Weather cancellations in Westport allowed me to come home for a few days and I've managed to fish area 10 the last two days.
Yesterday I fished with forum member, and excellent fly fisherman @Matt Paluch. Due to his schedule we could only fish from mid morning until the afternoon but even during the heat of the day we managed to find plenty of action. Lots of coho around, plenty of grabs, follows, lost fish, and even a few to the net
Today I headed out early with my good friend Justin hoping to round up some dinner. I struck first, sticking a nice coho within ten minutes of starting out on the water while fishing in some slack water that was stacked with sandlance.
We worked that area hard for a bit and missed a few more grabs when we noticed a bunch of birds working and diving on what appeared to be a nice rip out in the deep water. We picked up and ran out there and slid into what was easily the longest, most insane rip I've ever seen in the sound and it was absolutely stuffed with more herring than I've ever seen in my life. The rip was easily a half mile long, with what seemed like every bird in Puget Sound working it hard for as far as we could see in either direction. It was amazing.
As we slid in on the rip we could see coho crashing the surface. Needless to say adrenaline was high.
For the next solid two hours we had some amazing fishing. I can't say how many fish we hooked, but it was a lot. I was fishing a 6 wt, type 7 40+ line, and a chartreuse and pink clouser. Justin was alternating between an intermediate line and a white clouser, and an ultra light spinning rod he had brought with a small buzz bomb.
I was hooking fish consistently but Justin couldn't manage to hook any on the fly. He hooked and lost a few on his spinning rod though. Herring was so thick you couldn't even see your fly in the bait, and would feel the fly bumping through the herring under r retrieve. It just didn't stop.... Bait everywhere.
After hooking up with probably my 10th fish I passed my rod off to Justin and he quickly started catching fish. It was clear the fast sinking line was the ticket. I think it was helping to get the fly down at the bottom edge of the bait where it was more noticeable to the fish.
I grabbed my 8 wt spooled up with a T14 head and started hooking more fish. These fish were attacking the fly with a vengeance and were hotter than hell once hooked. It was so much fun.
After an hour or so of insanity the downrigger boats started moving in on us and trolling all over the place. In the whole time we fished that rip we saw one boat hook a fish. I have a hunch they were all fishing too deep. I kept commenting that a 2 ounce banana weight with a herring would probably just slay but they all kept working deep with their flashers. It was great to get one over on the gear guys for a change after watching the trollers put a hurting on coho the last few times out.
After two hours or so the rip started dying off and the bait scattered and things pretty much died. We managed to stick one last fish and bonked it for our limit and headed back to the dock.
It was an insane morning of fishing, and one I won't forget for a long, long time.
It's worth noting that I've started fishing stinger flies the last couple of days and have noticed a strong increase in hookup ratio. Today's fish were almost all smashing the fly so I doubt it would have mattered, but the largest fish I landed today was a very plucky grab. Size 1 Gami barbless octopus sure do hold well once a fish is hooked.
Some great fishing going on right now. I hope some of you are able to get out there and take advantage of it. Not the greatest salmon fishing weather right now but the amount of bait around allows for some good fishing once you find it.
Looks like I'll be home for another couple of days, so hopefully someone will give me ah excuse to get back out there.
Blackened rezzie Caesar salads for dinner tonight!
Yesterday I fished with forum member, and excellent fly fisherman @Matt Paluch. Due to his schedule we could only fish from mid morning until the afternoon but even during the heat of the day we managed to find plenty of action. Lots of coho around, plenty of grabs, follows, lost fish, and even a few to the net
Today I headed out early with my good friend Justin hoping to round up some dinner. I struck first, sticking a nice coho within ten minutes of starting out on the water while fishing in some slack water that was stacked with sandlance.
We worked that area hard for a bit and missed a few more grabs when we noticed a bunch of birds working and diving on what appeared to be a nice rip out in the deep water. We picked up and ran out there and slid into what was easily the longest, most insane rip I've ever seen in the sound and it was absolutely stuffed with more herring than I've ever seen in my life. The rip was easily a half mile long, with what seemed like every bird in Puget Sound working it hard for as far as we could see in either direction. It was amazing.
As we slid in on the rip we could see coho crashing the surface. Needless to say adrenaline was high.
For the next solid two hours we had some amazing fishing. I can't say how many fish we hooked, but it was a lot. I was fishing a 6 wt, type 7 40+ line, and a chartreuse and pink clouser. Justin was alternating between an intermediate line and a white clouser, and an ultra light spinning rod he had brought with a small buzz bomb.
I was hooking fish consistently but Justin couldn't manage to hook any on the fly. He hooked and lost a few on his spinning rod though. Herring was so thick you couldn't even see your fly in the bait, and would feel the fly bumping through the herring under r retrieve. It just didn't stop.... Bait everywhere.
After hooking up with probably my 10th fish I passed my rod off to Justin and he quickly started catching fish. It was clear the fast sinking line was the ticket. I think it was helping to get the fly down at the bottom edge of the bait where it was more noticeable to the fish.
I grabbed my 8 wt spooled up with a T14 head and started hooking more fish. These fish were attacking the fly with a vengeance and were hotter than hell once hooked. It was so much fun.
After an hour or so of insanity the downrigger boats started moving in on us and trolling all over the place. In the whole time we fished that rip we saw one boat hook a fish. I have a hunch they were all fishing too deep. I kept commenting that a 2 ounce banana weight with a herring would probably just slay but they all kept working deep with their flashers. It was great to get one over on the gear guys for a change after watching the trollers put a hurting on coho the last few times out.
After two hours or so the rip started dying off and the bait scattered and things pretty much died. We managed to stick one last fish and bonked it for our limit and headed back to the dock.
It was an insane morning of fishing, and one I won't forget for a long, long time.
It's worth noting that I've started fishing stinger flies the last couple of days and have noticed a strong increase in hookup ratio. Today's fish were almost all smashing the fly so I doubt it would have mattered, but the largest fish I landed today was a very plucky grab. Size 1 Gami barbless octopus sure do hold well once a fish is hooked.
Some great fishing going on right now. I hope some of you are able to get out there and take advantage of it. Not the greatest salmon fishing weather right now but the amount of bait around allows for some good fishing once you find it.
Looks like I'll be home for another couple of days, so hopefully someone will give me ah excuse to get back out there.
Blackened rezzie Caesar salads for dinner tonight!