Spring has been pretty fun!

SkyGuy and I wrapped up April with a two day jaunt out to the coast to put a bow on winter run steelhead season, and got a little bit of everything while we were there.

Hailstorms that made us pull over and run for cover!



Followed an hour later by sunstorms that had us squinting after our lines...



And a very healthy dose of another kind of shiny to distract us from the weather and rowing...a dozen of these to end the season made for a very good time!



Bobbing around in the San Juans came quickly on the heels of steelhead season...and we were able to stack up enough of these big uglies to have a few meals already and few more to go!





I'd post up a pic of the halibut I caught with APKD only it didn't stick around long enough to make it into the boat or onto our plates In a dozen halibut trips over the past five or six years I have managed to get two bites, resulting in zero fish landed...the only halibut I've caught in that time was caught while trolling for salmon, and it wasn't open for retention, of course!

Jigging for lingcod has other advantages, too...like the cabezon APKD caught (and I ate )...lots of other ugly and spiny things to catch and release, including a Canary Rockfish, the first one of those I've ever caught. No pics, back to the depths post haste.

After watching Joe Quiocho's daily posts of big kokanee I was lucky enough to get in on a day of that with him and Parker...see his post about it for his pics, here are a couple more that I took.

Four boots, four shiny ones, and Parker's finger...



We're both wearing size 12 boots...the smallest of those kokanee was 14 inches, the other three were in the 17 inch range...and made some fantastic dinners for me and my lady.



Yesterday bass pro Nick Berto and I hit a local lake and had a blast with the bass...a couple dozen smallmouth from one to three pounds, a few non-target species (namely rock bass and jumbo perch that thought our big spinner baits were dinner sized), and a couple of these bucketmouths:

Nick with a 3 1/2 pounder that got pretty wily in the pads:



...and me with the second biggest bass I've ever brought to hand, weighed out at 7 pounds on the nose on the digital scale!



Here she is being sent back to make baby ditch pickles soon!



For those who are into that kind of thing...she was caught on a whackky rigged motor oil flake Senko on a 1/4oz. weedless jighead

The smallmouth were a mix of pre- and post-spawn fish, though most had already spawned judging by the clouds of smallmouth fry we saw around the docks...the largemouth had not yet spawned and were very few and far between, but if we're only going to get two the two we got were awfully nice.

We started out the day with a great double on two pound smallmouths, Nick will have to get me the pic of those as it's on his camera.

With a pile of work to do today, and yardwork on the agenda for tomorrow, Sunday is the next day to get at it...and Sunday is June 1st, so it's back to steelhead time!

With local salmon fishing, crabbing, Neah Bay, Willapa Bay, Buoy 10, Grays Harbor, and offshore albacore fishing on the schedule over the next few months, and steelheading in between, it's going to be another glorious summer and fall in the Pacific Northwest!

Cap off the summer with a couple of weeks chasing monster steelhead in northern B.C., then back home for river coho into December...and what do you know? Winter time again...and back to winter runs

I may even find some time to shoot at a deer and an elk in there somewhere for the first time in quite a while...

How can you not love living around here?

Fish on...

Todd

Awesome post Rip. You should throw those picks we took on Newaukum creek up too with a lil explanation while you are in the posting mood.

Cant wait for Sunday!

Gotta love the northwest! There's never down time when it comes to fishing and the outdoors.

Did you catch air when you set the hook on that big old bucketmouth......Son!

Got to love the variety. Great report.
SF

I forgot about those...I have a couple of pics, I wish we had taken more, especially on the night time visit!

SkyGuy's mom bought a ranch on the lower Green River, just upstream of Newaukum Creek. We got a notion to wander down to the creek to see if any adult fish were swirling around in there getting ready to spawn and instead ran into a couple of field workers from the Muckleshoot Tribe doing stream surveys.

They had a gravity trap set up in the creek and were capturing outmigrating smolts.

Here's their setup:





We watched them check it a couple of times during the day, but nothing made its way into the trap. It had been raining off and on all day and the creek was up pretty high, but they said that they rarely get many smolts in there during the day...very rarely...so we decided to head back to the ranch and work a bit, and then have dinner.

We rolled back down to the trap site around 9pm and watched them check the trap a couple of more times. Unfortunately it was pitch dark and pouring down rain so the camera phone had to stay in my pocket, but they caught a pretty good array of fish for us to check out.

A couple of steelhead, one of which was nearly nine inches long. A few very tiny and freshly emerged chums and pinks, and a handful of coho, too.

The workers were pretty cool dudes and were very happy to show us everything they were up to, and we even got to count a few fish with them.

These guys monitor this trap and another at Soos Creek all spring and summer, and spend the night in that tent right there in the bushes the whole time.

I'd like to go back down there soon and see what else they're getting in the trap these days.

Fish on...

Todd

Even Nick let out a "Holy #*$&!" when I set the hook a few times on the bass...those who steelhead fish with me know that I rarely get cheated on the hookset

When he scooped it in the net you'd have thought he just won B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year the way he was doing the happy dance

Fish on...

Todd

The Tribal guys are still there almost every night doing surveys which ultimately help keep all of us fishing.
Thanks for posting those pics up.

KILLER post Todd... That chunker bass looks like he's been getting chased around by something even bigger -- what's up with this tail fin? Could be just him floppin a bit tho. Give me a heads up (like not a call while you're fishing!) and I'll try to join ya!

B

Great report and wrap up. So ready for summer runs!!!

Not sure what the scratch on the big one's side was...it was pretty deep and about an inch up from her tail, if it were saltwater I'd have blamed it on a seal.

Both the largemouth came out of some pretty seriously heavy trees and lilly pads...not surprised to find tail fins that can get a bit ripped when dragging them out of that.

A couple of the smallmouth were very recently post-spawn and their tails were a bit ripped up from digging beds, but those rips look a lot like when a salmon or steelhead tail gets it from digging redds; ends worn down and bloodied a bit. That big girl bass had a cut on her side.

Fish on...

Todd

Looking forward to chasing a few summer runs this summer.

In the meantime, it's been pretty fun filling up the freezer with groceries.

My annual birthday run for Fishgal's springer came up as a success this year! She was very happy.



Went back a month later and picked these two up in about 3 casts. I think I've mentioned somewhere that springers like UEC cocktails.

Sweet post Todd!!!

As someone already mentioned we live in a great place!!! Especially if you change it up every now and then. Now I just gotta find my drop shot rigs and maybe catch a Smallie out of American Lk!!!

Joe

Gonna' try some summer fishing Sunday too, but today Mrs. Salmo and I hit the beach for some razor clams. I bought one of fp's famous clam tubes this past winter, but haven't tried it out until today. I felt like I was bait fishing or something; it's way too easy. I seldom limit before Mrs. g., as she's a champeen razor clam digger, with a clam gun (old style shovel) that's been in her family for 50 years or so. But using Fred's high falutin' clam tube I had a limit before she had more than half a dozen. Almost seems immoral, but it will sure be nice come those nasty weather winter clam tides.

Meanwhile I need to check my fishing gear and see where I stashed those nice flies Coley G. tied for me.

Sg

Great post, Todd, although I wish that halibut would have stuck.

As much as people like to bitch about the fishing around here, we aren't short on options or species. I like the fact we have distinct seasons and there is always something coming up.

I agree on both points

In the last month I have caught winter run steelhead, lingcod, several species of rockfish, greenling, cabezon, lost a halibut...kokanee, rainbow trout, cutthroat trout...largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, rock bass, perch.

I don't really fish for spring Chinook, but there are all kinds of summer and fall Chinook opportunities coming very soon, with lots of shellfish opportunities thrown in...and lots of coho returning everywhere soon.

Hopefully Sunday I'll get a summer run or three to get that ball rolling, too

Big winter steelhead will always be my favorite, and "steelheader" is what I identify myself as, but I sure like eating the other dozens of things we get to fish, trap, or dig for over the next few months!

Fish on...

Todd

Very nice to see some fresh pics Todd... keep it up.

I do not approve of Parker trying to steal the spotlight, although those are also some nice feesh

Nice recap and pics Todd! It was a blast getting out for thy ditch pykle, both small and largemouth. People who don't fish for them, really don't understand. Especially the 70+ MPH across the lake. Letting you drive for a bit was one of the highlightes of the day, priceless look on your face! And yes, I may have been excited seeing the big one get hung in the tree too!

That Largemouth looks a bit beat up and bloody mostly from prepping spawning areas and cruising the shallows. The cut in it's back half/tail could be from numerous things including sticks, man made obstructions (fences/posts/concrete/etc.) or maybe an otter, osprey/eagle, or some type of prey, who knows?!

Love it guys! Way to go!

my thoughts exactly. I'd be hard pressed to leave the northwest. great report Todd. Let us know how you guys do on Sunday. I'll be splashing the clack a mile below you guys. We'll be swinging hardware on every bar between there and you know where. I'll make sure and low hole Luis for you too.

I agree spring in the PNW is pretty hard to beat for stocking up on quality fresh eats!

So far Columbia spring Chinook, spot prawns, smoked kokanee, ling cod, halibut, razor clams. Still kokanee and lings to be caught but next up are the summer goodies; including crab, geoducks, Baker sockeye, resident coho, and summer Chinook.

And those are just critters headed for the table but there will be many hours of enjoyment chasing an array of other salmonids, warm water fish, and maybe a sturgeon or two.