Can you fish for the Sockeye outside of the Ballard Locks? Is it legal?
When do you all think they will make the opener call on lake Washington? Or will they.

They dont think there will be a season. Check out http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/sockeye/counts.htm for the latest counts. 350,000 is their escapement goal.

The area outside of a line from Meadow Point to West Point will open on July 1st. Shilshole Bay is closed.

Even when Shilshole used to be open years ago, I never could catch those sockeye out in the salt.

Anyone ever catch those reds out in the salt by Shilshole? If so, what did you use and what was your catch rate? Just curious to know.

Parker, I understand it is pretty much the same set-up as the lake. The big key is to find the fish. I plan on doing it on the 1st, it is a big outgoing tide that morning which should help pull the fish back to the open area. We have some ideas to try, I hope they produce.

Try running five or six extra flashers on each downrigger spread from top to bottom, no hooks on these of course. Troll very slow and turn often.

The Sockeye counts from last year are very similiar to this years at this point(with in 10%). Lets hope the numbers continue to increase as they did last year.

At this point we are only 989 fish down from
last years counts.I think we will get a season.But it will be in mid July for three or four days only.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Strike Zone, That is why I want to figure out how to get them in the salt. I know they can be caught, it is just a little different on the set up.

We used to get sockeye out in the salt with the same bare-hook setup that is used in the lake but.....be prepared to kill about 50 smolts and sub-legal blackmouth per adult sockeye as the little ones just can't seem to resist the bare hook in the salt. This was about 10 years ago when I still had a saltwater boat and I was fishing with a Shilshole regular. I would strongly advise against using the bare hook rig because of the increased smolt mortality. I cannot divulge the other lure we used to use for saltwater sockeye as my friends would shoot me but.........I will say that it's a commercial sockeye rig that we stumbled upon and used successfully after finding huge schools of fish stacked up outside of Shilshole that wouldn't bite on conventional saltwater salmon gear.We soon discovered that they were sockeye and put the hurt on 'em. Parker, you know what the secret lure is, as it's the bait that's named after you I'll just leave y'all with that subtle hint. Peace

Justin

[ 06-21-2001: Message edited by: Kid Sauk ]

TnS:

I had the same logic in my head last year and tried "heading them off at the pass", well in this case the boundary between West Pt. and Meadow Pt. Fished it a couple of times with no takers. Tried the bare hook, but they seemed uninterested.

If your going to try it the best tip I can give you is that many years ago back in the early 90's I worked as a DFW observer on the commercial sockeye boats up in the San Juans. Many of a time I inspected Sockeye on the deck that had a small pink hootchie stuck in thier jaw that broke of from some poor angler. One fish even came in the net once that had a red hot spot flasher and the pink hootchie dangling from his gullet. I would also recommend fishing in the top 25' of water, sockeye are typically caught in the top layer of the gillnet 85% of the time in the salt.

Good Luck!

Bobber Down

"Keep your hooks sharp!"

I know the bare hook rig works, but let's talk about common sense logic. I would have a hard time draggin my Midwest buddies out in a lake or the ocean, and trolling with a bare hook.

Can't imagine the looks I would get. Hell, we trolled for 10 hours over fish all day long and didn't get a single taker on our bare hook. Whooda Thunk it.

They would wet themselves when the rods started doubling over, and we were pounding fish on bare hooks. It's all good

Some folks used a flasher and blaze orange flatfish before the discovery of the "bare red hook" methos. My friend who fished it a lot in the 80's used a "20" sized lure with pretty good results.

I can remember trying for them outside of the locks when the Shillshoal king fishery was big, but never had any takers.

Thanks for reminding me, Kid. I went in and edited the photos that gave away the secret! Maybe I give out a little too much information in my "Tackle" section of my Grip N Grins!

Yeah, I figured those would work, but wanted to see what people had used in the past.

The biggest difference we noticed about this new technique was a much better hooknkeep rate. With their soft mouths, the reds have a tendency to shake out a solo octopus style hook. These new rigs were almost always sticking them on the top of the mouth and out through the eye. I don't think we lost a single Red last year in the Lake on this setup.

I give credit to those commercial boys. They really know how to haul in fish.

Thanks, Parker Ya know, like I said, if it's named after you.....it has to be good

Peace

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but there are thousands of sockeyes passing over Bonneville. They had a day this week over 10,000. How can we get these to bite in freshwater. I've caught hundreds of steelhead and salmon along the Columbia over the past couple decades and have never caught one. If you have a secret tip, please help us sporties get into them, it seems kinda of ashame to let the indians net every single one of these.

Had a freind that caught one yesterday on a plunked spin-n-glo of one of the lower river beaches. So I guess it is possible. Still any other tips would be appreciated.

Heard a "rumor" from a very reliable source today that Auburn Sports and Marine took in 7 boats from the Muckelshoots to be set up for fishing in Lake Washington for sockeye.Can anybody elaborate on this?They must know something we don't.

The counts look way behind last years already, but a few days of rain could get some fish in. Keep on crossing those fingers.

Hey Reiter Rat, odd thing, I heard the same rumor from a source, not sure how reliable it is though.LOL. Is KY jelly reliable? Just kidding, your source is one of the coolest guys in the industry! I am leaving for Montana at 4:00 AM tomorrow, when I get back the Sockeye fisherman will be getting ready. I would say the 4th is too early, my guess would be about July 14th. Got the red hooks in stock? If not, I know where you can get'em

See y'all in 2 weeks