I first fished the Samish 30 years ago and it was a very nice fishery at that time. However I quit fish it in the mid- 1980s as it had become much more crowded and the anglers as a whole much less respectful of the other anglers, the fish and the private property we all were fishing on. The Samish is not a joke but we the anglers have made it one.

Parker -
Thirty years ago a (the most) effective technique was a fresh bait of eggs suspend below a float. At the time we didn't have "dink" floats but rather made our own from cork rings - typically a thumb size "float" with a center hole and cedar peg to hold the line in place. And yes the fish ate the bait big time and the legal anglers outfish the snaggers by a large margin. One interesting change was then there were lots of jacks which were great fun on light tackle (for several years only the jacks were legal game).

Kerry -
You might be interest to know at that time there was a great opportunity to take adult chinook on the fly. With the smaller crowds is was relatively straight forward to take multiple fish each tide; often with more time with fish on the reel than casting. Often would see the big hogs chasing the bug into the shallows. Of course the crowds today I would not dream of attempting to throw a fly now.

I have many fond memories of fishing on the Samish in times past.

Tight lines
S malma