Here is an article from my neighbors kid on blackmouth fishing:
March 5, 2009
Tim Bush
Northwest Sportsman, Sounder Column, March 2009
Word Count: 735
I hope you were one of those savvy anglers who made the darkest, most dead of winter blues, the best days ever, by fighting a steelhead in a northwest river and putting some checkmarks on your punch card for chinook. The rest of the year 2009 is a piece of cake in comparison, because the daylight is getting longer and temperatures are getting warmer.
Bass guys are starting to fish Lake Sammamish and Washington. Techniques for early spring would be fishing deeper water, where there are flats, and main points of land. Slower techniques are in order with colder waters. Try using a Carolina rig with a 4” Zoom lizard, or a Hula grub #176. The term “shaky head” is a new technique that guys are using when fishing is slow. Put your grub on the bottom and pull the slack out of your line. Do not move the lure; a little wiggle is all that’s needed to entice wary bass. Get ready for April by using suspended Husky Jerk baits. The Capital City Bass Club has a tournament at Silver Lake, down south in Cowlitz County on March 21st. It is always a good turn-out for the bass fishing community, which by the way, is huge in Washington State.
This is definitely the best year ever for winter blackmouth. We are receiving so many reports at Outdoor Emporium of hefty fifteen plus pound fish being caught in all open marine areas; especially the San Juan Islands. Guys that want to trailer their boats northward can launch at the Washington Park boat ramp in Anacortes. This ramp is an easy drive to the ferry terminal, but instead of turning off the road towards the ferry, go straight for ½ mile and there it waits for you. The San Juan Islands map, made by Fish-n-Map Co. shows the bottom contours of these Regions. You can get these at O.E.
I spoke to John Keizer (
www.saltpatrol.com) about key areas to fish, his techniques and any advice he could share about blackmouth fishing. He says “If it is calm weather, hit the offshore banks like Hein and Eastern. You can also head west to Freshwater Bay, just west of Port Angeles/Elwa River. Troll the 120ft. line and this will produce fish”.
A technique tip John shared was “use a larger size hook on your coho killer spoons for a better hook-set. Cut off the welded ring, add a slip ring, barrel swivel and a larger 2/0 or 3/0 hook.” (Try the River Fisher sickle siwash hooks. They have a deeper throat, which means hooking deeper into the bone.) “The key however, is to bend the lure into more of a C shape. This helps make up for the added weight on the lure.”
Keizer also recommends “bouncing your 15lb. balls off the bottom and keeping them low to the ground. This kicks up dirt and changes action on the lure, which entices a salmon to strike.”
If you want to fish the rivers, target late running native steelies and early springers. The Green River has been all over the web chat scene because of how good it’s been. Drift boats can launch above Metzler Park and fish down to the Highway 18 bridge take-out. River dudes are also fishing on the coast, where the largest native steelhead are waiting in rivers like the Hoh, Sol Duc, the Salmon and Boagchiel. Reports of thirty pound fish are coming from the Quinault River. Try a float and pink worm, but add a weighted cheater above the worm to get it down into the rocks.
Trout plants in King and Snohomish county lakes are coming soon. “We won’t know exactly which lakes and how many trout will be planted until late February, around the 27th”, says Chad Jackson of WDFW, at the Mill Creek office. He says “stay tuned to the government website,” (wdfw.wa.gov) which will post the goods around that time. Meanwhile, try Lake Washington for Cutthroat trout. That always is a good producer and I know guys that have been catching fish, although not super hot.
By now the Discovery Bay Derby is over; I hope you had fun. I sure did. What a big and fun derby to start off the new year. The Anacortes Salmon Derby is coming up next. I think I will try to hop on someone else’s boat. That’s always a good fishin’ technique.
