Area 10/11 Opener Reports

Any good news on the opener? I heard of a few small silvers caught this AM off Yeomalt. I'll be trying the area this evening and will post a report tomorrow.

I plan on hitting Southworth and maybe Dolphin first thing in the morning. Anybody have any reports from that area today? How about you Seacat, limits by 5 AM? What was working, I think I know this answer. Thanks

NEN

In a word..SLOW. Launched at 5:00 am from Manchester and fished til noon at Southworth and saw one boated for about 25-30 boats. Threw everything at em today except the kitchen sink. ran the riggers from 40 ft to 150 feet and everything in between. No Bait balls marked all day! No bait no fish. Hope tommorow is better, good luck!

Got two today (Monday). First one at 0645 in front of slag pile, 150' water, downrigger at 135' deep, 4" Green Army Truck Coyote Spoon behind a green mini Hot Spot flasher, trolling about 2 MPH (ground speed off GPS) with the current. 10lbs.

Second fish at 1445 between Dalco and Point Defiance, 250' water, downrigger at 85' deep, 4" pearl white Tomic plug, trolling about 1.5 MPH (off GPS) across current. 16lbs.

Hope that's enough info to help.

Saw a guy at the clay banks this evening hammering fish with a Point Wilson Dart. Looked like he was using green candlefish pattern. I watched him hook and boat 5 fish. Of course he'd disappear around the corner after each one, so I suspect he never had more than two in the boat at any given time. His ethics are not my concern, however, his technique is. He was the only guy out there really nailing fish. This was all within two hours that he caught them.

Kind of makes me wonder how many were actually fair hooked. He was using a pretty aggressive "jigging" motion.

I heard that the Tacoma area was pretty good yesterday. Seems like the areas to the north were slow. Fished Yeomalt last night, lots of wind and weeds, but no fish. Wonder if the fish down south are blackmouth or summer kings? Goharley, could you tell if the fish you got were blackmouth?

I also hit PT Def. w/ everyone else and there brother. Few fish being caught and managed to get one in the boat apx 15lbs.

hey FS75, what were you using?? And where at Pt. Defiance did u catch em?




-Skeets

Fishing the slag pile w/ flasher and bait.

I tried Dolphin Point at first light, which is to dang eary in the summer, found plenty of bait but no fish, did not see any for the other 5 or 6 boats there either. Moved to Southworth around 800 AM and supposedly one boat had three but all we could find were shakers, interestingly though no to little bait.
I guess we will give it a week or so.

Does anybody know how to adjust the brake on the manual Scotty downriggers, I think they were the 1060's or something like that. Had to call it early because I could not get the brake to catch very well. Frustrating.

NEN

NEN, I'm not positive about how to adjust the manual Scotty's, but if they are anything like the electric ones, when you remove the top cover, there are two nuts, the bottom one adjusts the tension on the clutch, the top one is just a jam nut to keep the bottom one in the correct place. On an electric, you would SLIGHTY tighten the bottom nut until the clutch felt right, then tighten the top nut against the bottom one to keep it in place.

Hope this helps, if it doesn't, call Narrows Tackle & Marine 253-564-4222, ask for Stu, they should be able to tell you.

-Norm.

NEN,

We were out there too, in the Olympic. Had a good morning.

Had 3 in the boat by 6:15, limited with the 4th at 8:00. 2 big ones were 16 and 17. Got a couple of fat blackmouth, 8 and 10 too. Had 2 other hookups with quick releases.

Caught 'em all at 85-95 feet down with herring and flasher except one on a white hoochie and green flasher combo at 120 feet down.

Dangerous Dave was out and bonked a nice 18 pounder at 8:00 too. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

Chip,

I'm not educated enough to differentiate between a blackmouth and summer king. The 16 pounder was a hen with small underdeveloped egg skeins and the 10 pounder was a buck with milt sacs about 3/4 developed, I'd guess.

Does that describe a summer king hen and a blackmouth buck? Or vice versus?

Goharley - I smell em', if the skin has a harsh metallic stink and the meat is pink, they are a blackie, it they just smell fishy and the meat is red, they are a migratory king. Seriously! Also, I find that pound for pound the blackies will fight much harder migratory kings.

Chip

Slow? Hardly... Over 200 fish weighed in between Pt Defiance B/H and Narrows Marina. Largest fish just over 22#. Fresh herring trolled behind a flasher was the ticket for most of the folks. Beware... Dawgs are barking big time on the bait- even trolled...

Downriggin'

Way to go Seacat and DD,
I was in the small green terd with two people, sounds like we may have just missed the action at southworth, I'll have to get lessons on how to fish that cause I never have had much luck there. I think I talked to Dave when I first got there, he was in a 14 foot Aluminum or so?

After tightening up the downriggers (thanks StorminN), I realized that I've got a nice crack running down the transom, one good bump on the next trip may have sent the motor flying, great figgin timing.

May be looking for rides soon

NEN

THE OPENER WAS PHENOMINAL.ALMOST EVERY BOAT I TALKED TO HAD AT LEAST ONE.I COULDN'T GET THROUGH THE DOGS EVEN PICKED THEM UP TROLLING.HAD ONE GOOD POP OFF THAT RESULTED IN EMPTY HOOKS NO FISH.STARTED OFF LATE-6AM.100 YARDS FROM LAUNCH REALIZE TACKLE BOX IS AT HOME GET BACK HOUR LATER FISHIN PARTNER TENDING THE BOAT HAS ALREADY SEEN FIVE BOATS COME IN WITH LIMITS!I'M PSYCHED GO TO PUT OUT DOWNRIGGER GEUSS WHAT RUSTY LINE,BUT I GOT THE NOOKIE FEVER AT THIS POINT.LINE FRAYS AFTER FIRST SET. IN TO THE BOAT HOUSE FOR NEW WIRE .SEVEN GUYS AT CLEANING STATION ALL WITH LIMITS.THEN I GO BACK OUT AND PROCEED TO CATCH 6 DOGS TROLLING AND A GOOD DODOZEN MOOCHING EVEN ONE ON A DART,BUT HEY IT STILL BEAT THE HELL OUT OF WORKING

Way to go Seacat!!!! Nice day my friend. Man now I'm really confused......kings or steelies....there both hot right now!!! Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

Thanks Jeff & NEN,

Here's a pic of the 18 and 17 pounders from Tuesday morning. DD's son David got the big fish prize.

Nice Feesh!!

Seacat,

Any tips on the general area you were fishing?

Hey Seacat,
Thanks for the advice.........AGAIN!! The only thing Dangerous Dave and myself did different today than our fishless monday was that we moved over to 180 - 210 feet and SPEED! Increased that trolling speed and had 5 hook ups this morning; 18 , 10 and 6 pounders in the boat, one shaker and one broken leader between the flasher and herring hood. 4 hook ups with the downrigger at 120 and one at 90. Hit the first fish right after you talked to DD on the cell and it was hot after that til about 10:30. Have a good trip to Sekiu, hope you nail 'em!!

jeff'e'd,

I'm fishing the western side of the Area 10/11 boundary.

umrules, no problem. Glad to hear you guys had some success.

I made it out yesterday morning and had another decent day. The bite didn't come on until the begininning of the in tide. Jeff had a nice one in his boat early and I saw a couple of others taken, but generally it was slow. We bonked a 12 and a 13 in addition to the 6 shakers we released. A couple of those shakers were pretty decent little fish, right at the 22" size limit.

Had to go deep for'em, got our bites between 8:00 and 8:20. Once we found 'em, we scored quick. Same rig, slightly different technique, was the trick.

I talked with another PP poster at the ramp on the way out yesterday who indicated he had a really good night on Wednesday. He reported 2 16's a 20 and a 24 pounder. Not too bad!

I was the one who talked to Seacat. Its good now I have been using fresh herring. Which Interphase do you have Seacat? I am thinking of upgrading to the Advantage by them I have an older unit now. This was the way it was last year except we had a dry spell in the middle of July. I took my son out that day Seacat and we got a nice fat 25" Blackmouth no mature fish though. I am going out tomorrow night though. Too bad I have duty tonight gotta earn my paycheck from Uncle Sam.

Jason S

Jason,

It's an older DC-1000. My dad bought it around 1990 and it's been used on 2 boats. It's been a great finder, it's a little dated, but the screen is real nice. Works for me.

July can be a little spotty, but every tide change brings another opportunity out there. I think that one of the big keys out there is knowing what the tides are doing and locating the fish based on that knowledge. Find bait, find fish.

Nice meetin' ya. See you around...

Fished the last two nights evening lows. o bait no fish. This coming weekend looks lousy with the big tides.