Is it just me or does there seems to be a lot more shakers around this year, at least in MA 10

I caught quite a few this fall fishing silvers and yesterday I took two of my cousins out for blackmouth. Due to the wind we stayed close around Bainbridge Island and between the two of them they must have caught 50 shakers between 10" and 20" all were blackmouth and 98+% were hatchery fish, I think they caught one unmarked fish. (no keepers unfortunately)
I've caught fish in these same areas before without nearly as many shakers. Anyone else seeing this?

We experienced the same #'s this weekend in Area 10. Would seem to bode well for the future fishery. Due to the size of the bait, smaller spoons seemed to be the ticket, and the shakers love these. We found that keeping the speed up above 3 knots reduced the # of shakers a bit, but the bigger fish seemed to have no problem keeping up.

Yes, caught a ton when I was out fishing for Silvers. Had to check my bait every 5 minutes or so to make sure I wasn't dragging a shaker.

We hit a ton of lil humpys at the end of the season. A lot of cliped kings to 20 " should be a good sign.

LOts of 6 to 8 inch shakers while trolling Coho Killers this summer. Sometimes they did not survive, felt bad about it and switched to bigger spoon or hoochie.

I have banned the use of coho (shaker) killers in my boat. I once pithed 3 in a row right between the eyes trolling those things.

Rogue----they are still the thing for trolling in the Strait. Found the White Lightning the best lure for kings in the 20+ class in August. But----there's not many shakers in those waters!! Around here (Vashon) shakers outnumber legals about 10:1

Totally agree Terry. The white lightnin and glow army truck on the bottom are both go-to lures when fishing Pt. Townsend on the king opener and also at CQ. I should have said they are forbidden when I fish MA10! Plenty of other equally effective lures that seem to lethally hook fewer shakers.

Ofish, Chip, Rogue:

Were you on bottom with downriggers, trolling with lead shallow, or mooching? Maybe there is a common thread. Before Dec 1, most guys up north (Possession) were on bottom in 130'-ish. How deep were you guys?

On the bottom with riggers. The coho killers were one and also the Brad's cutplug in the small sizes with tuna inside. We also tried some larger spoons but with the same results.

It was the same thing this fall fishing for silvers, Hoochies, Ace High flies, didn't seems to matter there were just lots of shakers around this year it seems to me. Some of them were barly larger then the bait. Bodes well for the fishery in a couple of years I hope.

I'm wondering if a lot of them were fall kings out of the Suquamish Grover creek hatchery. By and large they were all hatchery origin fish.

I caught 2 at once last weekend, one one both hooks of a whole rigged green label herring, but the smaller spoons are the worst.