Fishing for pinks by shipwreck right now.

[h20hunter]

Skillet just texted me a pic.........couple on ice already.....

[Skillet]

It is on today at shipwreck.  I went 4 for 8.  3 in the box by 7, kept longline releasing them until I finally got the 4th at about 8.  Standard gear, standard depths.
Seiners didnt do too much damage, I guess.  None working the area today.

[Smokepole]

clearly I am doing something wrong...

Had two riggers out for for 3-4 hours last night and only had one rod pop (no fish on it when I got to it).

I was at the shipwreck.

We must have been too deep.  I was marking fish between 200 and 125 so we had the riggers in those ranges. 

We tried pulling coyote spoons with smelly jelly, hoochie rigs behind dodgers.  We even tried one of those little pink squid behind a white flasher.

Going to try again Friday night after work and we will stick to the top 60 feet or so.

Rob, You're too deep.  In the early morning, we fish 40-45 feet deep.  Around 10 am I caught one fish at 110 feet and then my son got one at 85 at 11 am.  Start shallow & work your way down to 110-125 during he midday.  Depends... last week we were getting them at 85' during the afternoon.  Also, what speed were you trolling?  We like 1 mph 0 2mph going against the tide worked best for us.

[singleshot12]

Time to put the boats up for sale boys and girls! The last decent run of fish is about to be netted into its death throws! Just like the chums were a few years ago! What a bunch of crap!

The indian netting is out of control this year. Saw one seiner plug their boat in one set .. They never used to really net them in the past Catch em while you can boyz and girlz before it's over

[Rob]

Yeah, I think I have been too deep...

I'll start at 40 and stagger down till we hit fish.

As for speed, I'll break out the GPS and see what my speed is next time I am out there.  I have been going about the same speed as the slower of the boats on the water.  My guess was about 1.5 to 2.5 mph.

When you measure speed, are you measuring ground speed or water speed?  i.e. how fast the water is moving past your boat, or how fast you are tracking across the face of the earth?  For example, if I am moving 2.0 mph ground speed, and fighting a direct 1.5 mph current, then my water speed would be 3.5 mph - so would this be too fast?

Typically I have looked at the angle of the Downrigger balls and action of the dodgers as a rough indicator of water speed.

[NWgamehunter]

personally i try and forget the speed, tides and all that.. 45 degrees back on the downrigger lines when fishing 150 and above is what i start at.  just an old rule of thumb... mix it up though, and once you start catching, take note of what the angle is. sometimes more or less speed is better, especially between fish species.

[Smokepole]

I go as slow as I can for pinks.  If I'm against the current, that means I can crawl along at 1 mph ground speed.  With the current you have to go fast enough to keep action on your lure.

[fishseeker]

Time to put the boats up for sale boys and girls! The last decent run of fish is about to be netted into its death throws! Just like the chums were a few years ago! What a bunch of crap!

The indian netting is out of control this year. Saw one seiner plug their boat in one set .. They never used to really net them in the past Catch em while you can boyz and girlz before it's over

Seiners and gillnetters have always fished pinks when they are in. White men get to fish Monday or Tuesday alternate seiners or gill netters. Don't know what Indians do. Yea you can get quite a bunch in one set but it don't happen to often. There was that many because WDFW only opens small areas at a time. Used to work on a seiner in the 80s.

[singleshot12]

Time to put the boats up for sale boys and girls! The last decent run of fish is about to be netted into its death throws! Just like the chums were a few years ago! What a bunch of crap!

The indian netting is out of control this year. Saw one seiner plug their boat in one set .. They never used to really net them in the past Catch em while you can boyz and girlz before it's over

Seiners and gillnetters have always fished pinks when they are in. White men get to fish Monday or Tuesday alternate seiners or gill netters. Don't know what the Indians do. Yea you can get quite a bunch in one set but it don't happen to often. There was that many because WDFW only opens small areas at a time. Used to work on a seiner in the 80s.

They do what they want Never seen so many netting the pinks in the forty years I've been out there

[Button Nubbs]

personally i try and forget the speed, tides and all that.. 45 degrees back on the downrigger lines when fishing 150 and above is what i start at.  just an old rule of thumb... mix it up though, and once you start catching, take note of what the angle is. sometimes more or less speed is better, especially between fish species.

That is fast!

[Smokepole]

Single shot what size balls are you using?  To get my 10 lbers back to 45 degrees, I'd have to haul ass...

[Skillet]

Took some buds out tonight trying to get them some fish.  Nothin' doin. Lots of fish on the surface, but couldn't coax a bite out of them.  Tough evening of fishing, but great weather smooth water.  Looked like non-tribal commercial gillnetters were netting just north of the ferry this afternoon.

[WAcoueshunter]

Speed judged by a GPS is pretty irrelevant.  It's all about how fast your flasher rotates, which is a function of water speed, current speed and depth.  You can be going 3mph over ground and your flasher isn't even rotating.  If you're concerned you're not going the right speed, (i) go at least fast enough that your flasher actually rotates, and (ii) use a spoon (on a longer leader) instead of a hootchie. 


I'm mostly running a white glow/UV flasher with a 3" white or white/green spoon.  This morning, south of shipwreck, with two rods we got two ocean coho, one resident coho, one nate king (released, of course), and three pinks.  Also lost a few, should have had limits by 10.  They're here!  Including the coho!  Days like today I shake my head and laugh, we live in a great place. 

[NW-GSP]

Six fish in the boat, only took a hour. We have six guys in the boat

[h20hunter]

Nice....this weekend is my last chance at some humpies in the salt. I'll be out both days.