Can you fish for the Sockeye outside of the Ballard Locks? Is it legal?
When do you all think they will make the opener call on lake Washington? Or will they.

They dont think there will be a season. Check out http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/sockeye/counts.htm for the latest counts. 350,000 is their escapement goal.

The area outside of a line from Meadow Point to West Point will open on July 1st. Shilshole Bay is closed.

Even when Shilshole used to be open years ago, I never could catch those sockeye out in the salt.

Anyone ever catch those reds out in the salt by Shilshole? If so, what did you use and what was your catch rate? Just curious to know.

Parker, I understand it is pretty much the same set-up as the lake. The big key is to find the fish. I plan on doing it on the 1st, it is a big outgoing tide that morning which should help pull the fish back to the open area. We have some ideas to try, I hope they produce.

Try running five or six extra flashers on each downrigger spread from top to bottom, no hooks on these of course. Troll very slow and turn often.

The Sockeye counts from last year are very similiar to this years at this point(with in 10%). Lets hope the numbers continue to increase as they did last year.

At this point we are only 989 fish down from
last years counts.I think we will get a season.But it will be in mid July for three or four days only.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Strike Zone, That is why I want to figure out how to get them in the salt. I know they can be caught, it is just a little different on the set up.

We used to get sockeye out in the salt with the same bare-hook setup that is used in the lake but.....be prepared to kill about 50 smolts and sub-legal blackmouth per adult sockeye as the little ones just can't seem to resist the bare hook in the salt. This was about 10 years ago when I still had a saltwater boat and I was fishing with a Shilshole regular. I would strongly advise against using the bare hook rig because of the increased smolt mortality. I cannot divulge the other lure we used to use for saltwater sockeye as my friends would shoot me but.........I will say that it's a commercial sockeye rig that we stumbled upon and used successfully after finding huge schools of fish stacked up outside of Shilshole that wouldn't bite on conventional saltwater salmon gear.We soon discovered that they were sockeye and put the hurt on 'em. Parker, you know what the secret lure is, as it's the bait that's named after you I'll just leave y'all with that subtle hint. Peace

Justin

[ 06-21-2001: Message edited by: Kid Sauk ]

TnS:

I had the same logic in my head last year and tried "heading them off at the pass", well in this case the boundary between West Pt. and Meadow Pt. Fished it a couple of times with no takers. Tried the bare hook, but they seemed uninterested.

If your going to try it the best tip I can give you is that many years ago back in the early 90's I worked as a DFW observer on the commercial sockeye boats up in the San Juans. Many of a time I inspected Sockeye on the deck that had a small pink hootchie stuck in thier jaw that broke of from some poor angler. One fish even came in the net once that had a red hot spot flasher and the pink hootchie dangling from his gullet. I would also recommend fishing in the top 25' of water, sockeye are typically caught in the top layer of the gillnet 85% of the time in the salt.

Good Luck!

Bobber Down

"Keep your hooks sharp!"

I know the bare hook rig works, but let's talk about common sense logic. I would have a hard time draggin my Midwest buddies out in a lake or the ocean, and trolling with a bare hook.

Can't imagine the looks I would get. Hell, we trolled for 10 hours over fish all day long and didn't get a single taker on our bare hook. Whooda Thunk it.

They would wet themselves when the rods started doubling over, and we were pounding fish on bare hooks. It's all good

Some folks used a flasher and blaze orange flatfish before the discovery of the "bare red hook" methos. My friend who fished it a lot in the 80's used a "20" sized lure with pretty good results.

I can remember trying for them outside of the locks when the Shillshoal king fishery was big, but never had any takers.

Thanks for reminding me, Kid. I went in and edited the photos that gave away the secret! Maybe I give out a little too much information in my "Tackle" section of my Grip N Grins!

Yeah, I figured those would work, but wanted to see what people had used in the past.

The biggest difference we noticed about this new technique was a much better hooknkeep rate. With their soft mouths, the reds have a tendency to shake out a solo octopus style hook. These new rigs were almost always sticking them on the top of the mouth and out through the eye. I don't think we lost a single Red last year in the Lake on this setup.

I give credit to those commercial boys. They really know how to haul in fish.

Thanks, Parker Ya know, like I said, if it's named after you.....it has to be good

Peace

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but there are thousands of sockeyes passing over Bonneville. They had a day this week over 10,000. How can we get these to bite in freshwater. I've caught hundreds of steelhead and salmon along the Columbia over the past couple decades and have never caught one. If you have a secret tip, please help us sporties get into them, it seems kinda of ashame to let the indians net every single one of these.

Had a freind that caught one yesterday on a plunked spin-n-glo of one of the lower river beaches. So I guess it is possible. Still any other tips would be appreciated.

Heard a "rumor" from a very reliable source today that Auburn Sports and Marine took in 7 boats from the Muckelshoots to be set up for fishing in Lake Washington for sockeye.Can anybody elaborate on this?They must know something we don't.

The counts look way behind last years already, but a few days of rain could get some fish in. Keep on crossing those fingers.

Hey Reiter Rat, odd thing, I heard the same rumor from a source, not sure how reliable it is though.LOL. Is KY jelly reliable? Just kidding, your source is one of the coolest guys in the industry! I am leaving for Montana at 4:00 AM tomorrow, when I get back the Sockeye fisherman will be getting ready. I would say the 4th is too early, my guess would be about July 14th. Got the red hooks in stock? If not, I know where you can get'em

See y'all in 2 weeks

It is disappointing to see the secretive attitude from the river fishermen coming over to the salt water side. In twenty years of talking to many hundreds of saltwater fishermen, only two had been unwilling to share info on what bait, depth or location provided successful results. After all the fishing area is huge and the fish number into the hundreds of thousands, not two fish in a house size pool on a stream. For the few people that will try to catch some sockeye out in the salt, I can add some info to those who have been forthcoming.
I have caught several sockeye in the salt water on whole herring as an incidental catct I don't recommend that you load up on Ballard Bait. Port Alberni has had some significant salt water fisheries for sockeye. Some of the techniques are to fish a MP 15 (translucent red/orange mini plankton hoochie)or MP 39?
(the # designates the color) behind a flasher. Some people pull off every other strip of the skirt to decrease the profile. Having a lot of flashing gear in the water produces better results. This can be done by running several sets of cowbells, ford fenders, etc. off the downrigger cable. I've been told that there is a reddish/pink spoon about the size of a needle fish that produces well. Possibly Seattle Marine and Fishing Supply Co. could help on this one. I am planning on running some small shrimp immitations that my son tyied for me some small red hoochies. If I find an appropriate spoon (large Dicknite?), I'll put that out behind a flasher also.
If I or some of my friends have any success, I'll post the details. Hopefully others wouldn't feel compelled to secrecy. If that were the case with everyone, we would still be using orange flatfish in Lake Washington.

Scott

Thanks for the added info. I will always share my info as well, as I take a lot of info from this board. A

I have no problem sharing info. I do have a problem sharing *some* info publically. You want my info? Try emailing me personally. Haven't received any emails yet, so my info must not be wanted.

The Lake Wa fishery is one of those fisheries where if ReiterRat puts out a pink pork rhind on the counter and starts talking some smack about how good it is, I'd almost guarantee that 90% of the people on the lake would be using pink pork rhinds.

Rieter Rat, You are correct about the tribal members getting ready to fish Lk. Washington.
My brother in law, who's a sales rep for a large tackle and rod company told me the very same info just last night. He also mentioned that the season would most likely open mid week and close the very same weekend! That sucks!!! Guess I'm going to have to be sick for a few days, again. Good luck to all!

Pork rinds, huh? I'll give that a try!

I forgot to mention, Andy, that you need to troll backwards...at atleast 5 knots...in tight circles.

Parker - Ever So Helpful

to catch em in saltwater what you do is put about 8 to 10 old flashers and dodgers together in a chain and hang them off of your downrigger ball, then fish your standard flasher and bare hook rig about 10 feet up from that and you will catch em, we use to do that when I lived on whidbey island, we were intercepting those nice fraser fish. They fight like hell too
Peace Superfly

Sockeye counts are way down...doesn't look good. I was out on Lake Washingtion this morning running my sonar to see where the fish are hanging at. Earlier in the week when I was out there was several thousand around the south tip of mercer island, and at the entrance to the cedar river. Today there were hardly any anywhere. Just a few random fish here and there. I ran into a crew from the UW fisheries biology unit. They said they didn't see much fish out there either. They also noted that the fish count was way down from last year.

Usually the last week of June the south end of the lake is loaded with hordes of sockeye...not this year.

I also checked out the Ballard locks to see what was coming through, looks like fish are larger then the previous year.


Hopefully more fish are on the way!
Gotta be optimistic.

Ran sonar today at the south end of LK Wash. again...this time there was lots of sockeye hanging near the south tip of mercer island.

On monday June 25th, the Muckleshoot tribe set a net across Salmon bay (Inside of the Locks,by the Yankee dinner). It blocked boat traffic, including commercial and pleasure craft. They would not move the nets as the tugs and pleasure craft were trying to pass by.
Finally the U.S. Marshall came and told the tribe to remove the net or they will be confiscated including the vessel.
The trib removed the net and left, I am not sure what happened after that.
Also, I thought the tribes were not allowed to fish till the season escapement were meet.
They have been netting in front of the locks too. Maybe that will explain why the counts are dropping off rapidly.

ahhh yes did I fail to mention I was over by the I-90 bridge and noticed a barge sitting there with nets on it over by where the DOT keeps there boat on the west side of mercer island.