Chinook Limit Increases to Two in Ocean Fisheries

As of tomorrow, August 1st the limit for Chinook salmon will be increased from one to two per day. The National Marine Fisheries Management Council and the states of Washington and Oregon have determined with the catch data through July 26 that the recreational anglers have only caught 24% of the alloted quota, and with the historical data less than 50% of the quota will be caught in August thus the increase in the limits. The bag limit increase will be in effect from the US / Canadian border to Cape Falcon, Oregon.

Make sure to consult your area regulations for size and bag limits.

Edmonds Pier - King Salmon

Shawn was down to the pier this morning to do a little fishing himself. He said that their were three kings caught this morning to around 17 pounds and another three hooked and lost. Though not exactly a hot bite it was still not a total bust. There were around 60 anglers pitching jigs this AM.
The "Hot" jig seemed to be a 2 1/4 ounce "Green Pearl" Point Wilson Dart!

Lake Wenatchee Opens for Sockeye - August 5th

Sufficient numbers of sockeye are returning to Lake Wenatchee to allow a sport season. The fishery will open on August 5th (one hour before official sunrise until the quota has been reached.
The limit is 2 sockeye 12 inches or larger in length. Single point barbless hooks are required. No more than three hooks may be used. No bait or scent may be attached to the hooks. Knotless nets are required. A night closure is in effect. Legal angling hours are one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset. Bull trout, steelhead, and Chinook salmon must be released unharmed with out removing the fish from the water.
All sockeye with one or more round holes punched in the tail of the fish must be released, as they are part of a study and have been anesthetized and the FDA requires a 21 day ban on the consumption of these fish.
As far as tackle goes you can fish 6 -8 ounces of lead, 3 feet of heavy leader between the lead and the dodger(generally a size 0 or 1 in chrome, silver scalelite or hammered silver finishes , followed by single or double snelled 1/0, 2/0 or 3/0 red or black Octopus style hook tied on twenty or twenty -five pound leader. Fish the hook or hooks about two times the dodgers length. Fish slowly, just getting the dodger to swim in a side to side manner. Depth will vary with the schools generally shallower (35 -40 feet) first thing in the AM and dropping deeper in the water column as the light intensifies. Fishing as deep as 90 feet by mid morning. A good fish finder / depth sounder is invaluable in not only locating schools of fish but the depth at which they are swimming.
The upper portion of the lake generally produces better, though early in the season you might take a look at the lower portion as the fish just out of the Wenatchee River will stack up fro awhile before making their way up to the upper portion of the lake.

Stop by we'll be happy to show you the gear and to tie up a few of our special sockeye leaders.

Bush Point - Pinks on the Fly

One of the customers came in this afternoon after spending the day at Bush fly fishing for pinks. He managed to C & R 9 of the feisty little buggers on the fly rod. Fishing sounds as if its getting better with every tide. If you have never fly fished for this species you are in for a treat as they put up a very respectable fight on a 6 or 7 weight rod. If you are looking for a place closer to home for a quick hour or so you might try the beach at Medowdale Park, Picnic Point or Mukilteo. It should be any day for them to be here in "Good" numbers!

Stop by and see Steve and he will be more than happy to give you the run down on beach fishing for them.

Areas 8-1 & 8-2 OPEN AUGUST !

Marine Areas 8-1 & 8-2 open on August 1 for coho and pinks. Chinook are "CLOSED" ! The popular "Humpy Hollow" area below Mukilteo will open on Saturday. I don't think that there will be many pinks staged in the area at present but will be going full tilt in another week or so.

So get out your "Humpy" gear and get ready for a "Fantastic" season. With a predicted 5.1 million destined for Puget Sound streams the opportunities will be endless!

Nice Pair of Sitka King Salmon

For anyone going to fish the Sitka area in the next week or so there has been some fair king salmon fishing to be had recently with a number of fish into the thirties. Here's John Kaliena and his son with a pair of nice kings.

Nice Sitka Silver Salmon

Here's a picture of a very nice Sitka, Alaska siver salmon caught on the "Story Teller" with Capt. Eddy Sisom . The fish pegged the scale at 18 pounds.

Whidbey Island Beaches - Pink Salmon

We have had a number of good reports coming from the western beaches of Whidbey Island from anglers fishing for pink salmon slinging 2 or 21/2 pink Buzz Bombs or Wanabee's. One of our customers caught and released 7 on the evening tide at Bush Point on Tuesday. This fishery is just getting started and should really get into high gear in the next few days. The number of humpies that we have heard of in the Port Angeles area has been such that king fishermen have been complaining that they cannot get through the humpies to get to the kings.

We have "Lots" of gear for you beach fishermen and will be glad to set you up, show you how to fish and where to go.

This beach fishery is an outstanding one for the kids, with the number of fish that are coming into Puget Sound one can hardly miss!

Skagit River - Out of Shape

The Skagit River king salmon fishery will be out of the question for this weeks opener, as the extremely "HOT" weather has blown the river out of shape. We will be lucky if the river comes back into shape for the following weekend. Though this fishery has been less than fantastic it has produced a handful of very nice fish for persistent anglers.

If the river does come back into shape for this following weekend we should see the best opportunity for good fishing as the kings entering into the Skagit should be at their peak.

The tribal netters saw good numbers of fish in the web during there past opener, earlier this week.

King Fishing - Edmonds Pier

The king fishing off the Edmonds pier continues to produce well, with an average of around 5 - 10 kings landed each day. We have seen some really nice fish the past few days with a number into the high twenties to low thirties. Everyone is fishing their favorite lead minnow. Color combo's have been fairly normal with Pearl White, Pearl Green and Silver / Black combinations being the norm. Besides the kings, there has been the occasional pink (humpie) also being caught from the pier. We should see the kings fishing continue into the end of August with the peak coming this next week around the 4th or 5th.

Kingfisher 4 Lights - UV White Lightning

We have received another shipment of this popular king salmon spoon from Gold Star this afternoon. We have had a hard time keeping this popular spoon in stock. The 4 Lights have taken over the Coyote Spoons popularity as Normark / Luhr Jensen has decided to produce just a base of 18 colors of this popular spoon. Besides the loss of our color schemes the spoons are now being produres in China and the quality is just not the same. Given the popularity of the new 4 Lights we may see additional sizes this next season.

Pinks Starting To Show

Today we heard of a number of pinks (humpies) being caught in various areas here in Marine Area 9. A number of anglers reported catching a pink or two in their quests for kings and silvers today. We heard of a handful of them coming to the beach anglers on the western side of Whidbey Island today as well as Possession, Pilot Point and even off the Edmonds pier. Though they are not here in full force they sure should be in another week to ten days.

Anything that you need to pursue them whether it be from the beach or from the boat is available at Teds. We will be happy to show you how to rig up and where to fish them.

Cotton Candy - Coho Killers

For any of you that have been looking for the talked about "Cotton Candy" pattern of Coho Killer spoons - we received a large shipment yesterday evening. This spoon has been one of the most talked about items on the Salmon University web site recently. Stop by or call to reserve a few before we run out.

King Salmon - Edmonds - Richmond Beach - Meadow Point

Talked with a number of anglers that had good reports from the Edmonds shoreline south to Meadow Point. Thought the fishing wasn't "Hot" at least there were a number of kings caught in this area this morning. The largest that we had come through the shop today was one of 30 pounds. This fish was caught on a 3 inch Silver Horde Kingfisher spoon in a 188 color pattern (50 / 50 glow and lime green) fished behind a Hot Spot Flasher. Most anglers found the fish deep in the 90 - 150 foot depth range. We also had another 30 pound fish come from the same area that was caught jigging a lead minnow.

The Edmonds pier wasn't a real hot spot though there were a couple of kings landed there this morning.

Along with the king fishing there were a number of smaller resident coho (2 - 5 pounds) caught in the Edmonds area today. We have heard of a number of these resident coho caught in the Point No Point - Pilot Point area the past few days. Seems like they are returning from out in the Straits where they must have been most of the spring and summer.

A few pinks were also boated in the Pilot Point area today. It will be another week to ten days before we start to see good numbers of these fish showing up in our area.

Nice Neah Bay King Salmon

Here's a really nice 42 pound Waada Island Neah Bay King salmon caught by Jeri Runyon. Scott, her husband did an out standing job of being guide, though he did bend the net a bit during the netting - wonder why?

Mixed Salmon Reports

To say the least it has been quite hectic - thus the lack of postings this past week. Salmon fishing has been the thing since the opener this past week. Though we had "Good" reports the first day of the season, the catch ratio did decline considerably since. The culprit was the extreme tides that washed the bait everywhere and likewise spread the salmon everywhere. Now that the minus tides are subsiding we should see better fishing every day. Even with the tides and the poorer fishing we still had reports of nice kings being caught. Anglers that were willing to work for there fish did manage to scratch up a fish or two every day. Most of the kings that we have been seeing have been averaging in the mid-teens to mid twenties on the keeper hatchery fish. some of the wild fish, that must be released have pushed into the 30 pound range. Some of the most consistent fishing has been the stretch from the Edmonds breakwater down through Richmond Beach, Boeing Creek, Meadow Point to Shilshole. It has been a crap shoot as far as productive gear, as we have seen good results from the downrigger boys pulling Hot Spots with both hoochies and spoons or dragging herring. The moochers have been doing well soaking plug-cut herring.

The Edmonds pier has yielded good results for the boys pitching lead minnow, with an average of 3 to 10 fish landed a day. The largest that we have heard is a whopper at 33 pounds.

There have been a few kings landed off the Fort Casey beaches this week by anglers fishing floats and herring. There are a fair number of smallish 2-4 pound resident coho also being caught off the Island beaches on buzz bombs, rotaters or herring. As far as the pinks go, there has been an odd one caught, though it will be a week or so before we start seeing good numbers.

We should be seeing some "Great" angling opportunities in the next couple of months.

You are welcome to give us a call or stop by and we will give you the latest fishing information as to where it has been happening and what gear has been producing.

Salmon Results - Day 1 - Marine Areas 9 & 10

Reports varied over the various fishing areas in Marine Areas 9 & 10 on this first day of the 45 day king season. Without a doubt the number one area was the Midchannel Bank area out of Port Townsend. Anglers found the last couple of hours of the outgoing tide just after dawn was the bite time. Most fishermen were downrigger fishing and dragging their offerings right on the deck in 70 - 125 feet of water. Most anglers did well presenting candlefish styled lures fished behind flashers. As far as lures went the Gold Star Coho Killer Spoons in White Lighting, White Lighting w/Lime, Chartreuse or Lime/Chartreuse stripe combos were one of the most productive. Grand Slam Bucktail Coho Flies in white were also on the productive list as were candlefish hoochies in pearl white or purple haze color patterns. With the tides the way they are I would have to say this will be the spot to be over the next 4 or 5 days. Midchannel does fish best on the AM outgoing tides and is especially good with the big tides that we will be experiencing during that time.

Many anglers having just a few hours to spare this AM stuck closer to home and many did well fishing the beach line from Edmonds south to Richmond Beach, Boeing Creek and Shilshole. Many did well fishing these areas first ting this morning. I had one of the customers here at 8:30 this morning to buy more gear and show off a 22 and 25 pound limit of kings. He did his thing fishing a B & B flasher and an OG 142 (Green Hornet) Octopus Squid.

The Possession Bar, which is one of the preferred spots in Area 9 did not produce as well as many had hoped. We heard of a few fish boated in this area, but overall was one of the poorest producing areas this AM. We had one of the regulars in this afternoon that had his limit from the
Possession Bar area but both were in the lower teens sized wise. He found one of the "New" Gold Star Kingfisher 4 Lights in White Lighting color fished behind a Hot Spot Flasher was the key to his fish.

Jefferson Head put out a few fish today also, the largest a 27 pound king.

As we hear more we will fill you in on whats happening during this king fishery.

Reiter Ponds Open 8:00 am July 18th

The Reiter Pond hatchery section of the Skykomish will open at 8:00 am on Saturday 18th of July. The WDFW has collected their brood stock for production purposes and will open this section early.

From what we have heard there is a substantial number of hatchery steelhead stacked up already and should be the normal combat fishery that it always is.

Should be entertaining to say the least - at least there should be good numbers of fish caught.

Kokanee - Lake Stevens

Though the mass of anglers have wained on Lake Stevens in the past weeks and the water skiers and PWC have taken over there is still some fair kokanee fishing to be had. I had one of the Steven's regulars in yesterday and he said that though he was not getting limits for he and his partner, they were averaging about ten between the two of them. What they lacked in numbers they did make up in size with most ranging in the 15 - 18 inch range. Fish have been very deep, with most coming from the 70 foot zone. They did best fishing small (#14) Spin-N-Glos, a double hook arrangement tipped with Gulp maggots and white corn.

Though not as easy a fishery during the heat of the summer months there is still good fishing to be had.

Anchovies

We have received our first shipment of anchovies for the season. They are larger anchovies in the 6 - 6 1/4 inch range. They were the only size that we could get at present, though we have been told that we will receive some shortly that will be in the 5 - 5 1/2 range once they have cured and packed. The only other chovies that could be procured were very small 3 - 3 1/2 inch little pinheads. We will do our best to find the best we can procure.

The present baits are packed 8 per tray and run $5.49 / package.

Kings Open Thursday 16th July - Marine Area 9 & 10

King salmon fishing opens this Thursday the 16th of July in Marine Areas 9 & 10. If I had to guess how the fishing is going to be I would have to say it looks like we are going to see a good season. The Sekiu and Port Angeles area have been seeing some very good fishing as well as the fishing in the open areas of the San Juans. The fishing off the Edmonds pier has been good this past week and was outstanding today.

Though the tides aren't exactly stellar for the first few days - I would still say to get out there if you can as you can't catch them if you are not out there and fishing.

Remember to read over your regulations before you venture out there, as the regulations are a little confusing.

Hot!!! King Fishing - Edmonds Pier

The King salmon fishing off the Edmonds pier is about as good as it gets! By 1:00 this afternoon there had been 21 hooked with 10 to 27 pounds landed. Lots of fish in the mid to low twenties. Most fish were landed on various lead minnows such as Point Wilson Darts, Crippled Herring, Gibbs Minnows, Pucci Jigs, Lazer Minnows as well as Megabaits (that is if you happen to have any!). Unfortunately, Megabait is once again out of business. As far as colors go the typical pearl white, green pearl or glow greens are consistent producers. Make sure to change out your jigs to single and barbless hooks to conform to the WDFW regulations. The fishing should be consistent for the next month or so with the peak of the Puget Sound King run peaking around the 4th or 5th of August.

Skagit River - Kings

With the Skagit's first King Salmon opener is 16 years in the lower river there has been a considerable amount of angling pressure the past few days. Though there has been lots of pressure the number of fish caught has not been anything to write home about. We have heard of fish being landed with a 42 pound king landed at the Spud Bar this morning by a plunker fishing Spin N Glo and an egg / shrimp combo. I think it might take awhile for anglers to once again tune themselves in to this fishery and figure out all the slots that the fish will be traveling. We should see better numbers of fish landed in the upcoming weeks.

We have good fresh shrimp for this weekend as well as eggs for you wanting to give this a try. We also have sardines for the boat anglers fishing Kwickfish / Flatfish for bait wraps.

Smelt - Edmond's Pier

Salmon are the spotlight species on the Edmond's pier at the present time with the fishing getting better every week. However, there has been some good smelt fishing to be had off the pier recently. The smelt have been just as erratic as the salmon fishing with some days anglers just catching a few and other days 50 - 60. You just have to pick a day and hope that you have picked correctly. They have been exceptionally sized smelt with most going 7 - 8 inches. A relatively simple fishery requiring just a standard trout outfit, a Gamakatsu #5 Smelt / Herring Jig and a few 1/2 to 1 ounce sinkers. Bring a small cooler with ice to keep your catch in tip top shape and you will be treated to one of the best eating fish we have in Puget Sound. Though not large sized they do make up for it on the table. A simple preparation of gutting and taking off the head, a quick wash, a coating of flour, an egg wash, followed by a coating of Panko (Japanese Bread Crumbs) then fried in a 50 / 50 mixture of olive oil and butter makes for a good dinner.

Crabbing - Area's 8-1,8-2 and 9

The opening of crabbing here in our local areas brought mixed results depending upon who you talked with. Basically, it boiled down to the fact if you fished an area that the tribes did crab (just prior to the sports opening) you had a difficult time in finding the crab and if you happened to find an area that they did not fish or fished just slightly then you did alright. If when you check your gear and are not doing well then I would not reset your gear but move! You need to find an area that has some crab! Make sure to bait heavily and give those crabs a reason to climb into your pot. Make sure that they are well weighted to stay in place as you don't want a crab pot that is bouncing as no crab will climb into a bouncing pot and you don't want it floating off in a heavy tide or drug off by kelp grabbing onto your buoy.

We have a good amount of time left for you to catch your share of crab before it closes.

Ted's has lots of crab gear and can help you setting up!

Edmonds Pier - Chinook Salmon

The Edmonds Pier is getting a little more productive virtually every week. We have had a number of our customers catch some decent fish over the past week. The largest that we have heard of are fish weighing 22 and 23 pounds. Nice sized fish for off the pier! As far as lures go, the typical mix of lead minnows are all producing. This week the Mega - Bait jigs in the 1 1/2oz - 2 1/2 ounce range seems to be the favorites. Though, unfortunately this popular jig is once again going away as the company is closing up shop. We do have a very small supply left and what we have is going quite quickly. The other jig of choice seems to be the Gibbs minnow. Jig colors seem to trend toward white, black/silver or black/white. Don't fret if you don't have these specific jigs as Point Wilson Darts, Pucci Lazer Minnows or Crippled Herring will all produce. I will have to agree that the white, black/silver and black/white combos are all "Fantastic" colors, but don't have any hesitation in fishing green/silver, green/white or green/pearl colors as these all produce well also.

Fishing should only continue to get better as July progresses, with the peak of the run around the 4th or 5th of August.

Mega Bait Jigs - Out of Business

We are sorry to report that once again Mega Bait Jigs are no longer available. We heard rumors yesterday that they were no more and upon calling the company found out that whatever they had in stock was it! We gave them some of the most popular colors and sizes and they did not have a one in stock! We still have a number of some of the better producers in stock, but what we have is what we have and that is it!

Live Herring Available - Possession Point Bait Company

Live herring is available at Possession Point Bail Company at he SE corner of Whidbey Island. Danny and Angie Cooper stopped by the shop yesterday to say "Hi" and to tell me that they had their herring ponds full of red to green sized herring. The price is $5.00 / doz - tax included. Here's their address and contact information.

Possession Point Bait Company
8311 Franklin Road
Clinton, WA 98236
(360) 579-4704

If you have never been there, give them a call and they will give you instructions on how to find them.

The beach at their place is a good spot to chase both pinks and coho later this summer.

Chinook To Close - Skykomish River

The Skykomish Chinook salmon season will close at 12:01 am Sunday July 5Th due to inadequate returns to the Wallace salmon hatchery. The area from Lewis street bridge to the mouth of the Wallace is the area that this closure will effected.

This area may reopen once it appears that adequate spawning goals will be meet!