Salmon River O.P. "Secret Location!"

[Mike Carey]

and besides the salmon river is a hike for tiny bag limits who cares. but the tahuya post blew up that spot. someones needs to be the devils advocate.

Fire away, but again, designating an entire river system as "secret" to me makes no sense. Tahuya is listed in the regs.

So the logic is, do the research yourself, find these spots, and tell no one. That's fine, but that's a person's personal choice. To slam on other people for making their personal choice of sharing these general locations is hypocritical to say the least. I have never slammed on someone for keeping spots or techniques to themselves, and never will. Heck, if I did the leg work and found a real "secret spot", I would probably keep it to myself too. But that's my choice.

What it boils down to for me is guys want to use the site but then slam people for making their choices of sharing information, and that is what is unacceptable. It's similar to the catch and release debate. You're never going to convince someone to your side of the argument by being nasty to them. If anything, you just polarize them to oppose your point of view. Sending nasty PMs just blew my post up from an isolated fishing report that would have gone off the radar screen in a couple days to a protrated forum debate that brought the exposure up significantly.

The reality is, most of these types of "secret" fade away after the novelty of becoming aware of them wears off. MY example is Joy lake in King county. Years back this very debate raged about that lake. And for a month or two it got a lot of fishing reports. And some very upset bass guys. But it hardly ever gets reported on now. Why? In my opinion, because it's a big hassle to find, park, and drag a pontoon to the tiny little launch area. A guy may do it once or twice to explore but it wouldn't likely become a regular go to spot. And if it did become a regular spot, they probably wouldn't post a report on it, having realized it should be kept hush hush. Again, that's their choice. We put the Secret Lake report form up for just such a situation, so guys can have a little fun sharing info/bragging w/o giving everything away.



TAHUYA RIVER (Mason Co.) from
mouth to steel bridge approximately 1
mile above North Shore Rd. Bridge
(878)
ALL SPECIES - selective gear rules. Internal combustion motors prohibited. Oct. 1-Oct. 31: night closure.
All Game Fish First Sat. in June-Aug. 15 Catch-and-release.
All Game Fish Oct. 1-Oct. 31 Catch-and-release.
SALMON Oct. 1-Oct. 31 Min. size 12". Daily limit 2 COHO only.
from steel bridge approximately 1
mile above North Shore Rd. Bridge
upstream (878)
ALL SPECIES - selective gear rules. Internal combustion motors prohibited. Oct. 1-Oct. 31: night closure.
All Game Fish First Sat. in June-Aug. 15 Catch-and-release.
All Game Fish Oct. 1-Oct. 31 Catch-and-release.

[natetreat]

Two 30 pound kings, a 18 pound coho, three 4 pound jacks and two 20 pound steelhead makes for 130 pounds of meat. I'd say the bag limit is just fine. The salmon river makes BIG fish, and lots of 'em. I've pulled kings out upwards of 40, steelhead aproaching 20-25 are not unheard of. It's not about bag limits, it's about fishing. I'll make sure I start posting more reports on the Tahuya as well, just to spite you R.Ton, because your attitude has no place on this website. This is a place for people to share information, if you want to brag about your secret fish from secret spots, do it on facebook.

[knotabassturd]

Mike- How about a 'small rivers secret spot' for reports?

U could rouse people's curiosity over the systems since they'd be 'secret'. If U mentioned Nate or whomever put U on the fish or whatever it might make for better biz for him/them too (i.e. people could PM him to set a guided trip)?

Just a thought. OK back to not fishing...

[Mike Carey]

Their tone certainly wasn't very gracious LOL but at the same time your posting their private message in a public forum I'd say is not too cool either.

Yes, I would agree except that I didn't identify the person, which would have definately been out of line. And I will admit that they are unlikely to respond in public, so I am taking an advantage. However, it really bothers me that guys feel it's OK to use the PM system is this way. I'm not that thin skinned - I really don't care - but, there are others that really get upset when they get nasty PMs or comments on their fishing reports.

Anyway, thanks knotabassturd for your feedback.

[Mike Carey]

Mike- How about a 'small rivers secret spot' for reports?

U could rouse people's curiosity over the systems since they'd be 'secret'. If U mentioned Nate or whomever put U on the fish or whatever it might make for better biz for him/them too (i.e. people could PM him to set a guided trip)?

Just a thought. OK back to not fishing...

I like it and will suggest it to Aaron. He'll be happy to have more coding work, LOL.

[Rich McVey]

WHOA, so your trying to tell me... Salmon aint a grocery store exclusive item???

Not sure what some people expect when they go to read fishing reports. No info, or just what they want to see.

[natetreat]

I've had my inbox light up from profanity laced emails about these reports. Which in my little world makes me even more liable to put more reports on them rather than less. This is my job, and just because it was a one star report for a day, doesn't mean the river isn't any good. Nobody would be so irritated with reports on the river if they didn't know that the river held lots of fish. There are tons of little rivers that don't see much pressure simply because they are 4 or 5 hours from Seattle. They still won't see much action, even with an increase in reports, because they are 200 miles away! That's the nature of the beast, the further you drive to a river, the less people will be there. There are a lot of little rivers, like the Nemah River, Goodman Creek, Matheny Creek, The upper Bogey, Calawah, Hoh, Hoko, Salt Creek, Newaukum River, Upper Chehalis, Sultan River, Pilchuck Creek, Clearwater River, Dickey River, Mosquito Creek, Black River Niawiukum, Hoquim, East and West Fork of the Humptulips, South Fork of the Naselle, White Salmon, Wishkah river, The Sauk and Suiattle and a few others that I fish and never run into anyone. They just aren't accessible, and even if one gets a little pressure, the numbers of fish in these areas are significantly more than enough to allow for easy harvest. It's not like my reports are giving GPS coordinates to the secret spots, and the more people spread out on all the rivers the better, that way our highway zones like the Puke Green and Sky don't get so overcrowded as to make it a crowded day of fishing. To all of you reading the site that are looking for some exceptional fishing experiences, I encourage you to take a look at those lesser fished spots that I listed, and if you'd like to get out there and benefit from my extensive experience on them, I'll gladly share everything I know with you. I'm working the Salmon a lot this year, so look forward to reports with big fish and good intel on it as well. And look forward to the video that mike and I made, it's going to be killer.

[Mike Carey]

I think you may get a few more PMs/e-mails... oh boy.

[lost360]

case in point is the tahuya. place was blown up from a post from here you cupcakes. have a bite.

Ya and the locals were complaining but they were ones keeping snagged fish that I saw

[Bigtrk]

I hauled logs out of all that country and fished it for yrs ..and I still find new country up there all the time .

[Steelheadin360]

I think you may get a few more PMs/e-mails... oh boy.

haters gonna hate.... right?

[bassplayer17]

Im with ya Nate ive fished alot of those same rivers over the years the drive alone discourages a lot of people which is just fine with me. My latest fav is the clearwater. Love driftin that thing BBBIG kings in oct big coho oct nov and the steel in jan feb 20+ fish day with no kill it dont get any better than that.

[RiverChromeGS]

Their tone certainly wasn't very gracious LOL but at the same time your posting their private message in a public forum I'd say is not too cool either.


Good luck to all.

you and your "tones" this guys tone, that tone, jesus. the guy attacked mike on his own website for doing nothing wrong. He was not out of line posting the private message, at all. It sends a message to other members that this behavior cannot be tolerated, a good lesson and warning. and mike posted it without saying who it was.

[Bodofish]

Plus a very big 1

[EAmon ___hoffman123]

Their tone certainly wasn't very gracious LOL but at the same time your posting their private message in a public forum I'd say is not too cool either.


Good luck to all.

you and your "tones" this guys tone, that tone, jesus. the guy attacked mike on his own website for doing nothing wrong. He was not out of line posting the private message, at all. It sends a message to other members that this behavior cannot be tolerated, a good lesson and warning. and mike posted it without saying who it was.

Agreed.

[Brat Bonker]

case in point is the tahuya. place was blown up from a post from here you cupcakes. have a bite.

+1 million
that was pretty bs, I heard it went from a couple people to a couple hundred because of that. The only reason I have to keep my rivers a secret so the poachers do not come, they wreck havoc on the runs at the tahuya and else where and those once good and big runs will never come back. oh yeah and not too mention the litter it comes with it. some people grew up around these rivers and rather not see them go down the toilet because off internet jerk posting reports about how many fish he saw and hooked and drawing crowds from all over.

[EAmon ___hoffman123]

Brat, I think there's more to that, Alot of people are trying to help others, (which is normally what the Forums are for) I know what you are talking about completly. But there's no reason for getting mad about it. For all we know he wasn't trying to make a hundred people show up to a river. He just wanted to share a river filled with fish. It's his choice when he posts. It's like how i don't post anything about my home river. But when people ask about it i always help people.

[Brat Bonker]

EA I understand that but you can only fish like a mile of water on this little river and these are like true native coho, no hatcheries what so ever unless it got lost or something so once they are gone they are gone and believe or not I know of rivers that have just destroyed by gillnetters out in the mouth and the fish actually started to come back after the closure date as those were the only fish to survive. But if it is a place like the quilcene or another major hatchery river than go right ahead as they are more abundant.

[Mike Carey]

case in point is the tahuya. place was blown up from a post from here you cupcakes. have a bite.

+1 million
that was pretty bs, I heard it went from a couple people to a couple hundred because of that. The only reason I have to keep my rivers a secret so the poachers do not come, they wreck havoc on the runs at the tahuya and else where and those once good and big runs will never come back. oh yeah and not too mention the litter it comes with it. some people grew up around these rivers and rather not see them go down the toilet because off internet jerk posting reports about how many fish he saw and hooked and drawing crowds from all over.

From a couple people to a couple hundred? I find that really hard to believe. Would you be willing to post a picture showing 200 people fishing it? Usually when someone "heard it" the reality is very different from what they were told.

I agree 100%, people that litter and poach are jerks and worse, and I'm sorry the people that grew up in these locations are watching their secluded locations become less secluded. When I moved here in 1989 the population was half what it is now. And ten years from now it will be that much more again. So before we take up attitudes of exclusion and bitterness we should perhaps find ways to share and protect the land we all love from the jerks that do polute and have no respect for the fisheries, which are on public lands for the benefit of all, not just the ones that were here first.

What I'm suggesting is that one way or another, these locations will be found and fished. Nothing is going to stop that. So wouldn't we rather have a group of people that do care about these places going to them and watching over them. And protecting them from the litterers and poachers? You see people talking about these fisheries as something to be feared. I see it as an opportunity to have people like you, like me, like Nate, like others that care about the resource watch over it. Because if we don't, then who will? The poachers? The litterers? I'd much rather have an angler from this site going to the these places because odds are they are going to be respectful of the resource and place.

[OFFDAAHOOK]

Well said mike