Anyone fish 8/25 in area 9 or 10 for silvers?

bj-How deep were you fishing? Im thinking of taking Dad out in the Friday a.m. Did you use herring strips?

Thanks
Coho

We fished no deeper then 35 ft and used grand slam bucktails behind white/glo hotspot flashers.

I'll be out there friday am also. See if there is any action.

Can't wait, I have a good feeling about this weekend...

There are no silvers out there especially not this morning at 7 am hitting my green glow splatter back squid at 35 feet. Nope no fish. Stay home or try mid day while my net is home drying.

With the weather clearing up I think I may go this afternoon?

If not see ya in the am. Trophy with the flags and new motors on the back..say hey

blue_jay

That all sounds good to me. The only thing I would add is what Buckmaster said. A flat line will ocassionally save or make the day. Last Sat. in Elliot Bay we got one fish in about six hours of trolling. Nice 9.5 lb. migratory Coho on a plug cut. Work the downriggers all day and the flat line gets hammered! If you can get a third rod onboard that's what you'll want to do IMHO.

It's all timing anyway. You'll soon be catching Coho while attempting to attach your line to the release clip!

I'll be on the West beaches of Whidbey this weekend. Should be decent.

Good Luck All!!!

My and my partner ( not one of those partners =) ) will be out tuesday morning making a straight line up to Bush Pt, maybe as far as Ft Casey, prolly a good 1.5 hours boat drive according to our estimates from Edmonds. Seems as though some of the reports say a good majority of the ocean fish are still around the Neah, Seiku area and moving closer in now, with some being caught on the west side of whidbey island, so we'll try there.

I've been reading some of the other suggestions on fishing for Coho, and I seem to have this idea planted in my head fishing below 35 ft is forbidden for Coho. Am I missing something here? is there an exception to the rule? When would you fish deeper then 35ft for them?

Blue Jay-

I dont subscribe to the 'fishing shallow water for Coho' theory at all. Here's why:

I have consistantly cought nice coho at depths of 55-80, even 90 feet at various times of the day. Last year I caught my biggest Coho of the season in 200 feet of water at 80 feet at 9:00AM. Several other nice 4 mile rock fish came at 60-80 feet.

Personally, I think that most of the smaller scrappy fish swim in the upper part of the water cloumn. For big boys I go deeper.

I have a theory about deeper water coho though. My buddy Geoff and I think that the fish have evolved and generally swim deeper to avoid nets.

55-80 ft, what seems to be the best bet in that range on a cloudy day and on a sunny day?

Thinking back about what I said, I guess what really matters is what depth you start catching fish at. Fish there.

Alot of factors weigh in here:
Where are you marking bait or schools on that particular day?
Where are you fishing?
What are the tides doing?
What depths have I been catching fish at recently?
What offering am I fishing with?

All those considerations are 'doctored' on the spot to help me make that decision. That's really what fishing is.

Well I'm fishing for answers in all respect to me being a N00B, I was wondering when it came to the fish finder. Say you see a school of baitfish, at what depth do you place your gear in accordance to the baitfish, and how often would you say you adjust up and down? Also do you take into consideration the angle on the downrigger cable, because if so, when you have your downrigger set at 30 ft and you've got a 45 degree angle on the cable your really near 25 ft. right???

Sorry if I seem like I'm pestering you for answers, but you seem to know alot.

So the bigger fish run deeper, thats what I thought. Me and my partner are going to have to be a little more proactive on watching our fishfinder and adjusting for the right depth.

You're right about that, I guess I'll have to broaden my horizons as far as depth is concerned.

This will blow your mind....I took third in the Coho derby two years ago fishing a cut plug 15 feet down in 50 feet of water.

Two weeks ago at Neah my son got a nice 12 lb silver at 65'. This was the biggest silver of the weekend. We also got a ton of fish right off the surface. The fish were litterally coming up and hitting the hootchies as they were dragging in the water beside the boat while we were working with the fish we had just caught. I got 2 silvers with my flyrod on a floating line with a 10' sinktip and a clouser. If silvers are in you can catch them at just about any depth! In years past I have gotten them as low as 95 feet at Neah during the middle of the day.

Now I typically start about 20 feet on the ball at a slight angle on the cable and go down from there as the morning progresses. The first half hour of daylight can be pretty awsome! We hooked 6 fish at Neah 2 weeks ago within 20 minutes. We started at 4:30 and by 5:00 we had released 6 blackmouth at 20 feet deep. By 8:00 we had our limits of silvers after releasing about 20 blackmouth and silvers. We were fishing about a 1/4 mile west of Wadah Island in 190 feet of water.

This is the last weekend to fish Salmon at Neah so you might want to head out there!

It's my experience that the further into the sound the silvers come the deeper they are. Take Posession Bar for instance. I've caught more silvers there at 115 - 125 feet than any other depth. Yes, I've had them rip the line out of my hand at the surface Neah Bay style while attaching it to the downrigger but by far have caught more silvers at depth. Look for the bait - If it's on the bottom the silvers'll be there. If it's on the surface they'll be there. Silvers are eating machines at this time of year. Possesion traps bait in vertical "back eddies" as the tide sweeps accross the edge of the drop off - this happens at depth not on the surface. Fish the edge of the bar as you would for blackmouth and you'll find actively feeding silvers there. Early morning at the surface sure - but don't be shy about dropping down deep - even if you see rolling fish around you - the feeders are where the bait is.

BTW - same holds true for B-10 - A couple miles further out in the ocean and they're in the top 30 feet. If things slow down try dropping to 75' and see what happens. And while I'm on B-10 try trolling the bottom 5' of water with your downrigger and a green hotspot/glow-green hootchie if you want some serious upriver bright action. First time I tried this I didn't know any better being an old-time puget sound blackmouth fisherman - 8 upriver brights in 2-1/2 hours from 20 - 45 lbs. Everyone else around me was using divers/bait and limiting on silvers.

Wow, thanks! Lots of great advice here. Seems like I should take a trip to neah bay! Long drive by boat or trailer and sounds like its almost WAY to easy. I'm just mystified by the mystery of the elusive ocean going coho once they're in the puget sound, mainly in area 9 and 10. I think with all this kind of help I wont be "that guy" whom gets skunked for Coho anymore. And instead be like the rest of the bunch that hit 6-8 nice fish everytime.

last 3 days on the west side oe whidbey, limits of silvers, all from 8 to 10 lbs. shorline , buzzbomin from boat close to shore

Right on! Thats where I'm headed Tues. morn. Hopefully they're still there.