Northwest Fishing Reports

Hey everyone my folks have a house on the beach at Vashon, it shows as "shore acres" on the map.. I will be there august 7-13 and will have a boat and gear. I have fished here before but just for bottom fish. this year I want to get salmon, I am not a fan of trolling but will if I have to. I am looking for advice for bait and techniques for catching salmon in a boat and or from shore.... ANY advice would be greatly apprieated.

pink buzz bombs i heard are still working for any kind of salmon. green squid are a favorite of mine for jigging, for trolling we use some good size hering

If you want to catch salmon you will use the boat and you will troll, it's that simple. Fishing for salmon in the sound any other way is what is known as wasting time. Your odds of catching a fish will go up dramaticly if you use downriggers on the boat as well.

There are places that you can do fairly well mooching/jigging. Check out the maps on Salmon University and Salt Patrol which will have mooching and trolling routes shown. The trick to mooching is actively moving your bait up and down, at least 30', through the water column. Without downriggers and sonar on board, I'd stick to mooching, unless I'm fishing shallow near shore in the early AM.

Bodofish wrote: If you want to catch salmon you will use the boat and you will troll, it's that simple. Fishing for salmon in the sound any other way is what is known as wasting time. Your odds of catching a fish will go up dramaticly if you use downriggers on the boat as well.

Dont get me wrong, i agree trolling is the way to go in my opinion, but at the same time, ive had my luck mooching and jigging

i love troll'n ... my boats are all set up for trolling ... and i've been known to be hard headed O-: imagine that eh ? ... just grinddd away troll'n ... burn up all my gas 'n drain my batts ... but just as many times i'll get tired of fight'n gear 'n DR's 'n drive'n the boat and change'n gear and i'll stop ... especially when a tide is fix'n to go slack in a short while ... i'll find me some good bottom with a good rip on/next to it and grab a flutter jig ... i find the plain jane cheapy jigs work best ... the 1s that are piece of lead with brass eyes at both ends stuck in a shrink wrap stuff ... i like white .. smear a lil stink on it and drop 'er to the bottom and jig it .... i like a 4 ft ish jig up 'n a slow flutter bk down ... might even put a lil bend in it to change up the action .... some guys swear by the fancy 1s ... look like a baitfish 'n even UV 'n stuff .... <shrugs> you can spend a lot on 'em ... if i get to my fav rip and the tide is still move'n slow come'n to slack ... i'll grab a spoon like a coyote or croc or wut ever (usualy with the stock ring/hook cut off and something else rig'd on it) and drift on the outside of the junk dangle'n that spoon down where it makes contact with the bottom once in a while ... and you can take the same spoon and jig/flutter it verticaly .... dont be afraid to cut stuff off and add a couple split rings and a swivel to the end where you can switch stuff out ... say a fly or mini squid or new hooks .... my fav coyote came stock with a lil willow leaf spoon added to the top ... i switch out between a fly or lil glow squid(with stink in it) ... if i'm do'n the slow drift/troll with it i may add a inline lead weight to the bottom of it before what ever .... try dangle'n your fav salmon spoon over the side and watch the flash/action it gets just drift'n along ... kinda looks like them new fangled dodgers they use for Kok's nowa days eh .... hmmmmm .... i might not admit that i've cut up perfectly good trout gang trolls 'n spinners or spinner baits up and made things out of their parts .... like say drill a hole in the end of the piece where it doesnt have 1 ... add a splitring 'n a swivel bout 4in of 20lb Pline to 1 of my custom 2 point barbless hook rig .... then i add on from there ... bare colored hooks work ... or a custom fly ish kinda thing or a squidy thing or a Dick Nite ... u can paint the spoon or decorate it or hit it with some UV .... combo's are as endless as there diff kinds/sizes/colors of spoons you could use ... i have probably 20 diff "mini dodgers"/bait made up ... stored in a ziplock sandwich bag lolol ... soooo ... my 35 cents worth aaagain ... but if your out there troll'n ...'n it aint that great ... and your putt'n bye a ledge or drop off or such with a line of junk float'n bye it ...... i'm just say'n 'ol mr Chitnook likes to hug bottom when he's move'n ... and if he feels a THUMP on the bottom and something that stinks like food flutters in his face ... WELLLLL it's known to be violent so dont doze off and keep a tight grip on the rod ... DOG

if you can try go to the clay banks troll in 30 feet of water .We got 2 silvers useing green flashers and squid .