait? Fishing in early July in the interior of Puget Sound can be good, but it also can be a grind-it-out affair as we wait for the bulk of the run to make its way inland.
Why not go to where the fish are? We will attempt to share everything we learned from our 3-day trip out west that might help you have a successful trip fishing the Strait for salmon in early July.
Our plan was to get up early Monday morning on the 8th with a truck full of camping gear and launch the boat at the Boathaven launch in Port Angeles. We cut lines at the dock by about 8:15am that morning. As we were launching we talked to a crabber who was coming back in and complaining about crabbing being slow in the harbor.
We still dropped our pots in that area anyway, as we looked at crabbing as more of a bonus as our main focus was on salmon. In general, smaller bays or harbors near populated areas/boat launches get crabbed out very quickly after the opener, and it takes a bit of time for new crab to circulate in.
As we made our way out of the harbor and west of the red buoy that marks the Chinook retention area within Marine Area 6, we ran west a bit towards the stacks, hoping to catch the end of the flood current and run east back towards the top of Ediz Hook.
The complete lack of bait or marks on the finder was a concern, and we discovered about midway through the troll that the current had begun to ebb. Generally preferring to cover water with the current, versus fighting it, we turned around and headed west to go with the ebb.
My Dad who was fishing with me on this trip noticed my rod tip dancing behind me as I was facing forward maneuvering the boat with the kicker motor.
I quickly picked it up and made a steady lifting motion upwards and discovered that the fish was already off the downrigger release mechanism, it just looked like it was still on the downrigger as this was a hefty fish!
You don’t want to really set the hook off of the downrigger clip and risk breaking off your fish (or breaking your rod), just a steady upward motion.
A substantial battle ensued that ended with this amazingly beautiful king that measured close to 40″ long in our massive new salmon net. My fishing compadre who fishes with me the most, gifted me this amazing Ranger long handle, wide scoop knotless rubber net.
Even I can net fish with this! This was a massive fish that looked small in this net. The rubber vs cloth makes such a difference. It’s easy to get your lure out and release the fish unharmed as nothing is getting tangled the way it used to in the other style of net.
Click on the above link for a great price for this net on Amazon.
What a beautiful fish! I love how fresh these fish are in the Strait, truly amazing creatures. I caught this fish on the herring aide kingfisher 3.0 spoon 42″ behind the Coyote blue crush flasher. I love this combination.
You really don’t find that blue crush flasher in stores very often, but the above link will get you hooked up (literally!). We trolled around for a bit more, without any further takedowns. We decided to call it quits a bit early with so few marks on the sonar and we were itching to get our camp setup as were a bit tired from the long drive that started early in the morning, which also included replacing a truck battery in front of a Walmart.
But that’s a whole nother story.
As we arrived back at Boathaven we were met by the fish checker and we shared our disappointing results of zero fish in the box.
Seeing others around Ediz Hook with nothing we were kind of expecting some validation that everyone else had struggled as well. You can only play the hand that you were dealt. Sometimes there’s just not much fish around, and you just kind of shrug and look forward to your next outing.
Other times, when you hear that fish were caught, you really gotta be paying attention and figuring out, what may have been off in your program that didn’t allow you to participate in the “catching” part of fishing.
The fish checker surprised us and said that 14 fish had been checked, but zero from Ediz Hook. There was a hot bite in Freshwater Bay and those who went there did some real damage. Those who didn’t fish there got a big fat zero.
We saw some boats zooming back from there…probably should have given it a shot…it was considered, but decided against. Lesson learned! We did feel good about scratching out that one really nice fish, unmarked though it was, as it was tough pickings around the Hook.
We tent camped at the Elwha Dam R.V. Park, which turned out to be a great experience. We’ve also camped here in the past with the travel trailer with full hookups here. The ownership at the Elwha Dam R.V. Park just takes care of you and provides an excellent experience. Highly recommend based on my two experiences here.
Day 2 – Fishing out of Sekiu
We decided to give Sekiu a try on day 2, which was about an hour drive west from the Elwha Dam campground.
As we pulled into Olsen’s resort to launch we were greeted with this feast for the eyes sunrise over the Strait looking out towards the mountains of Vancouver Island in Canada. Sometimes, I’m just amazed at what we get to experience while fishing, outside of the fishing itself.
Just amazing scenery in Sekiu. We saw so much life and wildness along the coastline as we trolled away from the fleet of boats that day.
We started out fishing the end of the ebb just around the corner in front of “the caves”. We saw a few hookups and a small wild king landed and released before picking up and running east.
There were probably 30-40 boats just east of Clallam bay trolling around on a few marks and a bit of bait, but nothing so interesting to keep us pounding the water with all of our fishy friends.
We instead decided to head east and troll towards Pillar Point. We started hooking fish immediately in this area and released several 12-18″ kings and wild coho after wild coho.
We probably sorted through a dozen coho to get 2 marked hatchery fish from the bunch. Still, it was a lot of fun pulling up all those fish.
The most effective setup was either the herring aide coho killer behind a green crush flasher or a whole green label herring in a clear helmet behind a deep six diver. Being in the top 35 ft of the water column was a big factor as well. I was trolling deeper with my rod, hoping for a king and didn’t get bit by many coho’s.
For other ideas on what terminal gear to use trolling for salmon in Puget Sound, check out my reference page on the topic.
I did however finally get my king. With 65 ft of cable in 75 ft of water just off of a kelp bed with the same blue crush flasher setup mentioned earlier. Fish was in the mid-teens and quite hefty.
Once we ran out of flood current, we trolled back with the ebb and kept hitting coho until we hooked this guy. Yup, it’s officially an odd-year salmon season, as we landed our first pink!
Now for one of the important lessons learned. My Dad, bless his heart, had a really nice fish take him off of the release clip immediately. He didn’t realize he was off the release clip though and pulled hard several times, breaking the leader off and promptly losing the fish 🙁
He hooked another fish after that on the same herring aide coho killer setup and lost it when the fish made hard run at him and came unbuttoned.
The drag on a reel used for downrigger trolling has to be set somewhat tight to avoid line being pulled out while trolling. Now, I’m not saying I don’t lose fish, but one thing I do that has improved my hook to land ratio is right after I hook up and I’m off of the release clip, I loosen the drag a few clicks.
When you leave the drag tight and start reeling, I’ve found that more often then not, these fish will swim right at you. They can swim incredibly fast and if you are going to lose a well hooked fish on a barbless hook on flasher gear, this is how it happens.
You will never lose a fish running away from you unless your line breaks (also unlikely with a looser drag). So I loosen the drag, and more often then not they swim away from me and go on a run, tiring themselves out. The other problem with reeling too excitedly to get them straight to the boat, is there’s nobody ready for the near boat encounter with a hot fish. We have other fishing lines out, downrigger cables down, nobody on the net, etc.
Near the boat is the other place you are going to have a chance to lose your fish. You want them coming to the boat tired out, not hot, and ready for a hard charge in a random direction.
The one cool thing about both the kings we hooked and lost is they were only down 40 ft of wire in 150+ ft of water. Don’t neglect trolling near the surface. I had another friend out in Neah Bay at the same time and he was hooking kings on only 30 ft of wire in 400 ft of water. Don’t see great marks on the sonar? Your cone is narrowest towards the surface, bring up those wires and get the stealth fish near the surface.
Day 3 – Short day of fishing and heading back
This blog post is already quite long, so I will say this, when fighting big fish, it’s a good idea to retie leaders…I hooked up with another king off of Ediz hook and lost it due to a line breakage on the same leader I had used on a few fish the previous day 🙁
We also hooked, landed and released another unmarked fish off of Freshwater Bay. This fish was “only” high teens, but fought better than any fish hooked on the trip. Absolutely unreal battle that left me trembling and shaking.
One of the observations from this trip and talking to quite a few others we met on the water or in my fishing network, is that about 70-80% of the fish were unmarked. I’ve asked this question and had some credible sources inform me that a lot of Fraser River fish pass through Neah Bay and Sekiu.
Most of these Canadian fish are unmarked. I’m hoping the excitement about the number of fish out there isn’t being inflated somewhat by the sheer number of Fraser River fish which the commercial and recreational fleets off of the west coast of Vancouver Island have not been allowed to touch throughout June and the first half of July.
We shall know soon enough! Here’s to a great interior of Puget Sound fishing season that’s already picking up and Sekiu…Sekiu and I are just getting to know each other. I will be back!
