Possession Salmon - 2015

PaulNBriannaLynn · Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 4:19 pm Post subject:

That's an interesting observation, I also haven't had a sea star in my pots since the summer before last. Maybe a connection, or maybe just less tribal pressure lately?

Its been really good, actually the best we've ever experienced this year. Basically taken the sport away from it, but family and friends are enjoying all the crab. I spent a lot more time in years past actually trying to find crab. My folks were visiting, so I took them out in Port Susan and we had 5 limits of BIG ones plus a bunch to throw back after a two hour soak with 4 pots. Unreal

colvosview · Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 6:46 pm Post subject:

Wow, Roger, sounds like you've had a great year!

Salmon Fisher · Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 7:43 pm Post subject:

Remember the report of the massive die off of starfish last year?
Maybe that is a cause for the great numbers of big crab this year. Although they closed the ocean to commercial crab in the recent time period because of this

http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/jun0515a/

tcr_pnw · Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2015 1:08 am Post subject:

Fished solo Friday AM. Dropped in at the first set of houses on the beach past Mukelteo. Trolled for about 15 min then boated 4 fish in the next 20. All at 50 feet on a white dodger-pink squid.

Took my father in-law out for a quick trip Sat AM which is always a "challenge". We hooked into 15 fish in about an hour and a half window. 7 made it into the cooler before we had to get in. Bite was deeper yesterday with fish coming at 65 and 80 feet. One of these days he'll catch on.

Been a fun year for pinks and they have made for some of the best smoked salmon I've had. Tom's got a great recipe. Stoked for coho but these feisty pinks are making for a great way to pass the time.

Anybody else get out over the weekend?

Catch 22 · Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2015 1:43 am Post subject:

Got to the boat at 6am only to find the hydraulic steering was stuck. Drained and refilled the lines and it seems to be fixed but did not get out until afternoon. It was very slow but we did get a few pinks. We were on the west side of possession and we got a good show from 3 adult orca whales and a baby one. They were darting all over and seemed to be chasing fish. I have never seen whales from the boat before and they got pretty close so it was fair trade for a slow day of fishing.

localboy · Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 9:07 pm Post subject:

Went out w/ my brother on Monday. 5 pinks and 1 coho just NE of Agate Point @ ~110 ft.

tcr_pnw · Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 9:49 pm Post subject:

Fished with Tom today and we took out a couple of my good friend's sons. We dropped in around 9:00-9:15 and boated 11 pinks by 1:00 or so. All but one I think came at 51 feet between Mukilteo and Shipwreck. We hooked into several others but they didn't make it to the surface. Not a lot of boats out and a great day on the water.

Been fishing a Coyote white/double UV blade which has been killing them. Since I put it on its catching close to 10:1 over other gear. Standard 2.5 inch pink mini squid 16 inches back.

Funny thing is, a lot of the fish we caught had bellies full of herring.

Tom's smoking recipe will be put to good work!

Jazzmanic · Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 1:01 pm Post subject:

Troy, what size double uv blade is that? I take it you're talking about a flasher? 11" or 8"?

tcr_pnw · Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 1:53 pm Post subject:

The bounty from yesterday. the kids reeled in all but one of the fish and we didn't loose any at the boat which was a plus

tcr_pnw · Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 2:05 pm Post subject:

Jazzmanic · Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:40 pm Post subject:

Great job Troy! And thanks for the tip. I need to run over to Outdoor Emporium and pick up a couple of those flashers. Laughing

Peter

PaulNBriannaLynn · Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:21 am Post subject:

Fishing was red hot yesterday. We showed up late, getting out there around 11. I hooked a beautiful hook nosed coho with in a couple minutes of trolling. After a 10 minute lull, both rods went off for a fun double header of humpies. Released those. I told our 3 year old daughter that the next fish is hers. The rod quickly went off and she reeled that in all by herself. Another nice coho, although smaller than the first big guy. We caught and released a few more pinks, but ended up keeping 3 of them for the smoker. We were back in the marina after lunch.

As we were headed back to the marina, I looked around at all the boats and it seemed like at least half of them at that moment had their nets out. There were plenty of fish to go around.

We were targeting coho with that type of gear. There's plenty of humpies around that will go for it but not too many coho will bite humpy stuff.

Catch 22 · Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 12:50 pm Post subject:

Nice work Troy!

We limitted on pinks in about an hour and a half on Saturday. We just cruised around off Edmonds and when we saw one jump we would run up on it and cast a buzz bomb. If you see one jump that is usually a big group of fish and we would have 4-8 fish follow the buzz bomb right to the boat, most of the time hooking one of them. It's a really fun way to fish.

tcr_pnw · Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:55 pm Post subject:

Nice find on the coho Paul! Sunday was pretty crazy.

My mom is in town and my wife and I took her out on the water planning on going to Langley for dinner and to walk around. We figured we'd let the crab pots soak for 3-4 hours while in town. Long story short, marina filled up with a couple broke down boats and we could not get a spot. Rather than sitting while the pots soaked, we ran to Mukilteo to troll and maybe pick up a fish or two. Within 30 minutes had a smaller coho, released 3 pinks and put 3 more pinks on ice. Nice bright, feisty ones too. We dropped in around 5:00 in the evening and they all came at 51 feet on the same UV flasher. Nets up all around. Great time of the year to get kids out on the water if you can.

Ran back up to pull the pots. First pot had 14 keepers, all hardshell. Sifted through them and the keepers from the other pots for the best of the bunch for our 2 limits. Ended up with several over 7 inches and one a bit over 8 inches. In addition to all the keepers, we probably kicked back 70 more undersized and females in 5 pots. Not bad for 3 hours on the water. Great weather and seas too.

tcr_pnw · Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 2:26 pm Post subject:

That and you guys really need to give a recipe a try which Tom supplied. The stuff disappears faster than I can catch fish and make it. My change below. Original has teriyaki sauce in place of the worcestershire and syrup and the addition of some powdered ginger. I didn't have that so subbed the worcestershire and syrup. Both are versions are great, my slight preference is below. Probably the best smoked salmon I've had to date. With fresh pinks, you would not be able to decipher from any other salmon other than the size of the fillets. Below is roughly enough to double layer fillets in a 9x11 glass baking pan. I needed to make threes times the recipe to brine 6 fish in a ceramic crockpot dish.

1-1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup kosher/non-iodized salt
4 teaspoons course ground pepper
2 teaspoons lemon pepper
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup real maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
2-3 bulbs minced garlic
4-5 bay leaves broken into large chunks

Blend the dry ingredients. Add the wet and minced garlic and bay leaves. Stir until a consistent slurry. Cover fish with mixture and put in refrigerator for 8-12 hours. Remove fish, place on racks. Don't rinse or pat dry the fish after removing from the brine (I do pick off any bay leaf pieces). There is not a lot of salt comparatively, so they don't get too salty at all. This leaves the tops of the fish speckled with cracked pepper and garlic and the remnants of the sweet brine. Amazing.

Allow to sit with a fan on them for 2-4 hours to form pellicle (longer the better). Smoke at 180-200 for 2 or more hours until desired doneness. I use alder or a mix of alder and apple chips.