San Juans salmon opener

chromer · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:53 pm Post subject: San Juans salmon opener

San Juans open on Sunday for salmon. Anyone know if its any good early on?

tom&shan · Joined: 21 Sep 2006 Posts: 316 Photos: Dakota

Waiting for this topic to pop up - just about ready to post it myself.
Shan and I have never fished for Salmon - but we're ready and raring to go. Hopefully we wont fall in. It will be our first time trying the downrigger too. Got my barbless hooks, flasher, rod and reel, "Guide to Salmon Fishing", and probably none of what we really need to catch a fish. Ya gotta start somewhere though.
Most of the fish we have caught so far look about as big as the bait the halibat fishermen use.
Chromer, if ya see a 19' C-Dory with the downrigger wrapped around the buoy out in Rosario Straite - wave to us!

Cheers,
Tom

Jazzmanic · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:30 pm Post subject:

I heard the Lopez Flats might be worth a try. I might take my brother-in-law visiting from Cal out that way. Or maybe go down next Friday for the Elliott Bay Fishery.

Hope to see you out there.

Cutty Sark · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:08 pm Post subject:

Good luck out there, I would suggest a couple coho killer spoons both Green and white and green splatterback. We consistently catch lots of kings and silvers on them, green flasher is the standby around here, but other colors work. Migrating kings will be suspended( not on the bottom) and Blackmouth will be right on the bottom. I would try both, also I've caught a surprising amount of good sized kings at 40-60 feet down, so use your sounder and target what you see. Vary your speed and don't forget to zigzag it can make a difference. Hope you guys get a couple.

Sark

lloyds · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:28 pm Post subject:

Where are you finding the coho killers? For some reason GI Joes and Sportsmans Warehouse quit carrying them here in the salem area.

starcrafttom · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 3:38 pm Post subject:

Heres a link to the local chapter of the psa. they all live in or near the San Jauns and fish there a lot . In there board section look for the post titled "how to" and " where to" . These guys gave up a lot fo useful info ion the local area. Hope this helps.

Sark is right about the coho killer. He fills one or two catch cards a year mostly on the coho killer.

tom&shan · Joined: 21 Sep 2006 Posts: 316 Photos: Dakota

starcrafttom · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 7:02 pm Post subject:

If at all possible troll with the current. The fish face into the current and are waiting for food top come to them. You will also cover more water by going with the current. You will have to troll at a higher speed in order to get the right action from the lures and flashers.

If the current is doing 4kt and you need 2.5 to get the lure working right you have to be doing 6.5 over ground. This is why I like to have a gps speed and a paddle wheel speed next to each other on the plotter. This way I can see the difference in speed at a glance. If you don't have both just use the 35% angle / 45% if you use lighter then 12 lbs balls or over hundred feet deep.

Most guides I know will troll with the current over their target area and then pull up their gear and run back up correct to their starting point. Don’t waste any time trolling in to a current not getting any where and have your flashers and spoons spinning like mad because your trolling speed plus the current speed is 8kts....

As far as speed I troll slower for black mouth and faster for migrating king. The kings are moving thru and still feeding. As they get close to their home river/lake they will stop feeding and you will have to troll slower for them. At the bubble you troll slowly because the fish have been up to the hatchery/ramp looking for a river that is not there and then just hang out until something bugs them. Hope this helps.

Cutty Sark · Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:06 am Post subject:

Well you should be able to get coho killers all over the place, They sell them everywhere up here, even west marine has them. They are made by Silver Horde. The experts all say to troll with or across the tide, I go against that depending on the strength of the tide. if it's ripping you are wasting you're time fighting the current but if it's somewhat mellow, I 'll go against the tide and still catch fish. I like to troll at varying speeds for kings but for returning kings my magic # seems to be 2.7 mph, and all the way to 4.0 mph. Blackmouth anywhere from 1.5-4.0 . These are GPS speeds, I don't use a paddlewheel, but go more for that 45 degree angle on the cables. Good luck.

Sark

lloyds · Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:16 am Post subject:

I guess I might have to order on line for the coho killers. There are none to be found in the willamette valley. We are so behind the curve here. You can buy a left handed bolt for a John Deere, but can't find a coho killer. I think I need to move back to seattle. And Burger King is just no match for Kidd Valley or Burgermaster. The guys upstairs went out of Newport for Coho saturday. They limited out in about 15 minutes. I was surprised they found so many fin clipped fish. The clipped fish are running about 6 pounds, but the natives are closer to 10. This might really be a short week for me. I really need a coho fix.

gljjr · Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:55 am Post subject:

Lloyds,

You might give Seamar a try. I don't see them on their website but they do carry Silver Horde stuff so they may have them in stock anyway (the web site isn't very good IMHO).