Rivers wrecked? Enjoy the Blackmouth Bonanza! Leave a reply

Winter weather… What a pain. 

The media has all kinds of weather buzz words:

“We’re ramping up the showers and ramping up the temperatures which will ramp up the snow levels which in turn will…. Wait for it… Ramp up the river levels!

My least favorite weather buzz word?… besides “ramp”… Pineapple express. We’re talking five inches of rain on the Washington coast and several more inches in the central Cascades on top of a vast amount of snow…

That’s gonna leave a mark….A high water mark!
  
So what’s a guy to do? Go blackmouth fishing! We are so incredibly fortunate to have Puget Sound as a playground, giving us options when our rivers start blowing chunks.

Here’s a shot of a dandy we boated shortly after the winter chinook season opened. I threw the yardstick in just in case you needed to be reminded what a 30’’ blackmouth looks like.

Blackmouth or immature chinook salmon are eager biters, wonderful on the table and a whole lot of fun to catch. There are however, a few tricks to the trade.

First and foremost blackmouth are ravenous, actively feeding chinook. You’ve heard this before but it bears repeating: find the bait and you’ll find the fish. 

Educated guesses to what’s on the dinner table in the winter season include but are not limited to: herring in the 4” range, candlefish emerging from sandy bottoms, squid (which are in turn, feeding on shrimp) and one of the most unknown & underrated items on the blackmouth buffet…the pile perch or poggie. So, how do you “match the hatch” when the blackies are grinding on poggies?

Spoons Brother… Spoons! Here’s a shot of the gut contents of the aforementioned 30-inchers and poggies were on his plate. While the color of the spoons is always a matter of discussion and personal preference…. 

…Take a look at the other side of these spoons and the uncanny similarity of the backside of these spoons to the appearance of the baitfish.

Rig your Silver Horde Kingfishers 42” behind your Q-Cove Breakaway and as long as the Cannon balls are bouncing along the bottom you’re fishing the right depth. Keep your troll speeds up around 2 knots give or take a ¼ knot and if the downrigger wire is at a 40-45 degree angle you look good to get bit!

Oh, and watch out for drift out there… The rivers are doing a little house cleaning right now and Puget Sound will be looking a little chunky. Fortunately, so are the blackmouth!