With a couple of blackmouth derbies going on this Saturday, where do you think the BIG fish will come from? If Three Rivers gets my kicker back together in time I will be out looking to win the PSA SnoKing derby. I have some thoughts one where to fish. My partner for the derby has given me marching orders not to sleep until I figure out where to go to put him on the winner. There will three of us on my boat vying for the top prize. I'll see if I get any advise here and then chime in with my own.

GP...

This time of year is truly unpredictable... It is Sand Lance spawning time!

Best bet is to keep the gear a little lower- 3 to 7 feet off the bottom.

psst... Hat Island in shallow 1 hour prior to the top of the flood.. shhhh!

I know a Pt Wilson Dart can be deadly if lifted slightly off the sand near MidChannel Bank at Port Townsend when the sand lances are spawning. On my old Lowrance X-16 paper graph I could see them on the bottom. They look like grass on the screen. All those blackmouth have the scraped up gill plates from rooting them out of the sand. If I remember right the water depth was only 70ft.

Point No Point

Fish 160 ft deep

Cop Car




WW

Those first light flood tides will put me in 20-40 feet of water.... Seems the SL will congregrate at these levels prior to riding the beach...

Good luck at the derby... ours is in Elliott Bay this weekend.. Looks to be a hardcore cold weather derby!

Ditto what DR said. That shelf on the North side of Hat is a great spot to work. I do the East/West troll along there working the 40 to 80' for the first hour or so of day light. They can get pretty thick in there.

Also, the south side of Camano head by the buoy is usually worth a couple turns.

Grandpa, apparently you forgot the I am fishing in this derby, so you'll have to be happy with second place at best. Just because I am also running this derby does not mean that I won't have time to boat the derby winner.

Them itty-bitty splatter-back needle squid can be deadly when candlefish are the predominant food.

What derby? How big does the fish have to be to win?

The fish has to be the biggest fish to win.


Sorry, couldnt help myself on that wide open one!

Been hearing a few fish caught off the North end of Cypress (Eagle Bluff). Gave it a shot week and half ago...no luck. Wind was making it pretty tough.

Joe

I haven't haven't had much luck at all at Hat. PMartin, do you work the racetrack or closer to the Island/

Sounds like your only problem will be deciding which one to keep.
The nice thing about fishing Darts in a BM derby is no fuss, no muss and it that only takes minutes to find the fish if they are there. No fish right away? Move to the next spot. And when you find them you can stay on them. Hard to do sometimes when your trolling. It's the closest thing there is to tournament style bass fishing with a Ranger. In a tournament why waste time messing with a downrigger with shakers around? Or fishing bait and messing with dogfish? Best to get in the zone quickly and stay there. I know everybody says go deep for BM, but I'm with you, my biggest fish have consistently come from shallower selves this time of year using a jig in only 60-90'. Even 40' is not unheard of in places like Elliot and Commencement for big hogs at the mouths of these rivers in and around the docks and vapor lights at first light. I'm sure these bad boys are hanging with the squid. I learned alot from some serious derby winners in years past. I found it very interesting that come derby day they rarely bothered with fish below 120' because of the time constraints. Good luck all.

Well the theories have been flyin today. If Three Rivers get my boat done by tomorrow as planned I am good to go. Lots of horsepower to go wherever we please. I just can't divulge my final strategy here. Thanks for all the ideas.............