Area 9 Opening Day: Possession Bar

[jrichb]

Nice catch. What is a typical trolling speed and depth that you're hitting these fish.

[Nelly]

Hey JR,
Welcome aboard!
My troll speed ranges from 1.5-2.5mph and that is a SOG (Speed Over Ground) off of the GPS.
I also watch my wire angles.
Once the wire blows back over 45 degrees I get uncomfortable and always slow down.

As far as depths are concerned, keep your gear within 10 feet of the bottom and you're in the strike zone!

Good luck out there and thanks for joining our forum!

[Smalma]

Nelly-
For kicks I compared the creel checks in MA 9 and 10 on 7/16 and 7/17 from this year to last year.

For 2011 at the various access points there were 829 boats checked with 215 Chinook, 124 coho and 4 pinks.

For 2010 at the same access points there were 826 boats checked with 517 Chinook and 24 coho.

In looking at thoses reports and talking with some different anglers and creel clerks I have a couple observations. There seems to be a wider range of bait available to the fish and that bait is less concentrated - unlike last year where the bait seemed to be concentrated on Possession (and it became Chinook central) there seems to be at least some bait at virtual every populat Chinook "hole" in MA 9 & 10. Expect the fishing to be more "scattered" and it will likely pay to move from spot to spot playing the tide game to stack your odds of putting a fish or two in the "box".

The portion of "larger" Chinook (say 20#+) seems to be way up from that seen in recent years and many of those fish are real "fatties". Not sure why that is though it may be that those older fish found good feeding contitions and/or there are younger year class did not survival as well as that older age class. Also noticed quite a few "darker" fish in the various catches. Don't know what that all means about the run size potential for this year (too early to say with any certainity) though the decline in the opening weekend catch maybe an indication of a poorer run. On the flip side the Chinook fishinng reports in the middle straits seems up from last year (one example - PA catches for the same dates last year was 97 boats with 54 Chinook and this year it was 117 boats with 106 Chinook.

Are the Chinook stop in the staits for some last minute feeding before heading on into the Sound and their spawning grounds? Time will tell and we should have a better read on that over the next couple weeks.

A couple other observations - there seems to be more resident coho around than last year and on the average they are larger - a nice bonus while scratching for a Chinook. Also the Everett ramp had 4 pinks in the creel check; that is a week earlier than 2009; looks as if "humpy mania" maybe just around the corner. By the second week of August there should be humpies everywhere (a pain for the Chinook puritst but good clean fun for the rest of us). Early reports indicate those humpies maybe larger than normal.

Thoughts and/or comments.

Tight lines
Curt

[Nelly]

Fascinating analysis Curt!
Thanks for supplying that data! I really appreciate and enjoy your viewpoint and the contrast of creel counts between this year and last is very interesting indeed!
Personally, I have boated larger hatchery fish and more wild chinook this year than I did all of last year.
I will be on the water each of the next four days and I'm fired up to have this quality king fishery so close to home!

[Sea Cradle]

Nice fish and report .

[Charmer]

Yo Nelly, saw you pulling pots this afternoon at Everett in that rain squall. Crabbin was excellent... a limit per pot!, We pounded hard this am in that wind to get to Pilot, picked up 2 smallish nooks before the tide change at 9:30am between PNP and Pilot. The weather cleared and we decided to try West Possession before heading back north to Dagmars. We were trolling north, about half way to Scatchet Head Bouy when "Wamo".... Captain Gene Hawkins picks up this 18lb'er at 95' in 110 feet of water, second fish of the day taken on an "Irish Cream".... With all of the bad karma to get out this am, this was a nice reward...

[jrichb]

Sawyou out there this am. Hope you did well. When you're in 200+ ft of water what depth r u at. Im assuming u r not 10'be off bottom. Thanks

Jack

[Salmonhawk]

Sawyou out there this am. Hope you did well. When you're in 200+ ft of water what depth r u at. Im assuming u r not 10'be off bottom. Thanks

Jack

If I know Nelly and he's fishing for kings then he's 10ft off the bottom even at 200ft. I think the only thing that would change that would be the Lowrance marking bait/fish at another depth.

[Todd Busby Cut Plug]

Hit the east edge of the bar this morning in the Ocean Sport. in 300 feet of water, 195 feet down, we caught and quickly released a wild chinook. Perfect release, quick, no blood and never left the water. Qcove green UV and a Silver Horde 3.5" White Lightnin UV. Went old school with a cut plug herring on 10 oz's of lead in the Yamaha wash for a 3 pound coho to finish the trip. That's 2 big hook ups with the White Lightnin UV. 40" knot to knot as King Nelly prescribed.

[jrichb]

Nelly thanks for the advise. Today I caught one small shaker and on 20lb native (released in good shape). All I brought home was a limit of crab Great day to be on the water.
I was using a hotspot and a blue/white grand slam at 130'