I'll be checking out Whidbey Island Coho beach fishery this week.
Does anyone have any reports?

Summer-Run

Was at Casey Sat. am, helped a novice,bobber and herring virgin, catch a 6lber on his 3rd cast. He had an 8lber on about a half hour later, threw the hook. I had 4 bites no fish joy for me. In total I saw one about 12, 2 between 8 to 10 and a couple of other small ones. The fish are nice size, just not in thick.

I hit ALL the beaches today (Mon) on the west side of Whidbey from Bush to Casey with a dozen fresh ones. It was horribly dead. Saw a couple kings porpoise out of the water at Bush during high slack, but that was it, no bites or drive-byes. My fellow anglers weren't having any luck either, except for the small resident coho that got wood shampoo at Casey in the morning. I guess Saturday morning was the time to of been out there. Must of been a pod of fish moving through.

Anyway off to B-10 Wednesday night for 4 days, so hopefully my arms will get sore soon!

Hey Jerry expect to here "guys, I got another one!" in about two weeks.

BD

Pretty slow, but the ones that are landed are BIG. Several to 12 pounds. Saw a nice 12 pounder landed Sunday on a Krok. Spoon. Not sure what size spoon this guy was using, but I bet it was 5 inches long. White.

I gave a full morning at fishing the herring and float on Saturday, no luck. Maybe I should go up North and fish with Jerry and Wolverine for a lesson from the pros.

I pledge to put more hours in with bait this year, and less with the BB!

I fished Ft Casey Sunday. I was definately a cracker that day and hope that I got it out of my system. I thought that I'd try my 12'-6" Shimano summer run rod as the fish had been running small. 8 lb main line & leader on a spining reel. Early on the surf was big and there was a lot of kelp paddies floating around. 3rd or 4th cast a 12+ lb fish hit and ran me into a kelp wad. Fish gone, float rig gone. 30 minutes later a fish around 10 hit right in the surf and ran me into another kelp wad. fish off... I had 2 dz fresh dead herring that I had my daughter pick up at Woody's for me. They were either 3 in minnows or 9-10 in horse herring. I doubt that there were 3 that were the size that I like to fish. of course I never looked at them until I got up to the beach. All my hook tie ups were the wrong size for this bait, and an old lazy fart like me didn't want to bother cutting up tied rigs and retieing them to the right spread. Well, I ended up missing another 7 or 8 bites before a 7 lb hen felt sorry for me and committed suicide by grabbing the trailing hook dangling behind a 2-1/2" herring and promptly beaching herself. The water flattened out as the day went along but the lettuce was so bad that you rarely could get in a reasonable drift.
The noodle rod will now go back to jigs and summer runs. I'll pay more attention to my bait and terminal gear, and I'll pay more attention while I'm out there rather than just chucking the gear out there. Sunday was a good lesson in humality.

Questions:

1. How do you rig a herring to fish under bobber? Is it supposed to spin?

2. How far out do you need to cast out to get these fish?

3. Is it best to fish as the tide is coming in or going out?

4. How deep are the fish? Is it best to use a set depth rig or a sliding adjustable float?

Thanks, any help would be appreciated. I tried a week ago and got nothing. Never felt like I was fishing correctly.

The sliding sinker rig is best, using the little yarn ties you can buy for just this purpose. By sliding and re-cinching up the yarn you can rig your bobber to drift at any depth. Yes, the best presentation is a cut-plug rigged to spin slowly under the bobber.

But you don't need to drown bait to catch silvers. Throw any jig, cast a spoon or spinner or toss a fly and you'll do just as well (and cover more water while you're at it!) and have more fun fishing.

Are the reports slow because the fish are not there yet? Or is the run small this year?

The ocean runs are just starting to trickle into the Sound... lots of little residents but the migratory Silvers are just starting to show. Patience, brothers and sisters, they'll be in in force before you know it!

With such strong King and Sockeye returns, my guess that the PS coho runs will be strong too.

I'm counting on it! I purchased a new little 14' boat and a pair of manual DR's, and can't wait to be catching some big Coho.

I was fortunate enough to CNR a 25+ pound chinook last Sunday off Bush Pt.! Big fish

Fished fort casey today.
Saw about a dozen ocean Coho jump.
Got me all excited.
But fishing was very slow.
Fish were flipping me off by jumping around my herring gig.
I'll pay'em back tomorrow.
I think it's still bit early.

Still too early. Usually the fish are just starting to get really thick out at Sekiu at this time and that will last until the second weekend in September. Wait a couple weeks and there will be more fish in the Sound.