If you look at the counts for today you will see that we are only 8,000 or so down from last year.....We might just yet get a short season.

Has anyone found a way to catch the sockeye while they are still in the salt?
Thanks
Dave

Spawnout and I fished the Salty Sockeye hard last Thursday AM. Threw it all at them for the whole morning without success. They just were not biters. We fished off Meadow point and marked a few fish but they just would not bite anything. Fun to try for them, but not worth the time in my book.

Same as in the lake or small pink hootchies. Lots of fun.

I tried the lake gear last year with no success.

Cast and Blast-

If you are catching any, are they out in the middle when returning to the locks, or along the shore? We fished them close to shore all day....

Spawnout, pretty disheartening to see that 16 & 17K fish went by us without a nibble that day. So far, looks like we were out there while the bulk of the run went by.

Where the heck are people catching them at??????

Looking at the fish counts and knowing that a minimum of 350,000 fish are needed to even think about a season. We would need to have an average of 9500 fish per day until the end of the month.

Picked up a couple 1/2 mi off Richmond Beach last week. 250-350 feet deep, riggers set at 45 ft. Both on squid and small chrome flasers. One at 5 and other maybe 6 lbs.

Outgoing Tide. Fishing across tide. We marked schools and were just trying to stay with them.

Interesting.....

Sky-Guy - did you mark just a few fish or some big schools. Also...did you use the techs discussed in recent threads? I have heard the bitd is best before direct light is hitting the water. Of course, in Lake Washington, this theory doesn't seem to hold.

Not sure about the salt but we absolutely killed them in the lake on a small snubber hooked to a small dodger with an 18" leader. Then tied on a single 1 or 2/0 hook and slid a 2" pink curly tailed grub on. We lost many fish untill we changed to a single hook. Then we couldn't keep them off. Bare hooks just don't seem right.

We marked a school right off Meadow @ 0-Darkity Dark just as the sun came up, they seemd to move on and spread out as the morning progressed. All methods used in fresh water were employed. Just didnt get a biter I guess:(

Now I am thinking that they might come into Shilshole from the center of the channel, thats about the only place we didn't fish!

Ahhh my friend, but did you try THROWING A NET???!!!

Ask the Mukilshoots....... Works GREAT for them!


MC

Pretty sure what the problem is is that those fish were moving, and fast. When they school up in the terminal areas they bite, but on the move they don't. Our terminal area is Lake WA, where they school up prior to entering the Cedar. Where I caught them in Canada they were schooled up right out in front of the hatchery. Those thousands of fish that went up the ladder the day we were out there were definately on the move and not interested in anything.

Thats ok, spent the last couple days at Sekiu and brought home 3 kings to show for it

spawner is correct, when sockeye are on the move they don't bite, because they swim FAST! I was fishing the Edmonds pier one summer day when a school swam right by the pier and someone snagged one and kept it. All the regulars covered his butt and said that he earned it since he'd been fishing so hard and long. I really wish the warden had been out that day.
In my opinion, I don't think the WDFW should allow sockeye retention on the salt for areas 9 or 10 unless the Lake Washington season is open.