Thought bringing my Golden Retriever with me on a scouting trip for some decent Chum fishing on Hood canal might help. Unfortunately few dogs around other than mine. Anyone have a current report on the Hood Canal Chum run?

Fished Chico Creek last Thursday, plenty of fish from about three hours before high tide until an hour or so after. Unfortunately there were also lots of people, and this was on a weekday. A friend went to Hoodsport on Sunday, lots of people, very few fish.

Thanks for the report. I poked my head over the top of the Hoodsport fishery and shuttered at the row of fishermen literally standing with shoulders touching about 20 across all casting into an empty stream. I am not sure what was more troubling, the empty stream or the number of people fishing it. If we fish this area we usually do it in a boat and stay away from the crowd. I am intersted in hearing further about the Chico fishery. One of the things that appeals to me about it is that evidently many of the fish are taken on cut-plug herring under a float. That sounds like an interesting way to fish. Certainly minimizes the possibility of foul-hooking these fish which is a big advantage. Tell me more.... (tides, launch, bank access, height of run, etc.....).

Big Lips!

Can't give you a whole lot of details, that was my first time at Chico. We arrived about 4-5 hours before high tide and nothing was happening on the beach, though there were quite a few fish rolling and jumping a couple of hundred yards offshore. The schools began to move in to the creek mouth in good numbers about 2 hours before the high and continued to come in until about an hour or so into the falling tide. Along with the fish came a lot of fishermen, there were probably fifty or so when we left. There was one boat about fifty yards offshore fishing float and herring and he seemed to be doing okay, but only during that same time and tide window. Some of the guys I talked to indicated that this is still pretty much the front end of the run.