Northwest Fishing Reports

Good Afternoon,
I have moved to this area recently, i have experience in bass fishing, and bottom fishing. What I dont have any experience in is salmon fishing especially from the shores of a river. The closest river to me is the Nisqually just south of the East Gate on JBLM. any tips and tricks to the trade would be greatly appreciated. I will mark my location with gps when i get to the spot i have scouted and even take some pictures to share on here.

Also does anyone ever use the chatroom???

What chat room?

I don't do chat, but this is what it says when I found it;

Please wait, connecting to server...
The connection to the chat server is lost. The License for CuteChat is not valid. You are using a domain license file. The domain name in the license file doesn't match the actual domain name (northwestfishingreports.com) of the web site. Domain not match!

Didn't notice that when I connected last......anyways I was out on the Nisqually for a few hours this afternoon.....no hits or nothing.....i may look into getting a quide or something in me area.....i love fishing but i hate coming up empty.

Probably has something to do with the name change from Washington Lakes to Northwest Fishing Reports.

if water clarity is greater than 1ft, use a pink/white maribou jig, preferably with some flash to it. jig it from 4" to 1ft off the bottom, keeping it in that depth, and steadily but slowly jigging it. it slays them on the snohomish and should work there too. fish in 6'-10' of water with that. deeper than 10' use a 3/8ths maribou jig. also apply sandshrimp oil to the jig head to cover the scent of your hands touching the lure. as for guiding, i couldnt help you there, ive never paid for a guide so i couldnt give you an honest recomendation.

higgs .. go to the fort lewis main gate and get a range pass if you havent already for the nisquick itll open up a lil more spots for you also theres a beach you can launch out of near ketron island for the mouth of the nisquick out in the salt if you have a boat with the range pass . the green should be picking up soon theres a spot over south of a narrows bridge on the gig harbor side that does really really well for puget sound coho from shore ... hoodsport and skok will pick up with chums here

I have been here 6 years now. I love to fish and the fishing is great here. I've always had a good boat and always caught fish. I read all of the early books on freshwater structure fishing and couldn't unthink that mindset. It really skunked me when I used it here.

Boy, this is not bass or walleye fishing. Main reason is- in the rivers the salmon stop eating. They also care little about bass structure. They travel in schools with reproduction on their minds. I'd see them swim under my boat with my fish finder. Swim past me real quick and then gone upriver. This is a much different gig. These salmon are going to a big party at the spawning beds!! They don't eat and they move quickly for the most part. They may stop in a deep pool if temp or water level makes them pause.

I hired a guide several times on several rivers. That REALLY helped me!!! I found the guides on this site. Now I view salmon fishing as having them strike out of instinct not strike to eat. Kind of like a cat attacking a ball of yarn.

I didn't understand what the color pink had to do with fishing until I saw real salmon eggs and also saw fresh caught shrimp.

I think I like salmon fishing the best of any other type of freshwater. It can be very frustrating. It can be over the top hot. My best advice is hire a guide who is willing to teach. Also, read this site's old reports by river or species.

Fishing for pinks is the easiest way to start cause they spawn closer to the salt and are willing to strike more often.

Thank you all for the input, trust me im taking it to heart and will put it to good use. Cant really afford the whole guide thing just yet, I will just have to learn on the fly. I dont give up easily so ill keep giving it a shot till i wading through salmon....lol