Just curious how most of you prefer to fish for silvers in rivers or the salt. What color combinations do you like? flashers, dodgers, anything at all.... (6 days until my move from Kennewick to Port Angeles is complete...And I get to go fishing!!!!)

Gettin' anxious BW01?

When the silvers are running thick IMO it doesn't matter too much what you use. I've tried about everything that the local tackle store sells over the years, but I prefer to go with a light setup because those coho are wonderful acrobats and the flashers and dodgers tend to keep 'em under the surface.

If you have downriggers, go with herring and nothin' else. Troll shallow and FAST. If you don't have downriggers, not to worry, use a 2 oz. sliding sinker and a light action rod.

I've seen 'em so thick out in the middle of the strait there in P.A. that you can look into the water and see the school right under the boat. Just about anything works when you find schools like that.

If you're having a hard time finding them, then trolling with hoochies is good cuz you can cover a lot of ground quickly. I use the needlefish/candlefish size in lime green and the other killer color blue/green.

Another fun method is to troll bucktails or coho flies right up on the surface about 50 feet behind the boat. Get a little wake going with the boat and skip the fly in that wake. It's a blast to see them take the fly and go airborn... This method works best in Neah Bay but early in the morning and later in the evening I've had good success in P.A. too.

Good luck!

One problem I've had with searching for silvers in the salt with herring is dogfish. Even trolling with 2 ounces and going like a bat, the doggies will do a number on you. Last year I played with a Bomber Long A minnow trolled quickly with two ounces of lead. Worked great, except the silvers would just about swallow the thing. One thing I learned at Sekiu when I was a kid was to troll with one flasher out and then keep the other lighter, gear close to it. The flasher attracts the fish, and the light stuff often picks up the biters. Another gimmick that will work is to use a Luhr Jensen Jet Diver in silver or metallic red, but rigged to run on your line as a slider. Use whatever you like as a lure or bait. I've been using Diamond King Spoons, but Coyote spoons or even the Bomber should work well. The Diver is fairly light, gets down OK, and it provides some side-to-side action.

Be sure and hit the Dungeness Bay bubble fishery. That can be hot. Also, there are folks catching silvers off the beach on Ediz Hook casting Krocodiles and Buzz Bombs. Have fun.

That skipping a fly off the surface is a great time when the silvers are thick isn`t it? I love doing that on a light flyrod or just about anything light, watching them surface, take it and start running just gives me a great charge.

Keith,

I've caught dogs on artificial stuff in the strait too. But usually I'm close to the shore when this happens. I've really never had that problem out in the middle. Sometimes you just have to pull the gear and make a run somewhere else.

That flasher trick is similar to the Ace-in-the-Hole method that John Truax uses out there in Sekiu. If I remember right, hook up a flasher to the downrigger ball and let it run a few feet behind and clip the real bait a few feet above and behind it. If anybody knows the particulars, please refresh my memory.

This thread is bringing back some good memories of Sekiu and P.A. when we used to hookup 20-30 times in just a couple of hours. Maybe we can look forward to some more of that real soon!

Is is Friday yet? I wanna go fishn'....

Any one tried casting flies at Silvers when they are not to deep? I have read articles about this in B.C. waters. Sounds like a blast to me. But the other methods sound great also. And how about beach casting?

beach casting is a lot lf fun did it up in alaska at chanitna bay first time i hooked one i just about riped it right out of its mouth they nail the lure about 2ft from shore

My favorite way to catch silvers is to use a tripple hook with pencile led wrapped around the shank. You toss it into the water and Ripp it into the side of the fish.. Its MEAT on the BBQ

fish snagger.... How old are you??? Just wondering...

Fish Snagger...
Does the color matter much? Have many problems with losing the fish because of the barbless hooks? Just Wondering.

Fishsnagger,

Apparently you haven't fished much for silvers

If you like mooching, and bark sharks are a problem, jig up some live herring, and hook one just under the backbone, by the dorsal fin. Use 1 or 2 ozs. of lead {sliders are great for this}, and strip out some line and drift with the current, 10 to 80 ft., depending on the depth you are fishing. If you can mark some fish up in the water column, try to match that depth.

A couple of points of elaboration to my earlier post-- and a reply to another. First, seacat69, I TRIED moving, and tried moving and tried moving. I must have been on the largest school of dogfish... I fished just west of the area 9 boundary near PT, and doggies were everywhere I tried for several hours... from the 3/4 mile boundary to maybe five or six miles out. It was find a rip, lose a leader. I did see a silver (or salmon anyway) jump and have a decent fish flash at the Bomber near the boat. Also had some small foot long silvers follow to the boat.

That Truax trick seems familiar; but the way we did back then was with a big Kelp Kutter or Abe and Al right in the prop wash. Then we ran plug cuts off to the side.

For the beach fishing question-- quite a bit is done in this area. Right now silvers are being caught off Ediz Hook according to reports and a few fish of decent size just at the line on Pt. Wilson. When area 9 opens, Ft. Flagler, Pt. Wilson, Fort Casey, Bush Point, Lagoon Point, and the Foulweather Bluff area all offer fairly good beach opportunities. I'm sure there are other spots out there, but those are where I've seen fishermen catch fish. Perhaps later this week I'll head back out to the rips and revisit the flasher and spoon business.

Only have one word for silvers in the salt, flies, flies, flies, flies, oh and troll fast. Fished Sekiu for 5 days last August over 100 fish to the boat, all on 3 flies. A lime green, yellow and dark green (has about 1/4 of the hair left on it ), green and white, and a grand slam herring bucktail in green. Use the first two at Pt. Defiance and kick some butt on the silvers there too. Herring works but is such a pain compaired to lures.
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

[This message has been edited by salmonhead (edited 08-08-2000).]

Salt; I always fished from the peer. Buzz bombs are best, single hook! The trebles don't set in too well for me, they come out easy. Its like the hooks point to far back to the shaft. The rivers EGGS they love eggs if I get it right isn't this what the whole charge up the rivers about? The other things are small spoons GREEN dic-nite, krocs, and spinners BLUE FOX green bodies with vive bell action.... YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN..... The Snohomish is great for these fish.... too bad its closed.

My preference is a 9-ft 6wt casting an Intermediate Sink Tip with a 6-ft leader tapered to an 8lb tippet using a #6 Clouser tied with pearl green (bottom) and peacock (back) angel hair.

Give me a #4 Vibrax chart body/silver blade, 8lb Maxima on my 8'6" Lami...that is my favorite.

Fun question...great answers.

Jim

Salmonhead,

I've got a few of those ripped up flies in m tacklebox too. It's amazing how many fish one fly can catch eh? I hang on to them cuz they still work. Almost hate to see 'em go.

Keith, just joking here, but what were you using for scent? ALPO? I think after about 5 doggies I would have switched over to the artificial stuff too. Can't stand to spend my precious time on the water re-rigging because of dogs.

On the way home last night I was also thinking about the coyote spoons in my box. They're an excellent lure too. You can troll them at Warp 1 and the coho really slam em'.

fish snagger your a real beauty...

now for silvers i like it when water is up a little mucky. I like to throw spinners of any sort.. We also have a fly we named the buck fly that we use and the silvers just eat it up.

I find that changing bait speed often brings a strike. Last night we were trolling herring and had just began to pull up one downrigger to check the bait when a silver hit, handed the rod to my son and began reeling in the short line behind the boat and voila, a double!! Also, I experiment with depth, some days very shallow, other days as deep as 45 feet. Last saturday we got a limit of silvers very shallow and had several that hit the herrring when setting up the downrigger with the dodger still "surfing" behind the boat and the herring spinning just under the surface. Sunday, another limit but all the fish were taken between 25 and 35 feet!