2025 Area 9 King Opener

[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. 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. 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.