Hey, I've been fishing a stretch on a puget sound river that has been loaded with chum. The first week or so, I averaged about 20 fish a day. It was a blast and I caught a ton of chum. But I go there today, look into the water, and as usual it's loaded with fish. But they wouldn't bite at all!!! I caught 2 the whole time. The only differences i noticed today was there were a lot more silvers, (dark fish) and it had rained the past couple of days. Anybody have any ideas why the fish jsut stopped hitting all of a sudden???

Chum do that - I noticed on the thread about the Zone that the bite would turn on and off seemingly at random. I had that happen to me last Monday on Kennedy Creek - Fish just quit on me for about an hour - even though right next to me others were catching them on corkies (well, not always in the mouth ) until a half hour before dark - then the bite turned on with a vengance and I started hooking them on every other cast with my fly. It was interesting that about the same time they quit biting corkies. Chum are wierd and will drive you nuts

Yup.

That happens all the time. When fishing for Chums everyone likes using the same old drift gear. Green Corkie and yarn. Try using something no one else is using. Spinners, spoons or a different color no one else is using. Last week at Hoodsport I was using pearl pink corkie and was catching alot of hen chums. Then I quickly noticed that the other fisherman around me started using the same when they noticed how good I was doing. Another overlooked trick is the use of scents. I use smelly Jelly or WD-40.

scents are good, ive been using anise oil

Sturza,

You probably answered your own question. A week ago those chum were most likely just arriving from the salt and were more agressive. Now that they've been in the river a while, the spawning urge is really taking over, plus the fact that stacked up salmon rapidly develop lockjaw, especially when they've been pressured.

Last year I read a report in the Seattle Times that using Shrimp scent gets the chums to bite. Last year and this year on the Satsop Buddies and myself were using shrimp and we were hooking 90% are fish in the mouth. People around kept asking how we were getting the fish to bite. Like the fisherman rules if one thing isn't working try another.

Fish on

One last thing

Chums are plankton feeders. USE SMALL CORKIES!!! If the water is clear like at Hoodsport, I use size # 12 corkies. Dirty water such as the Nisqually I use a bigger corkie so they can see it. Perfect example of this is are the fly fisherman you see at Hoodpsort. Ever talk to them and see what their using. Small green flies and they get hookups all day long.

i have to say fishaddict is right on the $$$. you better suck up the good advise! some people won't do that for you.