Rough water salmon

Okanagan · July 15, 2021, 12:21:12 PM

Strong winds yesterday, very rough water but we limited our boat and released a bunch. Bruised and happy.

Small salmon this year by historical measure, but we are grateful to be catching any. The biggest one in the box above is 16 lbs. and the rest ran from 10 to 7 lbs. As we got close to a boat limit we released several around ten pounds hoping for bigger.

Wind warnings were out and not a single boat other than ours was at the boat ramp at 4:30 AM. We waited till after sunrise, looked over the water and thought we could get some uncomfortable fishing right along the beach just outside the harbor point. We started catching fish and the water gradually calmed a bit till finally about noon we made it out to an underwater hump a mile offshore. By then a total of 8 boats were in sight within a mile or two. Usually there are 200 boats in the same water.

We got into a hot bite around 10 and had two doubles and one triple hook up, with three salmon on at once. Four of us were in the boat fishing yesterday, almost crowded but OK if all know how to fish.

FWIW, in our boat when one man hooks a fish, the others keep fishing rather than reel in. Like many kinds of fish, other salmon often follow and get excited when one is fighting a hook and they are more likely to grab any nearby lure. Lines crossed are usually easy to uncross and the increased odds of hooking another salmon are well worth the low risk of a problem. For me, anyway.

nastygunz · July 15, 2021, 12:37:51 PM

Yall r slammin salmon

pitw · July 15, 2021, 07:33:05 PM

Rough water is great

especially if ya take yer girlfriend out for a ride.

You always make it sound easy, but I ain't fooled.

Okanagan · July 16, 2021, 01:41:01 AM

Quote from: pitw on July 15, 2021, 07:33:05 PM

You always make it sound easy, but I ain't fooled.

It ain't easy but it ain't me. These cousins I fish with are the two best salmon fishermen I've ever heard of. A lot of knowledge plus a lot of big and little details done well add up to catching a lot more fish. We get skunked sometimes, but not often.

Day before yesterday out of at least 150 boats, the biologist who checks fish said that one other boat had a limit, one boat had three and a couple of dozen more fish were scattered through the other 145 or so boats.

A typical time fishing with them several years ago we came in with a boat limit of Chinook between 20 and 26 lbs. hidden on the boat where no one would see them. The surprised biologist told us he had checked 104 boats that had a total of 3 Coho among them, no Chinooks.

I fished the Kenai River in Alaska in 1984 with these two when one lived up there. Within 3 days, some guides were following us and radioing each other about what we were doing. I gotta admit it is fun to fish with them. I don't do nearly as well when I go in someone else's boat.

Okanagan · July 16, 2021, 11:17:22 AM

â€˜Nother story about these salmon fishermen. When their Dad was alive I would come down from Canada and fish with them when visiting family. One morning I counted 52 boats trying to fish the same spot. The old man scanned around the boats, pointed and said, â€œThat boat will catch fish, that boat next to it will catch fishâ€¦ and the rest are tourists.â€ The whole fleet caught 20 fish, and we caught 11 of them. The two boats he had pointed out caught most of the rest, including a 44 lb.

Another morning we ended with a double, which put us one over our boat limit. Mine was about 22 lbs. and my cousinâ€™s fish went 26, so we kept it. The old man looked around and picked the boat he thought was least likely to catch a fish, a young couple with a little boy and totally wrong gear for salmon. We edged over to them and asked if they would like a salmonâ€¦ I think the statute of limitations has run out on that infraction of catching a fish for someone else.

nastygunz · July 16, 2021, 12:50:27 PM

I was fishing a stocked trout pond one time and there were two little boys there shockingly in New Hampshire one of them was black ha ha. They couldn't catch a fish at all and I was catching one in every cast with my fly rod so I got them both their limit and they took off just a laughing and happy.

Hawks Feather · July 16, 2021, 04:43:12 PM

The fishing sounds great, but rough water would probably have me chumming.

nastygunz · July 16, 2021, 06:03:54 PM

Chum salmon?

Okanagan · July 16, 2021, 11:00:14 PM

Quote from: nastygunz on July 16, 2021, 12:50:27 PM
I was fishing a stocked trout pond one time and there were two little boys there shockingly in New Hampshire one of them was black ha ha. They couldn't catch a fish at all and I was catching one in every cast with my fly rod so I got them both their limit and they took off just a laughing and happy.

Fun story. Bet those boys were tickled and it is likely that they let people think they caught the fish!

Re chumming: I have been seasick and recognized the early symptoms the other day. No problem because I kept watching the horizon. During the worst of it that first hour or so I would have probably lost it if I had looked down long enough to tie any knot that took more time than an improved clinch.

Hawks Feather · July 17, 2021, 08:48:56 AM

Quote from: nastygunz on July 16, 2021, 06:03:54 PM
Chum salmon?

Aka: feeding the fish, clearing the stomach, throwing up, whatever you want to call it.

Todd Rahm · July 17, 2021, 11:48:25 PM

Thats a nice mess of fish.

FinsnFur · July 19, 2021, 09:09:25 PM

whoa...now thats going to be some good chewing

Okanagan · July 20, 2021, 10:07:25 AM

Yep, good chewing. We cooked one old style the other evening for supper; splayed out with sticks though it to stiffen the meat and the whole slab fixed in a split pole over a fire of alder coals. When it starts dripping fat into the fire my mouth starts watering. I'm going to switch to cooking it in my big fish basket, almost as good and less trouble than splitting a pole, etc.

I didn't take a pic but here is one from last year. The other evening we grilled one side of a much larger salmon than this one in the pic.

My daughter-in-law does not want salmon dripping into and around her patio fire pit so for open fire salmon I have a fire place in the back yard. She kept wandering back there as it cooked saying, "That really smells good! When will it be done?" I cook salmon and she does the sides and her married kids come over to make it a pretty big family meal. My wife isn't much of a fish eater, except for salmon, and she said she likes it cooked this way best.

Wish we could do this for a bunch of us here.

FinsnFur · July 26, 2021, 07:59:52 PM

Oh my gawd that looks so good

Hawks Feather · July 27, 2021, 08:15:21 AM

Quote from: FinsnFur on July 26, 2021, 07:59:52 PM
Oh my gawd that looks so good

Jim, You know that you could do that with one of those bass that you keep throwing back into the water.

FinsnFur · July 27, 2021, 12:01:07 PM

Not THAT good though lol

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

Okanagan · July 27, 2021, 11:52:37 PM

Paint the bass with orange food coloring and you got it.

Hawks Feather · July 28, 2021, 07:30:07 AM

We need to close this thread. Every time it pops up I look at that salmon and my mouth starts to water.

HaMeR · July 28, 2021, 01:38:38 PM

Quote from: Hawks Feather on July 28, 2021, 07:30:07 AM
We need to close this thread. Every time it pops up I look at that salmon and my mouth starts to water.

MMMMM Fresh grilled salmon!! Cooked over hot coals!! I'm gonna take some Walleye out of the freezer and thaw it out now!! MMMM

Hawks Feather · July 28, 2021, 06:09:33 PM

Quote from: HaMeR on July 28, 2021, 01:38:38 PM
Quote from: Hawks Feather on July 28, 2021, 07:30:07 AM
We need to close this thread. Every time it pops up I look at that salmon and my mouth starts to water.

MMMMM Fresh grilled salmon!! Cooked over hot coals!! I'm gonna take some Walleye out of the freezer and thaw it out now!! MMMM

Thanks HaMeR, but that is NOT what I needed to read.