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August Pink Reports

49K views 416 replies 125 participants last post by  T Bag 
#1 ·
Time for a new thread to replace the Pink Recon thread, in my humble opinion.
 
#322 ·
Hey Evan, what material was you tungsten cone head fly made with? I saw where you posted the picture but wasn't sure if you ever game the materials. I tied some flies up last night that were as close as I could figure. Having mainly trout-fly materials I was limited to bucktail and marabou for pink materials. So I tied some with pink marabou (sparse tail and marabou wrapped up the body), thin wire counter wrap for durability, and a standard cone head with some wraps of lead up in the cone (no tungsten on hand). Tied those and some pink/white clousers (very sparse). Guess I need a trip to the shop for more pink stuff :)
 
#324 ·
Sure, I was just thinking I haven't seen too many salt flies with maribou and wasn't sure if it maybe wasn't as durable or something. However, I have some buggers that have held up to many many trout so... Well anyways, I guess I now have some sparse pink flies so we'll see what happens.
 
#325 ·
8/26 Dash Point Report

Fished from 5:30 to 8:00, outgoing tide.

The usual chaos on the pier, but a lot less gear guys wading (only about 10).

Saw about 20 fish hooked on gear.

I was 1 for 2

Seemed like a normal mid-run type of morning. I don't think we are at the end yet.

Steve - Good to see you. I was glad to read that you hooked a few.
 
#327 ·
Hooked around 15 today. Still not that easy to find... My son had one stolen 2 feet away from the boat by Mr seal. He also used the head of a pink to catch a dog fish on a fly rod. It was kind of entertaining to watch the dog fish come up and grab the head
 
#328 ·
I agree that today felt like a mid-run day. The fish seem to be on every-other-day. You do have to put in your time in order to get them. There were two other flyfishers nearby and they hooked up a few but they were using 6 wt. rods and no baskets. That's a tough catch this year. I've used my 6 wt. but was literally worn out by the time I was able to land the fish. That may be because I'm getting old but I don't think so.
 
#329 ·
Thanks a bunch for showin me the ropes this morning Evan! Had a great time. Evan got me into my first first pink ever on a fly rod, although I was not able to land it I did get to fight it for a while. You most certainly did not fail as a guide!

I'm itchin to chase some more now.
 
#333 ·
Finally got out in a boat today. Things were hot this morning, and then they got hard to find. We got a few for the smoker though, and it was a gorgeous day to be out on the sound. It just reminds me of how much I love being on the salt water in a boat in the Sound.

We swung by Brown's PT, and there must have been a big school going through as there were at least five fish and any given moment being landed. We saw schools out in the middle and tried to chase them down, but could never find them once they saw the boat.

Good times!

View attachment 43766
 
#336 ·
Drove over to Dash Point state park from the east side on Wednesday, stayed til Friday afternoon.

Thursday morning from the state park beach, things were dead (low tide to rising tide). did not see a single pink jump or surface. Several beach fisherpersons and a few boats were present, one boat caught 2 on gear, another boat caught one on a fly. Thursday afternoon I had a nice kayak up the coast.

Friday morning, fish were around at last (falling tide, low tide to rising tide). A single boat was present off the state park beach, it landed 6 fish from 8 to 8:45. A few beach anglers picked off an occasional fish. I caught one at 9:15 myself, which I photographed(see below), bled, gutted, packed with ice, and drove it home in the afternoon. This fish was delicious filleted with a ginger, horseradish, sake, bread crumb spread on it and broiled.

meanwhile, back at the beach, about 10 am loud whooping was heard from the dash point pier. someone later confirmed to me that they arrived at the pier at 10 am and it was hot.

It slowed down at the beach until about 11 when some more fish came through in the strong tidal current (rising tide). I realized I was casting behind them, so I moved southwest quickly to get in front, caught one, released it, hooked up on the next cast, LDR.

Gear: 7 wt, clear intermediate Airflo 40+ integrated shooting head. First fish on tungsten cone head fly dressed with the usual things, white arctic fox tail, krystal flash, and pink in maribou. Later fishes on a smaller copper bead head fly with pink marabou similar to Steve Savilles postings. The latter was way easier to cast, my tungsten cone may have been too heavy at a 1/4 inch size.

From two days of observations, i must say the gear guys in boats were outfishing the fly anglers by a considerable margin most of the time, and some of these folks clearly knew what they were doing and fished very purposefully. And it was not just a matter of being deeper, since one boat I saw on Thursday afternoon hooked up by moving closer to the shore and casting practically to the beach - into shallow water near shore, in other words. There could be a lesson here about fishing near the bottom and prospecting widely when fish are not showing at the surface. Only when the fish were coming in visible at the surface were the beach fly anglers doing as well or better.

In the photo below, the fish ruler is made from two folding 12 inch plastic rulers from Fred Meyer connected zero to zero with a split ring. This think crumples into a pocket, and only cost a few bucks for parts. Buck salmon has the start of a hump.

View attachment 43767
 
#337 ·
Wow did things ever die down in MA9-West. After hot dawn bites on Wednesday and Thursday it was dead. I saw one pink landed by a fly fisherman and SDR'd by a gear fishermen...and that was the only action. Oh, aand I met what must be the epitome of scum bag beach trolls: I walked up to the beach while it was still dark and noticed a 300 lb 5'8" mole of a human making 40 casts while squeezed into his lawn chair. He quickly spluttered out "if you hook me with that fu©king fly I'm gonna come over der en break yet pole" (please note that he said "pole" and not "rod"). To which I replied after a loud chuckle "Good morning, Sir. Thank you for coming out." Needless to say, I'm pretty sure we won't be BFF's. You meet all sorts on odd numbered years....
 
#338 ·
August Pink Reports -LP 8/26 Orcas!

View attachment 43768 View attachment 43769

Lincoln Park - Friday 8/26 - Fished on outgoing tide 6:00 to 11:00 AM. About 25 buzz bombers and 1 fly fisherman were on the beach at 6:00 with 4 fish already bleeding. There were about 6 boats trolling the point. Action on the beach was sporadic through the morning. I only saw two fish netted by the boaters. One kayaker had a bent rod a couple times. The fly guy standing on the paddleboard was entertaining to watch as he attempted to retrieve and not drop his paddle.

By 9:00 there were over 125 fishing on the beach when a pod of Orcas surfaced about 150 yards out, actually inside some of the trollers. Great sight! I ran up the beach to get my camera but only got theses two shots. The Orcas did not seem to affect the fishing, but their presence may explain the lack of seals.

A WDFW agent showed up around 9:45 and suddenly there were only 70 of us fishing. He gave out a lot of $80 tickets for failure to record the catch and several other citations. He said he had been at LP since 4:30AM watching. We thanked him for his work.

Action was typical for LP, sporadic schools of fish when 2-6 hookups would occur then 20-40 minutes of nothing. Early in the morning the fish seemed to be just out of casting range. Lots of bait was showing most of the morning, again out a little too far. We saw a few jumpers. Around 9:00-9:30 small schools started to come through in closer and action improved with most people hooking up. I left with my limit at 11:00.

About 8:00AM, I had not hooked up yet when an older gentleman stepped next to me with a 35 year old Penn 704 on a short pole (too old and small to be a "rod") and landed a big buck on his first cast. He proceeded to limit in the next hour, but lost the 4th fish when it rolled down the beach and swam off, despite his dive into the water to corral it. He lost two more before having to get to his 11:45 AM wrist surgery that will keep him from fishing for 6 weeks. I hope the Coho's run late for him.
 
#339 ·
@ SciGuy...Indeed you meet them all. Although I have had some interesting encounters myself, I applaud you for keeping your cool as I might not have been able to give a great response as you did. I savor my time on the Puget Sound shores and limit myself to those areas where lawn chair fishing will not work. I do however sneak in for a couple hours now and then. Again...Great response!
 
#340 ·
Thanks for the great reports bouncing bob, jwq and all. I hit the Spokane St. Bridge, fished for 3 hours and got my limit. 2 guys next to me limited out as well. It was fantastic fishing, tons of action, lots of fish being taken. Good spirits, good cooperation.

Wierd thing though, how most people didn't put their fish on ice. How good does a pink that's been on the pavement under a bench for an hour taste?

Needless to say, the bridge was packed. Dude was there since 5 am, no fish until I arrived at 11am.

Right after I arrived, got two fish on the line that I lost due to bad terminal knots. Using a clinch knot now, did the trick!

Thanks for the info
 
#342 ·
BP 7:30 AM to 11. Saw fish (in the water 6 feet away swimming by). That's the best I could do for myself. Gear chuckers below the lighthouse were having better luck. One guy beached 2 and had 3 LDRs. Had another guy get one on one side of me and another fly-guy get one on my other side. I think if Pinks had fingers I know what the one swimming by would have been doing;-}
 
#345 ·
Took my brother who is visiting from Californi out today for a little fishing while we let my crab pots soak a few hours. We ended up hooking over 40 and landed 19 (all released). There was another boat fishing near us that were doing equally as good. The problem is is that they kept keeping every fish they caught. I informed them of the limit to no avail. By the time they left they had in excess of 20 pinks on board. I took a photo of the blue hulled Bayliner, unfortunately it had a couple of numbers missing from it's boat ID numbers. I don't want to offend anyone so I will leave their race out of it. I'm guessing the boat ID number thing was done intentionally. I will be forwarding it to WDFG for all the good it will do. I was spitting mad at their flagrant disreguard at the possession laws. The bastards.
 
#349 ·
I'd have called the poaching hotline as soon as I noticed that they were going over the limit. Good on you for getting the photo. I would also have taken photos of their boat, zooming in as much as possible. I carry a cell phone (turned off to save the battery and thwart interruptions) and camera, as well as a marine radio with me, even on my hybrid canoe and yak. I hate greedy poachers. Please do forward whatever info you have on them. It might help bust them, if not now, then in the future.
 
#348 ·
Yeah, I just put two and two together because you told me that you were letting crab pots soak. I was in the red pontoon flyfishing that you helped net a couple of fish for me. You must be speaking of the two guys ( race left out) in the Bayliner on my left correct? Had I realized that, I would have called WDFG myself, but I left just before you did. That was a good spot that I will be taking a friend to in the morning for a repeat (hopefully).

Anyway, thanks again for the help. I owe you a beer sometime. Nice to meet you.
 
#350 ·
well i dont mind offending anyone, every day i have been out i have seen boats overloaded with white people, keeping everything, i even watched as fish were transfered from one boat to another, which sped off and returned shortly, these guys have no problem when the fish are thick, keeping 20 apiece i bet, its all in the south sound at redondo, they dont have crab pots but seem to return with crabs, they are all white, and the most rude people i have ever seen. they are all white as crackers and happen to be russian. i'm sorry if reporting observations is racist, i keep forgeting we are not supposed to report observations of groups unless they are white, but these guys are close enough i figure.
 
#362 ·
Interesting, lived in the Seattle area for 20+ years, didn't hear any Russian being spoken until I started hanging out at Alki in West Seattle. I guess there's a sizable russian population in west seattle?

I don't doubt this report at all. Was at Spokane all day today, a family to the right of me. Young adult, 20-30, not russian or hispanic, caught at least 6 pinks. They left all their garbage there, Icehouse light cans... one of which made it into the river.

Luckily some people came afterwards with heavy-duty garbage cans and clean up after them.
 
#353 ·
Good to know some reporting methods don't work on weekends.

There are lots of instructions in the pamphlet, about reporting poaching.

Here is the simplest and easiest to remember.:

DIAL 911 TO REPORT POACHING IN PROGRESS

Here are the WA state patrol numbers:

Washington State Patrol phone numbers:
Aberdeen/Hoquiam (360) 533-5707
Bellevue (425) 649-4370
Bellingham (360) 676-2076
Bremerton 360) 478-4646
Burlington (360)757-1175
Centralia/Chehalis (360) 748-6633
Ephrata (509) 754-3571
Gig Harbor (253) 858-8800
Long Beach Peninsula (360) 533-5707
Longview/Kelso (360) 577-2050
Marysville (360) 658-1345
Olympia (360) 596-1999
Port Angeles (360) 452-3394
Shelton (360) 426-6674
Spokane (509) 456-4101
Tacoma (253) 536-6210
Vancouver (360) 260-6333
Wenatchee (509) 663-9721
Yakima (509) 575-2320
 
#354 ·
Had an epic morning with a friend in the salt. Mostly all males with the biggest going 8 or 9 lbs. "JB" from the forum came along and I introduced myself to him......nice guy. In reference to the blue Bayliner taking fish yesterday, it was there again today. It is two non-american nationality younger guys. Not Russian and not Native American, so there is pretty much only one other that you see snagging etc. Boat ID is WN #9#26#LB. Numbers are missing on the ID. They fished right next to me and I counted the fish. Once they got 4 a piece and continued fishing I called the WDFG and reported them. They heard me on the phone and left because I verifed with them that the possesion limit was four and not 20 like yesterday. A mistake is one thing, but scumbags like that don't deserve to share the air I breathe and can fuck off and die in their boat today for all I care. Zero tolerance for ignorance and greed.
 
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