Winter black mouth

[joechiro35]

I know it may be a little too soon to talk about black mouth fishing. But I am already preparing and researching holes and tech for my first time out fishing for black mouth.

I'm planning on hitting possession bar for black mouth. Anyone else plan on fishing throughout November?

[Dan McNally]

I plan to be there this year also. It will be my first time targeting them so I do not have any tips to pass on at this time.

Dan.

[DuckDogTitus]

it will be my first time chasing winter run as well, but I just can't see myself putting the boat away for the whole winter see you out there

[starcrafttom]

I always fish winter black mouth. you can fish all the spots you fished in the summer you just have to fish them in different ways.

If you are not hitting bottom every ten seconds or so you are not fishing for black mouth. That may be a little bit of a exaggeration, but not by much. I find that biggest mistake that people make is the amount of cable you put out compare to the depth you are fishing. If you are fishing in 100ft and you put out 100 ft of cable you are really fishing at 90 ft and out of the zone. No matter what your depth finder says you should let out cable until you hit bottom, then let the drag of the cable and the speed of the boat swing the cable up a little. this amount depends on speed of the boat plus or minus the current. You should see about 10 ft of difference between the depth sounder and how much cable you have out. as you go faster or go deeper that amount will increase. at 140 ft its 20 ft plus of difference. I target 80 to 120 ft the most but do not be afraid to go more or less if you see fish on the sounder. Captain downrigger ( look up web site) often fishes 180 to 220 in the south sound in winter. I have talked to the guys that run the fishing research boat for WDFW in the north sound and they do really well on plug at 40 to 60 ft at green bank and elger bay for bigger traveling fish.

As for lures. its all the same lure you have been using for the bigger kings and silver but you want smaller sizes. Go from a 4 to 5 inch spoon to a 2 to 3 inch slimmer spoon. Coho killers are one of the best for this. Also slimmer hoothies. Some hoothies are thinner then others. Those are the ones you want in the winter. Its really just the old match the hatch rule. In summer the big kings and silvers are eating herring. In the winter the herring are gone or smaller. The black mouth will be eating Candle fish or sand lance ( same thing) which are slim and about 3 inchs in length. If you do get a fish cut him open first thing and see what is in his gut. Then match the size and profile as best you can.

As for colors? Green and white and UV everything. The white lighting coho killer was the top spoon last year in all the winter derby's for black mouth.

Now all of that info was for the sound and the banks and most of the time in the San Juans. BUT in winter we will have traveling fish, KINGS, passing thru the San Juans at different times. For those you want to be off the bottom a little more in some areas, Eagle Point, and use bigger baits. But remember that the bait available will not be big herring like in the summer but smaller herring and candle fish.

I live in Marysville and like to fish the sound in the winter. We are getting a 7 day a week crab opener starting Oct 1st. this year. I will be fishing the following areas when I can get out.
Hat island and the bar between it and camano
Possesion bar
Point no point to pilot point.
Elger bay
Green bank
Baby Island
Apple cove point
Presidents point.

There are other great places to fish south of that but I don't get down there much to know them. Captain downrigger, look up his web site, is the best source of info for the south sound.

[joechiro35]

wow thanks for the detailed info Tom, that helps big time

I find that possession bar is really hard to find the 90-120 zone and stay there consistently. How should I troll possession bar to stay in the zone for black mouth?

Is November a good time to hit possession bar for winter black mouth? also do you still catch a few silvers?

[starcrafttom]

Yes its hard to stay on a straight line and keep a good depth. I find that the better fish-in-chip maps, or what ever they are calling the more detailed maps, are a big help. You get more contour lines and better detail.

Working the bar is a lot of work. Lowering and raising your downriggers a lot. That's one of the reasons I went with the Cannon digitroll IVs. They follow the bottom for me. Just set the max depth and let the downrigger adjust the depth for you. If you still have scottys , not sure why you would , you need to have one person driving and one always watching the riggers to make sure they are not dragging or to far off the bottom. Its a constant adjustment. Thats why auto pilot is great if you are alone.

here is a map of good areas form johns sporting goods. map of the bar

[DuckDogTitus]

i read that those digitrolls have a 'jigging' function. is it effective? is it hard on the battery at all?

[starcrafttom]

the Jigging feature is not really for jigging , but you could use it for that. What it does is adjust your depth of the ball from any depth to any depth every so many seconds you set it for. So If I am trolling for silver and don't have a depth picked out yet were they are I can use this to search for them. I set one rigger to 60ft and set it to adjust to 40ft ever minute. It will move from 60 to 40 ever min. Or every 10 seconds or what ever you choose. Set the other rigger for 70 and 90 ft ever minute. this allows you to cover a lot of water until you find a depth that is producing fish. I got a lot of my pink hits when the ball was moving from one depth to another. You can cover a lot of water this way and it adds motion to the bait. I have my riggers set on fast so when the baits go up or down they speed up for a second or two.

I have not used them for halibut yet but after talking to jamie in canada I will this season. just set the balls for 2 ft off bottom and drift or slow troll over a area and let the downriggers work the bait. No hang ups or snags. Then when you get a bite its just you and the fish no large weights to worry about.

I really like how well they work and would never get another set unless it was a newer set. The new units have a little better screen and menu. the best features of my unit are
1. save up to six? depths. just select 60 ft and hit go and it goes to 60.
2. bottom follow- love it
3. auto adjust, jigging
4. Oh yeah its auto down and you can set up or down for three different speeds. I have up on high and down on medium.
5. auto stop at the water surface with no beads to slip around.
6. they are not scottys.
7. built in voltage control. I leave is on the lowest setting. Great if your boat is not grounded right.

Only draw back is not being able to use braided line. But with the voltage control you dont need to.

[starcrafttom]

oh batter use. I have not noticed any problems with the battery when using my downriggers. I have a honda 15 for a kicker so it produces a good amount of charge , cant remember right off my head, to the battery. I have never had a issue.

[DuckDogTitus]

OK last off topic question on those... what about line slack on the rod? if you are setup at 80ft and it comes up to 60ft you have 20ft of slack in your line? no issue? what if the bottom drops out and goes the other way? I assume you just set a max depth, and probably a lighter drag on the reel so the DR can take line as needed?

[PaulNBriannaLynn]

We love the winter blackmouth season and had a good time last year. The lifecycle of these resident fish are kind of a mystery to me.

Last year there was alot of shakers, and smaller fish in Saratoga passage, and there was alot of talk of the fish going the other way around Whidbey toawrds possession and not coming into the area off Camano where we mostly fish in winter. We did ok and had alot of fun, but getting a shaker on ever couple minutes gets old fast.

You really have to have your gear near the bottom, so it is challenging following the contours of the bottom with your downriggers.

We mostly use smaller spoons, and fresh cut herring. Mostly its an excuse to get the boat out in the winter. There are very few other boats out there, so that makes it alot of fun. Conditions also get ugly really quickly, so we are picking our days much more carefully. Those icy 20 degree sunny days are the best.

[starcrafttom]

20 ft of slack is not a problem. I start with a very tight bent rod to began with. Yes I set a max depth that the rigger will not go past if you go out into deeper water. Its a great way to fish from shallower water over edges into drop offs. If the rods come up to much I just reel in the extra line, You would have to do this AND raise or lower your scottys. It just saves me one step and far fewer fouled balls on the bottom.

[joechiro35]

I heard black mouth are being caught now. Has anyone gone out for them and succeeded? I plan on going for them next week around possesion bar or elger bay depending on conditions.

[digger]

Going after both Chinook and halibut offshore at Barkley Sound I always let the downrigger balls bounce on the bottom. As the balls bounced, you could watch the line slack and tighten, as well as the fishing line. Trick was to keep the ball on the bottom so that the wave action would lift and drop the weight continually to thump the bottom. We had great luck with the black and white, or silver and black Apex clipped to the downrigger, and nothing else -- no flasher or dodger. Sometimes a little smelly gel, or a chip of octopus on the hook. Left the downrigger drag set loose enough in case a hangup. Very seldom a problem other than roughed-up downrigger balls -- it would peel the plastic off a new ball in a couple of days. However, with a hookup, it was only the fish and no hardware, so great fun. Don't see why that would not be effective wherever the bottom did not have extreme chance of hangups. It was good up to about 150 feet of water.

[chromer]

There is a session this Thursday in Woodinville

http://www.fisharc.com/groups/11-Eastside_PSA_Chapter