2025 Area 9 King Opener

[RB]

Who is out for the King opener in area 9? Heading out tomorrow morning after work. Heard from two guys the bite was good this morning and got their fish any other news?

[trophyhunt]

Brocka is out there, he has some in the box.  I hope he didn't call in sick and his boss is on here.! lol 

[Mfowl]

We went 3 for 4, biggest @ 17lbs the other 2 were cookie cutter 6lbers. The one we lost was a nice drag screamer. We saw 15 or so fish netted with most in the 6lb 25" class. We were back at the ramp at 10:30, fish checker had 21 fish for 14 boats and 39 anglers not including us.

[X-Force]

Solid morning! Beautiful fish

[WSU]

21 fish for 39 anglers is white hot fishin!

[carlyoungs]

We got one cookie cutter king and 2 silvers. The bite was on from 6-8:30 then cooled off. Caught several that were right under 22 inches. Got our limit of crab on the way into the marina.

[CP]

What's the hot lure? 

[RB]

What's the hot lure?

Heard a couple different lures, one buddy said 5-6 inch Tomic plugs and one said they did good on a Coho Killer in Herring Aid.

[RB]

We went 3 for 4, biggest @ 17lbs the other 2 were cookie cutter 6lbers. The one we lost was a nice drag screamer. We saw 15 or so fish netted with most in the 6lb 25" class. We were back at the ramp at 10:30, fish checker had 21 fish for 14 boats and 39 anglers not including us.

Nice! Hopefully will see something like that tomorrow 

[Mfowl]

What's the hot lure?

Needlefish hoochies 22" behind the flasher got it done for us. 1 on white w/chrome skirt, 3 on green spatterback w/chartreuse skirt. All tipped w/herring strips. On or within 10' of the bottom.

[WAcoueshunter]

I went 4 for 8 on a combo of hootchies and spoons. Two biggest were wild, 12 lbs or so.. The first hatchery was about 8 lbs and came in the first five minutes. Wasn’t going to call it then, so waded through the rest and bonked my fish about 9a. Herring schools at the dock are 3”, but the fish I kept had a jumbo 7” herring in its belly.

[BLH69]

limited in north 10 with 7 inch plugs on bottom.

[30.06]

Nice King Mfowl!           Yup heard the same reports, we kept plugging away til 1pm with the Tomic.  We got good early action as well.
I lost my clipped 12 lb ish King at the net about 9am on Herring Aid Coyote 3.5, yellow and dark green flasher. He did the dive in the motor maneuver after the last run. !

[bigdub257]

What's the hot lure?

Needlefish hoochies 22" behind the flasher got it done for us. 1 on white w/chrome skirt, 3 on green spatterback w/chartreuse skirt. All tipped w/herring strips. On or within 10' of the bottom.

22" is a pretty short leader for kings, but hey it sounds like it worked well for you.  May have to try it!  What brand of flasher were you using?

[Gentrys]

I'll be out there on Saturday morning.  Probably head clear up to Everett as I think every other launch will be a nightmare.

[Mfowl]

What's the hot lure?

Needlefish hoochies 22" behind the flasher got it done for us. 1 on white w/chrome skirt, 3 on green spatterback w/chartreuse skirt. All tipped w/herring strips. On or within 10' of the bottom.

22" is a pretty short leader for kings, but hey it sounds like it worked well for you.  May have to try it!  What brand of flasher were you using?

HotSpot, white/glow and chartreuse/glow.

[bigdub257]

What's the hot lure?

Needlefish hoochies 22" behind the flasher got it done for us. 1 on white w/chrome skirt, 3 on green spatterback w/chartreuse skirt. All tipped w/herring strips. On or within 10' of the bottom.

22" is a pretty short leader for kings, but hey it sounds like it worked well for you.  May have to try it!  What brand of flasher were you using?

HotSpot, white/glow and chartreuse/glow.

   Heading out soon in area 11. Will give it a try! 

[CP]

Lots of fish out there.  Lots of boats too.  I thought I was going to get boarded while I was netting this one.  Great way to make a lot of friends is to break out the net.

[OltHunter]

Everything I've heard, this is one of the best kings fisheries in recent years. Got our boat limit yesterday, and didn't have a single shaker or anything below 22" with a couple really great wilds released. Using plugs. Reports of big herring in bellies. Don't be afraid to break out those extra large lures!

I would imagine this is the only 3 days we'll get unfortunately.

Man was it a stressful traffic jam though. I don't get why 90% of the boats are trolling the same lines parellel to each other, and you got those random few trolling perpendicular!

[The scout]

Best king run in a long time, good thing we only get 3 days

[storyteller]

It looks like we are allotted 3900 chinook for area 9, reviewing fish counts from yesterday, I  think we will  have  another opening or two.   Cheer up.

[CP]

It looks like we are allotted 3900 chinook for area 9, reviewing fish counts from yesterday, I  think we will  have  another opening or two.   Cheer up.

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so, not in MA 9 anyway.  Fish counts are only part of the algorithm.  The aerial boat counts are going to be huge. 

[Stein]

Agreed, one could argue a single day opener would draw more than any of the days in the three day, so they will be very conservative.

Is there live data posted somewhere?  The WDFW page I looked at is all blank.

I'm actually surprised it's going 3 days with the catch rate.  Remember, there are several limits - legal, mature w/fins, and sublegal.  Some guys are going through several legal but smaller fish to get the one they take.

[OltHunter]

300 boats x 10 encounters, puts us at 3,000 a day. 9,000 over 3 days. I believe they say 50% survival rate, that's 4,500 dead chinook according to them, is the way I've always thought they did it.

Adjust the boats to actual boat surveys and encounters to creel reports and test fisheries and their survival rates and that's how you get to the 3,900 real quick.

I don't believe it's 3,900 tagged chinook, but again, could be wrong.

[CP]

“Did you release anything today?”

Nope, not a thing.   

[Mfowl]

Fishing was tougher for us today but we did go 3 for 3. Only kept 1, released a misclipped fish that I should've kept and the other was just under legal size. The one we kept was a nice 15# fish. We saw far fewer fish caught overall but it was foggy for a portion of the morning. Fish checker had 18 for 23 boats but no angler count given. He suggested it was much slower today.
Hopefully there will be some more days ahead.

[fishngamereaper]

“Did you release anything today?”

Nope, not a thing.   

That doesn't matter anymore
The DFW test boats are fishing
If they release 10 then everyone is in that range

There will be no additional days....they will gladly stay under quota, but hate going over...

[30.06]

Wow nice King! We were asked on the Bar by the WDFW Research boat lady about Port of Origin but that's it.
Saw a lot of decent ones caught but yeah slowed way down. Kept a 6lb fish about 8:30.

We did witness a trolling collision! Pretty loud impact, too. Looked like one boat was white and the other red.

We also saw a guy bravely net one for his wife with a kid watching and it looked risky in the chop out on the motor bracket.

[Encore 280]

Quite a few years ago I was fishing Jeff Head. Had a WDFW boat ask where I launched and I told them Kingston. Next day, same boat, same crew pulled and asked me again! I said; Ketchikan!!  Shoulda seen the looks I got! Had to tell them they asked me the day before!!

[30.06]

Put back a 18 lb ish native about 11 am. Took me into the backing. Lever drag reel seized up, handlined it in while my buddy's downrigger was totally fouled and unretrieveable a long ways out in heavy current. Whew! Clean release. Sure hope he spawns successfully.

So nice that we had a 3rd guy on board. Kept a coho as a consolation prize. Burned fuel tank down near E and then gas pumps only had a trickle available at Everett.

[Stein]

“Did you release anything today?”

Nope, not a thing.   

That doesn't matter anymore
The DFW test boats are fishing
If they release 10 then everyone is in that range

There will be no additional days....they will gladly stay under quota, but hate going over...

Lucky for us they don't seem to be incredibly effective at fishing, at least the times I watch the green boat in 8-2/9.

[bigdub257]

Does anybody else think there's way more "wild" kings this year? 

[WAcoueshunter]

Does anybody else think there's way more "wild" kings this year?

Way more wilds.  And way more hatcheries too. Lots of fish around. Catch rates are historically high, just lots of fish. 

[Mfowl]

Does anybody else think there's way more "wild" kings this year?

I thought it was odd that of the 7 Chinook we landed total including 2 sublegal, every one of them was clipped. It also seems like very few fish we saw landed in other boats were being turned loose. Just about everything that went in the net was going in to the boat too.

[OltHunter]

https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/01580/wdfw01580.pdf

Here's the pdf on how they come up with their numbers.  Will be interesting to see what they come up with this week.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/reports/creel/seasonal#ps-summer-chinook

[CP]

The mayhem is over, and I doubt if it will reopen.  Time to start looking for the pink buzzbombs?

[brocka]

Does anybody else think there's way more "wild" kings this year?

I thought it was odd that of the 7 Chinook we landed total including 2 sublegal, every one of them was clipped. It also seems like very few fish we saw landed in other boats were being turned loose. Just about everything that went in the net was going in to the boat too.

This was my experience, we killed 7 kings, only 1 had to be thrown back. Nice grade of fish this year. That was a great 3 days at Mid Channel!

[hookr88]

[quote
Man was it a stressful traffic jam though. I don't get why 90% of the boats are trolling the same lines parellel to each other, and you got those random few trolling perpendicular!
[/quote]
You gotta turn sometime. I know I don’t pull my gear,  turn on a dime,  drop my gear and resume trolling in the opposite direction.

[bigdub257]

Does anybody else think there's way more "wild" kings this year?

I thought it was odd that of the 7 Chinook we landed total including 2 sublegal, every one of them was clipped. It also seems like very few fish we saw landed in other boats were being turned loose. Just about everything that went in the net was going in to the boat too.

This was my experience, we killed 7 kings, only 1 had to be thrown back. Nice grade of fish this year. That was a great 3 days at Mid Channel!

My buddy and I were fishing area 11, so I did kind of comment in the wrong thread.  We did bonk 5 kings for 3 days fishing the tides for about 3 hours each day. Four were mid teens and one was 25# so no complaints.  Released about the same amount which seems higher than in the past and we witnessed many others being released. Different runs I guess, or somebody was asleep at the switch running the clipping machine  . Overall success rate according to WDFW data in area 11 shows about 15% success rate so hoping we get another 3 days this week!

[30.06]

[quote
Man was it a stressful traffic jam though. I don't get why 90% of the boats are trolling the same lines parellel to each other, and you got those random few trolling perpendicular!

You gotta turn sometime. I know I don’t pull my gear,  turn on a dime,  drop my gear and resume trolling in the opposite direction.
[/quote]

There were some total buffoons on the helm in 10% of the vessels. It's like they were completely clueless.


I do pull one side and spin on a dime. We all want the same thing from the same place.

[CP]

Sometimes there's nobody at the helm and the boat is going, wherever.

[30.06]

Those kinda Kaptains get a verbal warning.

[OltHunter]

I get maybe a fish on crazyness not able to pay as close attention, but usually when I'm done and ready to turn, I turn to the outside of the lane and speed up or slow down to get out of someone's way. I prefer to troll the same direction each time so I'm pulling gear in the troll direction of everyone else, then turning to avoid anyone else's troll and burning back to the start of the current.

Just my style. If you want to keep your gear in and troll in front of the majority of boats, just be ready for that verbal warning!

[CP]

It’s just too many boats crammed into too small an area.  There are going to be all types of boat control techniques and all levels of boating expertise.

[RB]

Not good, had two boats cut us off and lost one set of gear because of it. Caught fish but nothing we could keep, did good on the crab though so had Crab melts, and Crab cakes last couple days, waiting on the Silvers and Humpies! 

[30.06]

I got horribly cut off first day first pass first 5 minutes. Growl.      Then I saw him do the same thing the next day to somebody else! Darwin Award style.

But Two crab pots for 3 people was plenty. Stuffed with 80% large males. Some with real dark backs. A tribal guy showed off a 8"+ stud when we put in on Wednesday.