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It was totally awesome today out on the Skokomish river in Union. We fished about a mile up from Hunter Farms up the E. Purdy Cutoff Road.

I tried the entire gamut of lures, jigs, spinners, corkies, colors w/out any success, but I'm standing there watching this older fella catch a chum literally on EVERY cast!! It was uncanny...almost divine or supernatural (what do you expect on Halloween, after all?).
I asked him what he was using - he was totally helpful and said "just use some red yarn and about 6-8 feet of leader... you're basically flossing them but it's all about knowing how it feels". I set one up exactly like he said and first cast a big buck nailed my yarn! I couldn't believe it!! It actually F'ing worked! LOL. So a small corky or a couple beads and a hook or just yarn and a hook is all you need.

The second way to do it is a little further upstream there is a big pool. Float a puffy marabou jig (green or pink) under a bobber w/a small piece of shrimp. When it's bobber down, yank hard.

The chum are huge and fight like hell. It's arm-tiring fun. I brought home 60 lbs in fish (about 40 lbs in fillets) and just finished wrapping/freezing them. 3 orange and 1 pale but still firm and smokable. I'm totally exhausted and can't wait for bed so I can get up at 5am and go again in the morning!

Seriously - take the day off and have some fun. It was a total blast!!

PS - my camera died before I got any pics. My friend Deb took some w/her I-Phone but I have to wait for them to upload them to the Fishing Meetup page. They'll be there when I get them.

Weekend-warrior17

10/31/2013 10:58:00 PM

Ahaa, been planing on heading down tomorrow all week. Thanks for the report.

Goldrigger1

11/1/2013 5:58:00 AM

Great report. I have been wondering about Chum. I've read they fight real hard. But, I also heard you can't take them from the Snoho. I also heard the fillets are best for smoking not baking or grilling.

I don't know about flossing. Seems like a bad idea to hurt the spawners that way. We do need them to reproduce so we have them again. Whatever, I sure know how you feel. That feeling brings all of us back and keeps us going through the bad trips.

Hendo84

11/1/2013 6:19:00 AM

Thanks for the great report man. I am hoping to get out there this weekend.

NFCustom

11/1/2013 9:31:00 AM

Flossing is snagging and snagging is flossing. Read the top right of page 11 in the regulations. I just had a game warden bust a couple guys the other day for ripping n flossing on the Coast.

BBlakley

11/1/2013 12:11:00 PM

There are better ways of catching fish. Many people floss fish aka advanced snagging! To the untrained eye or fisherman it looks as though its drift fishing. The idea is just enough buoyancy to keep the hook off the bottom, when the fish opens its mouth to pump water over the gills it sucks the hook in. The yarn or "floss" gets hung up in the mouth long enough to set the hook. It amazes me that flossers think the fish actually bite the hook!!!! The Samish is loaded with the guys!!! It spoils the bite for the honest fisherman.

The go to method for chum for myself is a cerise/purple jig under a float. You double your chances with a bit of raw prawn.
Best of luck to you. I notice you fish the sky. Walk up from the mouth of the Wallace. There is good chum water

jbball50

11/3/2013 4:06:00 PM

BBlakley, that "yarn" is also about the same as your jig under a bobber, so what makes you think chum don't bite on yarn? Or are you just talking about the people that use 7 foot leaders? I know that spot Seattle Pat is fishing at in the pic, and yeah that spot you definitely don't need a 6-8 foot leader to fish it though. When I do fish yarn/corkies I just use a 3 foot leader and 90% of my fish I catch have been in the mouth throughout all the years of using the setup for salmon/steelhead. But like Seattle Pat said, the pool above that spot where you have to cross the river is probably the best spot to fish, where you're able to fish a bobber better.

Mike Carey

11/3/2013 6:15:00 PM

Please leave the non-fishing comments for the Off Topic area in the forum.

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