Snohomish river Chinook and Coho fishing... How is it supposed to be?

[scott080379]

the only boats I see are the indian netters but wouldn't surprise me to see a boat or two.

[jens]

Glad you fish the Skoke and the cow! and not here! Why are you on this thread(Snohomish) anyway?? Just to tell us your gonna go floss and snag whatever you can out of the Cow. Good luck Glow Ballin'....

What is your deal? Come down South and we'll teach you how to floss. You'll get em in the mouth everytime. Won't get any tickets for snagging. bud. Guys floss up north in that system also. fyi.

I flossed this Steelie up in your system with bobber/jig over the summer. It was in the mouth. with a jig. And I caught a few more with some spoons that were somehow in the mouth. I flossed them I think?

[BentRod]

Glad you fish the Skoke and the cow! and not here! Why are you on this thread(Snohomish) anyway?? Just to tell us your gonna go floss and snag whatever you can out of the Cow. Good luck Glow Ballin'....

What is your deal? Come down South and we'll teach you how to floss. You'll get em in the mouth everytime. Won't get any tickets for snagging. bud. Guys floss up north in that system also. fyi.

I flossed this Steelie with bobber/jig over the summer. It was in the mouth. with a jig. And I caught a few more with some spoons that were somehow in the mouth. I flossed them I think?

Dr. Jens, D.D.S., look how clean the teeth are on that baby!

[Anonymous]

I love that Bent Rod. I find that the first guy to call out everyones poor fishing habits are usually hiding or shielding themselves.Kinda like the pot calling the kettle black . You guys that dislike long leaders crack me up. Depending on water levels I've used long leaders. Dont like it. Then get out of my spot. Muahaha Besides My dentist told me to floss at least twice a day.

[flinginpooh]

Glad you fish the Skoke and the cow! and not here! Why are you on this thread(Snohomish) anyway?? Just to tell us your gonna go floss and snag whatever you can out of the Cow. Good luck Glow Ballin'....

Hell yeah I floss fish, I won't deny it. Snag em no. Just this morning I flossed 4 cohos. I kept 2 of them, I released 2 of them. All was hooked nicely in the mouth. 1 was really dark and the other released one the hook ripped out and tore flesh on his bottom lips. The hook ended up just behind the gill plates. It was released. Funny thing is pilchuck, I stopped posting cause your an ass. Made really rude comments when my son got his first steel heads. I have your mike forced appology still in my inbox. I've since watched your neg comments towards many other people. In my oppinion your not much more then a punk kid. Oh and I'm sorry my friend got on my computer. I had no idea he was gonna post this. Lol winner

[dogfish7]

Gotta say most of the fish that are supposed to be in the Snohomish system get nailed in the sound before they head upriver. Constantly checking the reports posted on how many boats were fishing out of Everett, Mukilteo and Camano / Whidbey areas lead me to that conclusion. Plus most of the guys that head out in those areas where the fish stage before entering the system are just getting better and nailing them in the salt.

[Brian253]

:safe:

[Matt]

Come on boys.. no fighting now. So lets talk Metal heads. Sky or Skagit? Which is better in your opinion? Whats your favorite method. Back home on the Salmon river and the Snake we were big backtrollers bouncing eggs out of a jet sled. Sometimes just bactrolling kwiks. I have always wanted to try the whole bobber and Jig thing but the holes on the salmon that we fished were deep. Like 10-15 feet. Is it even possible to fish deeper holes with the bobber method or do you have to find shallower spots?

To answer both of these question ABOUT the Snoho system which seam to have been overlooked in the "hubub":

Hands down the better river between the Skag and Sky is the Skag system particularly up high. The Sauk-Suattle system on the upper Skagit pumps out some PIG nates in the late winter/early spring! The sky, generally, only produces winters consistently for a week or two throughout the season. It is kind of a "right place right time" fishery, lots of time spent looking but not catching but if you put the time in and are there when the fish are you are going to NAIL them.

For bobber fishing deep slots use a slip bobber, I like the Beau Mac ones or just the basic foam style ones with plastic tubes on both ends. Use one that can hold more weight and use a pencil lead or bullet weight above a swivel and a 1/4-1/2 oz dead weight or jig to get the line to fall into the slot quick. Just adjust your bobber stop accordingly and keep making adjustments on the fly. I generally only use set floats in water shallower than 10 feet.

If you don't like flossers than you should just keep your mouth shut on here and go and try to get the rules changed. Calling people out on these forums do nothing for you or anyone else other than cause hat and discontent there is nothing in the rules about flossing, so it is perfectly legal.

Actually, flossing IS illegal, although it is unenforceable. In the definitions section it states that snagging is defined as:
"Snagging: Attempting to take fish with a hook and line in such a way that the fish does not voluntarily take the hook(s) in its mouth." Because flossing is technique in which the hooks are drawn through the fishes mouth rather than the fish actively moving to the lure and taking the lure into its mouth voluntarily flossing is, in essence, a form of snagging. The key to this statement is that the fish must VOLUNTARILY take the hook into its mouth. Flossing is implicitly an ILLEGAL activity no different than snagging a fish by this definition. Unfortunately, there is no real way to ENFORCE such a rule due to the fact that the law also states fish hooked from the gill plate forward are legal to harvest. This is why there is such a debate over the technique of flossing because it is in fact illegal although it is unenforceable. I am not going to even BEGIN to enter the debate of whether I PERSONALLY think it is right or wrong, I am just clarifying that, by definition, flossing IS in fact an illegal activity.

[knotabassturd]

I have flossed, at least the way I think of flossing (not yank yank at all). I have also caught salmon and steelhead on flies (sometimes flossed sometimes not). I have snagged fish in the mouth on plugs, eggs, jigs, flies, etc. Mostly salmon but even some steelhead. I have had them bite but that's more the exception at least outside the tidal areas or close to salt area of a river but when you get a couple days upstream of salt the salmon IMO mostly turn off (salmon only- steelhead will bite thruout a river IMO). By bite I mean they went up current to a presentation I was bringing back in or else hooking a fish in the mouth at the tail of a downstream drift or seeing them actively grab it without any line in its mouth already.
My guess is many fish that get caught are unknowingly to the angler snagged at least when the salmon get upriver a ways. Put a salmon a couple days out of the salt tidal area and they really quiet down with slamming and grabbing stuff In My Outdated opinion LOL.
Oddly enough, I only first learned about flossing while steelhead fishing (not salmon) in the mid 80s on the Cow at Blue Creek. There was a brother duo (Scandinavian I think of some sort) that fished there, stayed in a camper for many days on end for winter steel between Thanksgiving and New Years. Kinda had a busted nose look to 'em. They were actually pretty cool and outfished most everyone consistently same spot all the time. Most hookups in the mouth and C&Rd the foul hooked fish of course (back then anyone trying to keep a foulhooked fish probably woulda ended up being a bobber headed downstream with a jet sled having to pluck them out).
They fished the tail end of the deep slot below Blue Creek mouth a few years before that nasty mud slide took out that whole area/drift. When they hooked a fish they set the hook hard and almost ran backwards as they set the hook and fought the fish. Very distinct style.
Anyhow, they had long leaders and fairly heavy lead. Casted well upstream but not far out. Took me awhile watching (a few difft trips actually) to realize what was going on but eventually saw what it was they were doing. At the time I didn't even realize it was flossing cuz most fish were being hooked in the mouth. They were good at it too.

So I don't look down flossers as doing something illegal and have done it myself but that's just my take. I understand guys that do though. And I don't sweat it. A guy getting them to bite actively has my nod any day of the week and I'll move for them since they are showing better skills than me (if i'm trying to floss). But if I want a fish and I can 'floss' them I do.

PS- if those brothers are out there somewhere reading this I'm just going off my recollections and not dissing on you purposefully

Just my 1/2 penny's worth since I don't fish enough these days to get the old skills back (and GOOD GEAR LOL- holiday present maybe from wifey??).

Oops, that was all OT to the thread!#-o

[Anonymous]

well this thread degenerated rather poorly. A reminder, name-calling and agitating comments ultimately make for a not very friendly Forum. Nuf said...Locked.

Oh, BTW, our reports are actually up about 20% from last year, except for the huge wave of pink reports we had last Aug/Sept. Guys are still posting plenty of reports. :bigsmurf:

[kinghunter]

Matt,

The problem is you can't prove the fish voluntarily took your spoon, spinner, jig (twitching/float), and corkies. So then all those hardwares should be illegal because you don't know, they could of voluntarily took it or they were flossed. I believe when you fish with corky/yarn, you are trying to get them to bite from frustration or territorial. You know fish can be accidentally snagged from using any of those hardwares. Everyone knows it is illegal to keep any fish that is hooked behind the gillplate period, but in the mouth or around the head is legal. Why would around the head be legal? Its because WDFW are aware of the term "lockjaw" and they know alot of fish will go to waste if they didn't allow that ruling. And that fish can be flossed regardless of what hardware you use. You see flossing is just not with corky/yarn, but also with spoons, spinners and jigs. What the WDFW is looking for is anglers not making any effort to entice the fish to bite but just out right deliberate snagging and we all know what that looks like. I believe they also watch to see if anglers are keeping illegal hooked fish outside of the head region. If I'm wrong then prove me wrong. I think this will be my last comment regarding flossing/snagging issues. Really does get old with people giving the definition of flossing/snagging and not reailize any hardware will do that and not really looking into what the rule is really trying to say.