Area 9 Opener Report!

[Nelly]

After having to suffer through being in the studio for my beloved Marine Area 9 opener on Saturday, I finally got out for a genuine morning bite and what a bite it was!

The Van Waveren Family of LifeStyles ATV with a fine pair of Possession Bar chinook. Not pictured are the three unclipped chinook we released which were easily the largest of the day.

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Success rates across Marine Areas 9 & 10 have been up and down so we're hoping for a conference call later this week to give some indication where we're at with respect to the quota.

[Sandlance]

Nice Catch - they were caught at ____ ft using ____!!

[Nelly]

You got me 'lance!
I should have included that so here goes:
Depths ranged from 120-200' and we were marking chinook on the Simrad High Chirp above the bait on the south end of Possession Bar.
Silver Horde Ace-Hi plugs and Tomic 603's with 6/0 Gamakatsu Big River Open Eye Siwash hooks were the top producers.

Here's a link to my plug blog: http://www.theoutdoorline.com/blog/2010/08/05/plug-primer/

[Nelly]

Today reinforced the pattern that we've seen since the opener which was chinook and bait layered in the water column. The Simrad on High Chirp has been a HUGE help in picking these chinook out of the bait and as I write this, it occurs to me that I should have taken a picture to demonstrate this!
I will definitely will get some shots tomorrow but until then heres's a few shots of today's fish:

Big Eric Jorgensen with the biggest hatchery chinook that I've seen this year. Keep in mind that he is 6'9" and you get the picture!

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The Roy Robinson Chevrolet gang of "Major" Paine, Gary Morris and Eric Jorgensen with today's limit!

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Very solid angling right now on Possession Bar! See you on the water!

[KeithD]

Hi Nelly,

Would a strategy of trolling with a plug on one down rigger and flasher gear on another work well, or do you have to troll faster/have greater cable angle when trolling w/a plug vs. with flasher gear?

[Nelly]

Hey Keith,
You're referring to the concept of compatible gear types, or differing presentations that fish well together and I believe that flasher gear and Plug's do indeed fish well together.
Just don't try fishing a cut-plug herring along side a Silver Horde or Tomic plug!

[Nelly]

... the pattern that we've seen since the opener which was chinook and bait layered in the water column. The Simrad on High Chirp has been a HUGE help in picking these chinook out of the bait and as I write this, it occurs to me that I should have taken a picture to demonstrate this!
I will definitely will get a screen shot tomorrow

As promised, here's the screen shot that I mentioned above:

Although the concentration of bait occurred later in the day you can clearly see larger marks which are chinook, on top of a mixed mass school of herring and krill.

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Les Scheeva who made a generous donation to CCA for today's trip, landed this beautiful female and released several other unclipped fish.

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Every day is different and this day was a bit more challenging but there are a lot of chinook in Puget Sound and a lot of bait to keep them snapping!

[Nelly]

Well, after forgetting to take pictures of yesterday's fish
I made darn sure to get extra shots today! Fortunately, there was a lot of photographic "subject matter"!

Matt Wicks of Jet Chevrolet gets the party started on the first drag on Possession bar with a dandy king!!!

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The whole Jet Chevy gang of Matt Wicks, Steve Zook, Jim Johnson and his son Cody with a boat limit of Puget Sound chinook.

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We also picked the crab gear on the way in and found a near limit of dungeness as well!

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Go see the crew at Jet Chevrolet in Federal Way for a great deal on a new tow rig for your boat and swap some fishing stories!

[Nelly]

Week two of our salmon season has a markedly different look with a series of morning floods changing the distribution of the bait and, in turn the chinook that are feeding upon them.

Tony Floor of the Northwest Marine Trade Association fed this chinook a Coho Killer in the new "Herring Aid" finish!

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George Harris NMTA President has a fight on his hands with this midday chinook!

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Tony and George with their pair of chinook that are headed to a barbecue very soon!

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Currently, we're through about 70% of the quota and we'll be keeping our fingers crossed to see if we get another weekend of our chinook season!

[Nelly]

Without question the tides and the fishing is getting tougher in MA9. We've had to work to get fish the last couple days and had to pull a trick out of my sleeve to put one in the boat today.

Shelly Safronek, the wife of my Evinrude "Main Man" James Safronek hoists the lone inhabitant of the fishbox today but, if you're only gonna get one...

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The trick? well, I've been playing around with the Shark Cannonball and I'm extremely inpressed with it's tracking, lack of blowback and fish catching ability!

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As far as the MA9 quota goes, we're fighting to keep it open through the weekend and after that it's going to be Area 10, or north to the San Juans, the Tulalip and Sinclair Inlet "Bubble" fisheries notwithstanding