2025 Area 9 King Opener

[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!