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Green River Report
King County, WA

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Details

09/13/2019
61° - 65°
Float Fishing
Pink Salmon
Fish Eggs
Purple
Cloudy
Jigs
Morning
09/18/2019
4
3829

This trip I brought two rods along...A float rod for floating some eggs and also my twitchin/drift rod. First 3 fish came on eggs! This was my first time hooking up with eggs as I've mostly been a hardware kinda guy in the past.

Eggs were store bought Ray's Baits that I doctored up with a little Pro-Cure Sodium Sulfite. This hardened the egg a bit and allowed me to stretch out my limited supply of eggs. First two fish were smaller pink jacks...However, as I saw the silvers jumping I kept casting out to intercept them.

Finally, one jumped about 15 feet in front of me just as I was finishing one of my drifts and reeling in...I made my next cast right in front of the fish and BAM! Fish On! He proceeded to go nuts trying to throw the hook but I wrangled him to the shore...Happy to finally catch my first Coho on eggs. The eggs were down his throat but the hook was right inside the corner of the mouth.

I had tied up some double hook rigs on 15lb. with a hard fish pill between the hooks for floatation. Since the Duwamish/Green is an anti-snagging rule river, I had to cut the top hook off at the bend leaving the egg loop to hang the eggs off of.

Reason I tied these rigs up that was is because I heard about these fish being light biters...A former fishing guide friend of mine had mentioned that this double rig helps combat those type of fish.

Most of the bites I had that day were indeed very light. In fact, I missed over a dozen bites due to slack in my line, line not mended properly, not sure if it was a fish or bottom, etc. There was a lot of grass and weeds in the river to contend with so that made it a bit tricky and a hassle to clear the hooks of debris.

So...

Knowing I still had work to do on the float technique, I continued to float fish eggs...Couldn't get any more bites...even when I'd cast right in front of the fish. I tried every kind of scent I brought along and nothing got them to snap.

Fish were coming through in schools...Sometimes the action would slow but I figured there must still be plenty of fish going up, but that they were right on the bottom.

So, I grabbed my jig rod and started twitchin hootchie jigs at em...Started getting hit left and right. I hooked over 9 while jigging with half a dozen of them coming unbuttoned.

Some were fouled hooked and so I'd play them out a little bit and let slack in the line to get a long line release. If I felt them hooked on solid I'd yard them in and beach them on the bank...Didn't bother to bring a net and so when beaching them this way you gotta pounce on them real fast!

Caught 3 more pinks this way...Couple nice ones about 4lbs.

After foul hooking a number of these pinks and silvers I kept wanting to duplicate that silver take down on eggs and so when I'd see them jump near me I had my float rod at the ready all baited up and would cast half a dozen times or so until my bait was no more and then go back to my twitchin.

All in all it was an action packed day. Caught my limit of 6 salmon in under 4 hours. First 5 were caught all before 10AM.

Came home and went to work the rest of the day processing the fish. Thankful for such a blessed day and happy to bring home dinner for the family.


Comments

buc
9/18/2019 10:00:38 AM
nice work way to stick em ....fillets look real nice
HappyHooker97
9/18/2019 11:05:42 AM
Thanks BUC! Yeah, I just take my time and try to minimize waste. I'm pretty frugal so whatever is left on the carcass I smoke up :)
ARK
9/18/2019 3:22:48 PM
What part of the Green were you fishing?
HappyHooker97
9/18/2019 8:11:51 PM
ARK, in Kent below 212th St. Bridge.
Sideburns
9/18/2019 4:05:08 PM
i saw pinks all the way up at flaming geyser that night! Still heading up stream. Not a sign of them the next day.
HappyHooker97
9/18/2019 8:14:45 PM
Wow! Yeah, they have been moving fast with a full head of steam. I think the low water and freshets we've been having along with their biological clocks are telling them it's time to go make babies....All the hens I've caught had pretty loose mature eggs...I'm curing them up right now following Duane Ingland's advice to toughen them up, making them more durable and still milk out well.
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Available Guide

Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service

Phone: (509) 687-0709