Northwest Fishing Reports

the pink salmon are going to be good this year i hope ill be throwing light lines with small pink and red buzz bombs and small spoons spinners. this is my favorite way to catch these guys. What does everyone else like to do for pinks?

i mainly fish them at dash pt pier. i use a 1/4 oz jig and wait til the school comes within casting range, and toss it to'em with a short fast jiggin motion. i kill'em like that. at low tide though i'll toss a pink dart or buzz bomb to the schools off the front side.

I like to troll for coho and catch pinks by mistake on my coho gear all day long. Keeps things interesting while I wait for the keeper silvers to bite.

spokey9 wrote:i mainly fish them at dash pt pier. i use a 1/4 oz jig and wait til the school comes within casting range, and toss it to'em with a short fast jiggin motion. i kill'em like that. at low tide though i'll toss a pink dart or buzz bomb to the schools off the front side.

you can watch the pinks break away from the school and chase the jig, I do it the same way.

tnj8222 wrote:

spokey9 wrote:i mainly fish them at dash pt pier. i use a 1/4 oz jig and wait til the school comes within casting range, and toss it to'em with a short fast jiggin motion. i kill'em like that. at low tide though i'll toss a pink dart or buzz bomb to the schools off the front side.

you can watch the pinks break away from the school and chase the jig, I do it the same way.

that's why i like dash pt so much:cheers:

yea when they are right next to the boat watching them break away is pretty cool

I loved to go to Hoodsport when I was in WA.
Not as big of a thrill as watching the pinks chase your jig,
but its pretty cool when u see the water start "boiling"
because of all the fish. 1/4 oz pink marabou jig.

yea that is how we spot the schools then motor like 15 feet a way its so much fun

I love to troll for em at the Shipwreck picking up the occasional silver along the way. 2009 was an amazing season to say the least. We took 64 fish on my boat in three weeks time fishing 3 to 4 mornings each week and had a blast doing it. This season will be spent taking family visiting from NY and a few co-workers out to catch these abundant salmon. Love it!

Toni wrote:
I want to know which color pink do they like best?

i like bubble gum pink until the water gets murky then go with the brightest pink you can find

Dave wrote:I love to troll for em at the Shipwreck picking up the occasional silver along the way. 2009 was an amazing season to say the least. We took 64 fish on my boat in three weeks time fishing 3 to 4 mornings each week and had a blast doing it. This season will be spent taking family visiting from NY and a few co-workers out to catch these abundant salmon. Love it!

I'm with you on that one, pinks and silvers at the same time while they are still bright! Congrats on the weight loss!

Toni wrote:I started out using buzz bombs but switched to a 1/4 oz jig I made which worked really well for me. I am not going back to buzz bombs.
I watched up to 5 pinks go after my jig, had it in their mouth, and I didn't get them. So I have changed my design.

I am going to use 1/2 oz for these reasons 1) sometimes I couldn't get it out to the fish or it didn't drop fast enough.
2) I am using a larger hook with a trailer.

Pink jigs

I am having a hard time waiting for the pink season!


I want to know which color pink do they like best?

Hey Toni, your site is looking great and you've got some first rate jigs. I'm going to have to get a few from you and use them casting in the salt this year.

Everyone, check out Toni's web site and let's support one of our own trying to start a small business in the jig market. Good luck Toni! :thumleft:

MarkFromSea wrote:

Dave wrote:I love to troll for em at the Shipwreck picking up the occasional silver along the way. 2009 was an amazing season to say the least. We took 64 fish on my boat in three weeks time fishing 3 to 4 mornings each week and had a blast doing it. This season will be spent taking family visiting from NY and a few co-workers out to catch these abundant salmon. Love it!

I'm with you on that one, pinks and silvers at the same time while they are still bright! Congrats on the weight loss!

Thanks Mark. Changing the diet and exercise portion of my life in late 2007 and losing nearly all of my weight in 20 months which I’ve kept off now for 18 months was without question the best decision I've ever made in my life. Along the way, I've written a book outlining my journey and of course how I lost my weight, with the final chapter to go. I’m waiting on my insurance company to approve a full abdominoplasty to remove the residual skin and fat which I will write about afterwards before pursuing a publisher. My book has my diet and exercise program in it along with a detailed food list, menu, and pics along with my story which begins 23 years ago on my first day at the police academy. I share some police stories with the reader and of course the root of my story which is how my lifestyle changed throughout my career resulting in weight gain and ultimately extreme weight loss. I hope it's a best seller . Anyway, thanks for the kind words and support.

So how many people actually like to eat Pinks? How do you prepare them. I usually just smoke mine up with a dry brine and smoke em in alder chips...

I think they are pretty good.... Anyone else?

Jaksonbrown wrote:So how many people actually like to eat Pinks? How do you prepare them. I usually just smoke mine up with a dry brine and smoke em in alder chips...

I think they are pretty good.... Anyone else?

Out of the salt - I will cook em up as I would trout.
Out of the river - smokem

Last Pink season I took a salt-caught Pink and salt-caught Coho to a family BBQ It was interesting BBQ'ed them side-by-side (same prep/spices). The Pink's meat really reminded me of a trout, pale, mild tasting. The Coho was pink and stronger tasting. I like Coho better (but like the Pink also). For the family (most of which were out from Nebraska, so don't get salmon much) it was about 50/50, some thought the Coho was too strong and preferred the pink and others really preferred the Coho.

i like to bake'em fresh out of the salt. a lil butter, lemon pepper, & garlic and it's very good, also good on the "q".

Same for me, baked, BBQ, and smoked. I get the majority, if not all of my pinks from the Sound. On the BBQ I like to cook fillets with some seasoning and I use the I can't believe its not butter spray because there are no calories, carbs, or fat in it or if I feel like splurging I use real butter. I like to top the fillets with sliced sweet onion. Yum!!! Smoking I like the 4 to 1 brown sugar / salt brine, left refrigerated overnight, then smoked the next day using mesquite or apple wood chunks at about 155 degrees in my briquette smoker, takes roughly 3 hours. Good eats.......

Last season I BBQ'd some sockeye on a soaked cedar plank with BBQ sauce on it and it was some of the most delicious salmon I've had. I like to soak the planks in water for about 3 hours or so (maybe longer) so they don't catch on fire, then put them and the fish on the bbq on medium heat. To the fish I add a squeeze of lemon, liberal salt, black pepper and garlic then let it cook until halfway done then baste with BBQ sauce and let it caramelize, add sweet onions on top if you like. I find the smoke from the cedar ads a wonderful smokey flavor AND aroma to the meat and is the perfect compliment to the BBQ sauce, smokey sweet mm mm good. I think this would work well for salt caught pinks because they taste like basically anything you season them with, so the BBQ sauce works well. I have also heard of people soaking them in teryaki, but have never tried it.

You can do the same thing in the oven sans cedar plank. Just put the fish in, cook it half way, then add the BBQ. I have introduced a few of my friends to this technique and they have all gotten hooked on it! BBQ sauce is the bomb on salmon. I do 3 different recipes MOST of the time for fresh salmon either Lemon/Dill/Butter/Garlic the traditional way, Blackened (seared with blackening seasoning and finished in the oven), or the BBQ sauce method.

So are the pinks caught in the lower snohomish river already starting to slime? How far up have you caught them that they are still chrome? I was thinking of hitting the area above Dagmars marina this year for pinks. I was wondering if they would still be bright having only just barely entered the river?