I wish salmon fishing would have been this good all year.

Originally I intended to fish for silver. I started at the bridge before everyone got there, which was two hours before sunrise. But as the day went on, like withing 15 minutes, I was crowded out by a gangly group of guys that brought their whole family down. I swear5, like 15 guys showed up all at once and just terrorized the fish. So I went upstream for a bit, but it being a saturday the fish were all spooky and dark. Well I got one silver that was a bright red, which Knotabassturd will chastize me for not keeping, but I expected to catch something brighter and didn't want to lug the heavy big buck all over the place. So off he goes into his happy hole. As the croud arrived I worked my wway further downstream anbd back to the car with only one more take on some eggs. He took off and took line but the hook didn't stick and my weight flew out his mouth and hit me in the hand. That hurt. By this time my feet were freezing so I headed off down to the mouth.

Then I had tons of fun.No silvers at the mouth, but the dogs were in. Crazy mean-faced zombie bucks, and big feisty hens. I started out using eggs, but on account of thier teeth I lost almost every fish I hooked. I was using 12 pound leader, which was no match for thier vicious teeth. But no matter, I didn't want to waste my good eggs on fighting zombies, so I switch to a tiny little corky. They didn't care. They would actually swim at it and eat it. So, I scavenged a bit of probably 20 or 25 pound test mainlines from sombody's backlash off the bank and tied up some stronger leader. And then it was on! Was a blast, after fishing for these lockjawed no show silvers. I probably had close to 40 fish strike all day. After I got the leader situation figured out I started banking them. It was a whole lotta fun, and I wish I had a waterproof camera or something so I could get pictures of some of these guys, they were MONSTROUS. One must have been thirty pounds and was a straight up disaster. Boot of the year contest would have gotten a run for its money.

A lot of the other guys were pacing the bank impatiently looking for the silvers, looking down at those of us catching chum, but fun is fun. I made sure that they were back safe and sound and well revived and ready to go spawn.

Some of the fish were really not all that bad, and put up a good fight. None of them were chromers, although I hooked quite a few jacks that were, but that was all. Not too many coho at all. I dunno if I'll be back up that way for a while until the steelhead show in force. I'm gonna go home to the skookumchuck.

goodtimesfishing

10/30/2010 5:58:00 PM

sounds like fun. We always want silvers, but when they are not around it is always fun to fight chum.

knotabassturd

10/30/2010 9:27:00 PM

Nice to see you got a workout!
I walked part of the Green around Hwy 18, I may put up a li'l report on all that. Didn't fish.

LOL I personally don't eat the darker fish (I will smoke firetruck buck coho though) but my wife makes good use of them. No chastizing headed your way ;-) BEFORE I met my wife I would let all kinds of colored fish go. Just difft lifestyle now and the fish get almost completely eaten (head and all) so I'm happy to keep 'em these days.

Thanx for the report, nice to see your 'fishing' muscles got as much workout today as they have all season!... Get U into shape for steelhead.

natetreat

10/30/2010 11:15:00 PM

Wow, head and all!!! I'd like to see that. The most I've eaten of a fish is when I catch a big ling cod I will fillet off the cheek meat. Hehehe. How was the green looking?

BARCHASER10

10/31/2010 2:32:00 PM

I knew we could not keep Chums in the Sno system or the Stilly, but I thought we could do a little C&R on Chums. But according to the Seattle Times today the fish cops are handing out tickets even if you are using gear for Chums like a bobber and jigs.

natetreat

10/31/2010 2:37:00 PM

Really? That's crazy. That doesn't seem right. Good to know. Do you have a link to that article?

natetreat

10/31/2010 2:59:00 PM

OKay, I found it, here's the link http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20101020/SPORTS/710219898/1004/SPORTS

but I also found this link too - http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/629398/Chum_Foo.html
where a game warden says this "I would like to reply to Wayne Kruse's article regarding Chum/Coho fishing. I am the local game warden who works the Stilly system. I can guarantee you that nobody is getting tickets for using "Chum" gear. I'm not sure where Mr. Kruse is getting that information. That is ridiculuous. Yes, we do cite folks for selective gear violations or violations for the anti-snagging rule. I also see alot of fishermen targeting salmon in closed areas such as the SF Stilly. Unless they are using illegal "anti-snagging" gear, the worst that can happen is a verbal warning, unless of course they are in possession of a fish. Please, don't believe everything that you read. If you have a question, get ahold of one of us."

BARCHASER10

11/1/2010 6:48:00 PM

Thanks. I intend to do a little Chum C&R after the water goes back down. I even bought some new jigs before I saw the Times article yesterday.

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