Humpies on the 'Homish

[trippledigitss]

I know people have been catching them out there and some friends here at work have been doing really well from the bank so I decided to check it out yesterday. Last weekend my buddies got a few limits up there plunking above town across from the golf course/park area. Pretty high up for this early I thought.  They use a spin n glo set up and were using chrome ones or black with pink top.

Anyway... So I got on the water at about 14:00 hrs and overall it was pretty slow out there really - saw a couple onesies, twosies here & there but definitely not real hot out there yet for sure. I launched at Lowell and then ran down to the 1st bridge there (what Hwy 2?) looking for fish and couldnt really find them in any numbers. Finally worked my way up to Snohomish and there was a guy just leaving a hole right across from the Pilchuck and he had 4 nice ones and he showed me right where he was - nice guy there for sure! So we anchor in 3 feet of water - no BS 3 feet - and soon after start hooking fish. All around that area it is really shallow and my boys (10yrs old) had 2 rods plunkin 3 feet deep and I was tossing a jig into the 'channel' where it was 6-7 feet deep. Got 3 on the bait setups and 2 on the jigs - lost all but one.  Even on barbed hooks! The one we got was on a chrome 3-colored spin n glo, light green, pink, & yellow, with day glo orange top & white wings, (they will hit darn near anything) pink yarn and shimp tail and 1/0 sickle style hook - right in the corner of the mouth - it wasnt coming out. Nice little 3-4# bright hen with sea lice. The other ones we didnt really get good hooks sets since they caught us by suprise and bit RIGHT at the boat. One picked up the bait and hooked it self but we closed the loop thing on the rod holder and couldnt get the rod out! It was back there splashing and & rolling and got off before we got the rod out! My boy hooked one on the jig and we didnt pull the plunkin lines so guess where it went....  got under those lines and lost it too.  I guess we got what we deserved there. I think part of the problem was fishing so shallow that when you get them next to the boat - which was almost immediately, they still have too much spunk and toss it really easily.


Anyway, the rain should have pushed more in and today will probably be really good but I think it still needs another week before it kicks off really well.

[Ripper]

I love seeing pics of the kids with fish. Looks like a good time.

[carpsniperg2]

Still sounds like a great trip to me

[trippledigitss]

(another long post from tripple - I cant help it, I just babble on in these posts and have to say everything!)

Went out again Sunday - there was quite a few fish caught but it was not as easy as I expected. I worked all day to get 3 fish for me and 1 ea for my buddy and his uncle. Not alot of rollers but they were biting well.....at times..... The bankers were really killing it in some places. From the sounds of the Area 9 report thread, the bulk of them are not even in the river quite yet, good thing too cuz it was not smoking hot if you ask me. MASS people out there too, of course I expected that though. Good day over all but a fair bit of drama.

Got to the Lowell launch FIRST - NO ONE else was there at all, no one on the ramp, no one in the parking lot, that is a 1st for me. About 10-15min after I got in the water guys started showing up. The morning started well then I spilled my coffee on the passenger side floor parking the truck and made a little coffee pond. Once on the water I anchored so my partners could rig up and when the light hit the river fish were around us, but I had planned to run up 1st (thinking there was more fish in the river) so I left that push of fish - DUMB!  We went up and got 3 fish right away but it took me awhile to get the other 2, I dont think I got them until around 1300 - lost a bunch of fish too. I dont know if it was the hooks on my jigs or what, but I lose more fish on jigs than anything else. At one point, everyone around was gettting fish after fish and we didnt even get hit - now THAT is frustrating! Plus I need to stop being lazy and follow the fish up once they pass. I am used to another push coming so I just wait. The action was definitely better on the tide flood for sure. I've always wondered how fast they travel, like how long does it take them to get up the river? Seems so far this year they are shooting up river and then slowing down and holding up high. At one point we were in some shallow water, like 3 feet and you could seem them swim by on the bottom in about groups of 5 but they werent rolling and werent interested the lures.

So all in all, for those 5 fish I got this: My new Pflueger rod broke when I got the 1st fish to the boat, had to grab the line and net it by hand. Its an "ultra light" 8' rod but its good for 4-8# line and 1oz lure I think - and I only had a small hen on, maybe 3+lbs at most. 1st fish I hook on it and it breaks - no more Pflueger rods for me, I like the reels but not impressed with that rod at all! Next, my buddy's uncle was fishing a semi-drift type set up, a slinky and a jig on about a 4-5ft leader, and he freaking snags my boat canopy during a cast and ripped a 6in hole in it. That sucked. My anchor rope came loose, rotted or something and I lost my river anchor. Some freaking clown in about an 18ft pro-steelheader windshield boat was drifting out of control with no motor and runs into me while on anchor (I had my Danforth onboard as a spare), luckily he had 2guys hanging over and 'caught' the boat with their hands and pushed around me THEN they start their kicker - freaking idiot - humpies brings them all out doesnt it? The launch was freaking crazy, drifted for about a half hour before getting a spot then waited in the trailer line for another 30min - I knew it would be bad but still. Just before I decided to pull out I got my 3rd fish right by the launch and it was empty, so I stayed out for another hour to try & get #4 then quit and headed back to it and it was packed. Oh well, I dont know why I'm whining, I got 3 good fish and it was better than work.

[sled]

  We went out last night.  I dont ever remember this many people fishing for humpies before!  Everywhere I fished in the years before had people in them.  I thought they were my secret spots. .
  We got there at high change over, and had good action for about 20 min then it was over.

[trippledigitss]

  We went out last night.  I dont ever remember this many people fishing for humpies before!  Everywhere I fished in the years before had people in them.  I thought they were my secret spots. .
  We got there at high change over, and had good action for about 20 min then it was over.

Yeah I know! It seems like there is waaaay more people out there than past years! Even on the bank! People were everywhere! Who told them all about these darn pinks anyway?!  I should went out to the salt, but the launches were probably just as busy. So you got some fish at least? Where did you launch?

[singleshot12]

That's gotta be the worst thing about humpy fising these days,the masses of yeahoos that aren't really fishermen come out of the woodworks. It's usually a mess too when they're done , garbage everywhere.

[trippledigitss]

Well the fish are in there good now. FC & I were out there 1st thing yesterday - 1st at the launch again!!   - on the water by 0500 and starting fishing just after 0600- 0615 or so and we could have wrapped up and gone home by 0730-0800 if not sooner. (If F'ie wouldnt have made me throw a foul hook and another one back!) They are pretty much everywhere up & down the river from where we were, the Pilchuck down to Lowell/Rotary park. But you really see them turn off when the tide stops running - they damn near just stop biting all together vs a fish every cast when the tide is pushing them. We got some really nice ones too, some of the biggest humpy hens I've ever seen. Nice fresh chrome and spunky fish. Only lost one fish all and that was because my line broke at the lure. The fish before that got wrapped up in the anchor line and I was too lazy to check or change my line and it broke right when I was getting ready to net the fish. Shoot - there goes another $1.59!!

[trippledigitss]

Not the best pics but hey - its only pinks! The fish look a lot better when they come of the water, vs bathing in bloody ice.... If I'm going to take pics I should take them right after we net them but its not all a steehead or something where I'm all excited that I finally got something! Come to think of it, I think thats what I like about the pinks - they make me feel like I actually know what I am doing!! 

[FC]

Hey, I know that guy!

It was fun, thanks again! I'll be back Sunday afternoon/evening so I'll be ready to go out again Monday if you still want to.

[Ripper]

Good job guy's, I know what you mean about these fish. I think they are a blast to catch, and anyone can do it.

[trippledigitss]

Hey, I know that guy!

It was fun, thanks again! I'll be back Sunday afternoon/evening so I'll be ready to go out again Monday if you still want to.

Yeah it was fun. (and by not the best pics I meant the fish were not cooperating in their pose! Not your photo skillls, you are becoming quite the photograhper - I guess all that skoolin is paying off somewhere!) 

[trippledigitss]

Yeah the river has kicked off really well now. Was out there Sunday again and we limited with 12 fish in about 3 hrs. 9 of them came by 0830-0900 and at 1st light we were in the thick of a push from the tide and water was boiling with fish. It was about 0630 or 0700 and we were right above Lowell and fish were everywhere. All nice chromers too - got some good pics I can post but you all know the humpies well by now, seen one, seen 'em all! Bought a new Lowrance HDS-5 GPS combo so when that gets on here Wednesday I'm gonna go get it all set up and ready for the silvers!