Due to two little kids at home and a now busy schedule i was unable to fish again this weekend, but i can relay a report from a couple of friends.

They fished saturday and reported the following:
Eagle bluff...no fish
Pt. Lawerance...no fish
Indian village....saw one fish caught

With this rain we had over the weekend i suspect this next week/weekend we'll see a marked improvement.

chumsalmon

I fished for a few hours and even ran into chumsalmon's friends. The situation was bleak. I found very little bait and marked hardly anything on the finder. I saw a fair number of boats putting in their time but didn't hear of any fish caught. Currents were nice too. Bummer.

I was looking back at 2007 photos and at this time last year, I was into very consistent fishing.

I had one take down yesterday afternoon. Swing and a miss. Im telling myself it was a bow wow. Its slowed dramatically from what I can tell. I heard Sooke is improving so maybe there is hope?

The battle with Phoenix77 postssss continues...


I went out to drop the crab pots last night and then fished for nearly 3 hours. It was a positive development in that I did see a little bait (compared to virtually nothing the last time out), marked "fish", and caught a bunch of dogfish crab bait. I guess that tells you how lame the fishing has been lately when catching dogfish is actually a good thing. The girl I was with may have hooked a salmon for about 2 or 3 seconds but it came unbuttoned before a 100% positive ID could be established.

Last year at this time, there was a ton of bait, birds, and salmon at the spot I was fishing. This year, no birds, little bait, and missing salmon.

Addicted's post has lured me into fishing silvers on Saturday and getting out of Area 7. Enjoy the weather!

-Kaiser D.

Hit Hale's pass/goosbury/pt Migley which is an annual ritual for the opening of Bellingham bay......saw lots of tiny silvers.....saw a pod of Kayaker's using their rainfly off the tent as a spinnaker and making good time against the current....Tom

Does anyone fish for silvers in there and how so? Thanks.

I was out at indian village this weekend. About 15 boats fishing, didn't mark any fish, didn't see any caught! I don't think there is a fish in area 7!

It is time to be out fishing the West side of San Juan Island. Quite a few 20-30 pound fish caught this last week by the Friday Harbor Crew. I have not been out. Just passing along a report from some friends. Our derby leader board is starting to change everyday it seems.

After last weekend, it is official...

I hate Indian Village. We hit one shaker and didn't see any nets fly.

A-Dog, I concur, the outside has been the place to be as of late.

Now that area 9 is closed for kings was wondering if anyone had any reports from Eastern Bank?

There are most definitely some fish to be found closer than the west side of San Juan (although they aren't the 20-30's that A-DOG mentioned). Thrasher and I will be posting the pretty pics in a few days. I've only had one chance to get out recently but lost a 12-14 right at the net as the dart popped out... bastards.

I would like to stick one of those big fish on the outside though...

Does anyone fish for silvers in Hales passage?

I have and when it's good it's usually from Labor day on through Sept. But, it's been pretty poor the last few years after 2 or 3 years of being really good. I don't have much hope that we'll have the hot fishing of 3 or 4 years ago. I plan on getting out there this Sat to see how it's going. Just because you see them jumping doesn't mean you can get them to bite.

Ain't that the truth.

So how did you fish for them? Trolling shallow with bucktails or coho killer spoons? Or was it a herring thing shallow? Did you use flashers? What depths?

It has always been my opinion if you see them jumping then those are the ones that aren't biting!

Best method appears to be gillnets....I've watched em pick nice fish in 15ft of water right on the shore. Most of the fish I've caught were jigging/mooching in close to shore or where it drops to 50 ft....The small resident/young fish can be thick in the masses of eelgrass/crap that can be everywhere when the tide's right, gulping crab larvae on the surface......Tiny flies/4wt and can be hot, though I've seen thousands of feeding pods that just laughed at me...Many people, especially the older crowd, downriggers down the middle of channel from Pt. Migley to the Buoy near Portage...Usually too much eelgrass/crap to troll/ or even fish in shallow...The boat finally has 2 downriggers, and I plan to spend more time this year trolling that shelf out in the middle....Sandy point/oil dock used to be as hot as any coho fishing, but I've been fishless up here for more than a few years....for that matter, I was salmonless in area 7 all last year(no ling either), and finally caught a nice blackmouth on the last day of the season @ Pt lawrence, and a seal got it and showed it to me, before leaving with the flasher....I called that my $2000 fish, as I had 6 empty gallons of 2-stroke oil in the garage from the year and did the math. I did way more than try.

I've had days in Hales Pass where a shrimp fly was deadly. I have had other days where a green/glow hoochie was the ticket. Keeping an eye on the crab and shrimp as feed is key. Once you finally catch one (that you can keep) check out what they are eating. I haven't pulled too many from Hales Pass that weren't feeding on small shrimp and crab larvae in the eel grass mess. But, we've had a few off years in a row now so it's hard to say what it's going to be like.

I remember a day when I was using my downriggers in 15 feet of water and down 8 feet using a shrimp fly in front of the ship wreck. Couldn't keep them off of it. Others were casting with no luck. In fact, I was having the same luck until I got a wild hair and decided it was insane to see all of the fish jumping (splashing the boat) and not catching anything. That's when the old shrimp fly came out.

I fished Hales this past Sat around mid day. No luck but only fished a couple of hours. Saw one jumper. Water was starting to clear up after all the hard rains.

Fished Hales Pass for about an hour on Saturday after getting frustrated with Samish Bay. We were throwing buzz bombs into shore at Hales. A friend and his boy caught one small one. I repeat, very small...but, it was a friends kids first fish of any kind to ever reel in.

Tell me this kid wasn't happy.

Anyone fishing the outside of San Juan Island?

Thraher that's great!!!! Man that Lil' Guy is a future Super Star!!!

From what I've heard and seen, the fishing has been really hit and miss lately. There were a lot of fish in Samish Bay a while back but they either went up the river, left, or (most likely) got gill netted by the huge fleet out there. I fished that a little last weekend but it was loaded with fishless fishermen.

I saw one nice fish caught at Indian Village last weekend but that was out of about 30 boats. Fish was out deeper, in about 160 feet of water. A marked a few more nearby at the same depth but we only got one strike. Caught some dogfish over at Secret Harbor but there was only one other boat over there.

Corey, that pic of the kid with the fish is awesome. I'm guessing he's hooked now.

-Kaiser D.