[Stonefish]

Hit the beach yesterday and today with fellow member Dimebrite.
Regardless of the naysayers, there is still some fun to be had in regards to our local saltwater.
Today we ended up with a PS slam, with a blackmouth plus multiple searun cutts and coho.
The coho were hatchery resident fish that were excellent size for early July and both put on nice aerial show with multiple jumps.
We saw lots of sandlance around today in various sizes.
We also got to see a 3+ foot dogfish attacking crab bait in a couple of feet of water.
We didn't get any pictures of the coho but took a couple of a cutt and the
blackmouth. Photos courtesy of Dimebrite.




The coho we caught would have been tonight's dinner in years past.
We had to settle for the consolation prize for dinner.



Thanks for the fun couple of days Tim.
SF

 

[Thrasybulus]

Nice job getting the Puget Slam today Brian, those were all nice fish. It felt a bit silly to release those hatchery resident silver salmon in July, but the regulations are clear. This is the earliest in July I've ever landed a decent sized silver, the 4 jumps woke me up. It was very encouraging to see healthy populations of sandlance and juvenile herring in the eel grass beds, with cutts and salmon chasing them. The big dogfish was cool too, I almost stepped on it.

 

[Pat Lat]

nice looking BM...hehe

 

[Stonefish]

nice looking BM...hehe

Pat,
We weren't sure if it was a blackmouth.......or a cutthroat
SF

 

[Nick Clayton]

Strong work guys!

Hope to read many such reports this summer. Have to live thru you all since I won't be able to join you

 

[Thrasybulus]

Keep your 12 weight handy Nick. You're in the zone! I've been enjoying your Ling and King photos, soon tuna.

Strong work guys!

Hope to read many such reports this summer. Have to live thru you all since I won't be able to join you

 

[Stonefish]

Dimebrite and I headed out again today to a different beach.
We got into some small cutthroat and a few nice resident hatchery coho.
We took one picture of the largest coho that was pushing 22".
These coho are bigger then most of the fish we were catching last fall, which is a good sign.
All the fish were fat and likely feeding on sandlance based on the schools of them we were seeing.
We had our second battle in as many days with a big dogfish. They just don't give up easily.
Photo courtesy of Dimebrite.
SF

 

[Porter]

Nice reports and thanks for sharing. This is a successful Yakima streamer bugger that I'm going to try on the sound in next few days. Imitate a small worm maybe. I have thought about it for some time but have always defaulted to reverse spiders, closer types, and lelands popper.

 

[Stonefish]

Porter,
Cutts should be all over that.
One thing I like about fishing the sound is how often you see new things, even after years of fishing it.
SF

 

[wadin' boot]

Cool report, thanks Brian- Porter that thing will get hits, maybe tie one without the conehead too and drift it slow on an intermediate...

 

[Porter]

Yeah I have a few without the head. I will experiment a bit. This week is open for me to do some salt beach self education.

 

[Thrasybulus]

Puget Sound rarely disappoints, there is always a good fishing option out there somewhere. Nice work on the coho again Brian, you matched the hatch well. I need to spend time at the tying vise, there are salmon out there waiting to be caught.

In the meantime I'm cooling off a few guests in preparation for my 4th of July celebrations.

 

[Nick Clayton]

Keep your 12 weight handy Nick. You're in the zone! I've been enjoying your Ling and King photos, soon tuna.

Tuna have been hitting our decks for over two weeks! Put 48 on the boat yesterday. Salmon trip today that was pretty slow, and back to tuna tomorrow

Some really nice coho being caught out here

 

[Stonefish]

Hit the beach this morning from 4:30 till 7:00.
A couple of grabs but no hook ups. Had a king swirl 20' out from me down the beach aways. Quite a bit of bait present, with most being herring.
Really nice morning on the water with no one else around. That ends four straight days of salt fun. Back to the grind tomorrow.
Enjoy your 4th.
SF

 

[Smalma]

SF -
I agree a 22 inch resident coho this early in the summer is an impressive fish indeed! However in the big picture of this year's coho return the status and/or condition of PS resident fish are just minor factors. The real concern is how are this year's ocean coho doing. Are they abundant? more normal sized? In short did last year's smolts survive the "blob".

Maybe Nick C. could comment on what the charter fleet is encountering in terms of incidental coho of the coast so far this summer. Historical by July 4th coho should be abundant with many decent size fish (5 to 8 #). Been hoping to hear some encouraging reports but so far the silence is concerning.

Curt

 

[Stonefish]

Curt,
As far as ocean coho go, we'll just have to see what shows up in the rivers and at hatcheries since we won't be fishing for them.
While it may not help this years or perhaps the next several years fish, I am encouraged by what I'm hearing and reading in regards to improving ocean / marine conditions and our long term weather forecasts.
While it is only early July, it felt a bit like fall on the beach this morning.

The resident coho fishing has been much better this year then in the past several. I've found them in decent numbers from the south to north sound since last fall.
SF

 

[Smalma]

SF -
The return of a la Nina does indeed bode well for the future! Now if we can just get through the effects of the "Blob" and this year's strong le Niño. Am hearing the numbers of wild coho smolts leaving our rivers are down from the last several; not unexpected as a typical population response to droughts such as was experienced last year. On the whole for next year's coho we should have somewhat better ocean conditions but fewer wild smolts entering the ocean with a high uncertainty about what the ultimate run strength will be.

With no coho harvest there could a lot more than normal numbers of "resident" coho and would expect some will be much larger (approaching ocean size fish) than normal.

Curt

 

[Porter]

Hit a couple salt beaches this am. Nothing much to report. Had two on but couldn't keep them from breaking away. Lots of salad this am. Nice size crabs everywhere. Wading and saw several just strut right on past my feet. Several people out crabbing. Just nice to get out and inhale the salty air.

 

[Nick Clayton]

I've only done three salmon trips since we are in tuna frenzy mode, but there have been a decent number of coho around and some of them good sized. Biggest I've seen has been around 8 lbs. Mostly been hatchery fish that I've seen but a few wild as well.

We are trying like hell to avoid them but it's tough. Mostly they bite on our diver rods but weve been getting plenty of kings shallow too so we can't abandon them. Clients are not happy to have to release them and some are even more upset they can't take them out to snap photos but my boss is clear we get them to the boat and released asap without ever touching them

 

[SERE Nate]

I had some luck on this spit a few months ago and then broke my SAGE One. Got the rod back and I'm heading out tomorrow morning. I've only got a few hours to fish. Hopefully I can get into something. It's my birthday so the gf is heading up with me and we're going to explore the area once I'm done fishing. If anyone wants to share what's working in this area or if there's a better beach that I should spend my morning on, please let me know!