Edmonds Pier rats

[wolverine]

Better get out there. Fish have been happening.

[Gonefishing]

Are we talking the same pier that has had few and far in between until the last week or so? :D

I might be a bit frustrated but 100 people on the pier fishing and only 5 hits and 1 landed is um. Does anybody know how the elderly guy who collapsed after catching the 20+ last week is doing?

I've been there just not at the right time..... but I'd rather be working and making some money vs not working.

[wolverine]

As of 11:15 this morning. 16 on, 10 landed. 9 kings, 1 silver. Best day so far this year. No love for me there today but I can't get up at 3 every day and go up to the island or PNP. I slept in (till 5) this morning and went down to make a lot of casts. Today wasn't my day.
The man who collapsed while his fish was being landed last week is doing OK. It wasn't a heart attack, it was a stress attack. His wife had a stroke a few days before and he was having a tough time. Catching a king was enough excitement to put him on overload.

[jake_k]

If you guys dont mind what are the lures that are really working for the pier

[Gonefishing]

Yesterdays lucky color - for what I heard was green. Didn't matter what it was as long as it was green or had green on it. Tomorrow could be white the next day blue... the next day tnt. Mega Baits now called Luna Bait Luna Jig or something like that crippled herring and darts. I saw one walk off when I arrived and another landed. So you are right the day was the best day of the year and I hope it continues as long as it isn't a mad house.

I'm suppose to work tomorrow but I intend to be there in the morning. Wait that last line looks like a broken record....

[Splitshot]

BuzzBombs?

Does everyone have drop nets?

[wolverine]

No buzz bombs! If you want to be friends with the others on the pier, leave the buzz bombs at home. Everyone uses 2 to 3 oz jigs that flutter on the drop and don't drift sideways and tangle with others nearly as much as buzz bombs do. If you insist on using BB's stay on the north end of the pier where its less crowded. Don't worry about having a drop net as enough people bring them and are willing to net others fish.

[NathanD]

wolverine, Buzz bombs have been catching salmon from the edmonds fishing pier for thirty years since they came on to the
market. Public fishing piers = a tangled up with your neighbor on occasion. Could you please tell us the name(s) of these fluttering jigs
you speak of ? I have not fished the edmonds fishing pier for ten years or so but I remember the buzz bomb being the most
productive lure used for salmon there. More information about what TO use please.

[motorek]

I was there yesterday ( Saturday). I got there somewhat late, being there after six. One fish lost. One guy landed nice 25 lbs... baby seal. Heard about one fish caught before six. Did not stay long and left the piere about 9 am. How was the fishing later?

[Gonefishing]

You are right Buzz-Bombs do work but as Wolverine said they tend to drift a-lot. I've caught a few on them in the past 30 years at the pier myself but would rather use anything but for personal reasons.

In the last 10 to 15 years and it might go back even further the preferred jigs became Point Wilson Darts. Then when Mega Bait jigs came out that became the must have it jig. Luhr Jensen's Crippled Herring Jigs are great - they flutter like the Mega Baits. Mega Bait jigs flutter but they don't tend to wander as badly as the Buzz-Bombs.

Another good jig if you can find it are the ZZinger from the same people that make the Buzz Bomb. As I mentioned in an earlier post the Mega Bait Jigs discontinued its jig but it's been replaced by Luna. And if you can't wait till your local shop picks them up you can try the P-line Laser Minnow that looks like the Megabait/Luna but don't weigh as much.

Just make sure you are carrying a lot of 2oz, 2.5oz, and 3oz jigs, those are the jig weights most if not all the regulars use.

[wolverine]

Gonefishing pretty well nailed it on the jigs. BB's will still catch fish but they cause too many tangles with others who are using other jigs. Tangles happen anyway, but far less with everyone using jigs. Same with braid vs mono. When braid tangles with mono its a mess to unwind. Use mono. The pier guys are good people. One just needs to fit in with the group.

[Gonefishing]

Not only is the braid a pain to untangle from but it seems to me that braid ends up cutting my line and I end up doing the jig go bye bye solute.


Also and this is big also... Read the regs before heading out and make sure you have pliers, or have barbless hooks. Leave the trebles behind or toss em you can't use them.

The reason I'm bringing this up is somebody who was using a Buzz Bomb did catch and land a salmon... however he was using the original hook out of the package and didn't pinch the barb. Guy said well lets call it a learning experience and shoves the fish into a bag and leaves.. no thank you to the person that netted the fish and we didn't see him even mark his card.... (if he even had one).

I guess what I want to say is be courteous you never know when you are going to need some help from the person next to you. Just wish we could do something about the other rats.... err tourists... and parking police. One of these days I'm going instead of saying casting will say free ear piercing... oh wait I have said it and got that same blank stare I get when I say casting... the same blank stare when I asked some group to move when my fish decided to go south on me and I asked and asked and asked them to move... and after I lost it they said all you had to do was ask us to move...

[wolverine]

Gone fishing, I stopped by the pier on the way home from dropping my GF off at the airport. I caught the last end of the conversations that a couple of guys were having with the treble hook fool. By the time a couple of guys filled me in on what happened the guy was scurrying off the pier with the fish. What should have been done was take a bunch of cell phone pics of the fish with the treble hook in it, the perp, and his vehicle and lic plate. With that much evidence there would be no way he could wiggle out of a citation.

[Gonefishing]

Yesterday (thursday) I heard it was a circus for a little while ... fish jumping with hooks in them and eventually breaking lines or tossing the hooks. Few landed.

Today I decided I was taking the day off (was suppose to do that Tuesday but ....) 3 hooked with in five minutes of me arriving... 1 landed and it was an inch too small the other two tossed the hooks. An hour later somebody in the middle of the pier hooks a fish and it runs like a bat out of heck towards the south side and jumped twice and the guy evenually lost the fish. Could have been a big silver the way it ran but we will never know.

About 3 hours later the same guy hooks another one. Fish hits right after the jig hit the water. Same action... fish runs hard south, jumps three times, but the guy doesn't lose the fish. However it's foul hooked in the belly.

Question to those that fish the pier.... do you follow the regs and put it back since it was a snag and not in the face... or do you pose for pictures.... clean it... and leave with the evidence....

To be honest I'm waffling on that because I've lost 3 at Pier 86 and 1 at Seacrest. 1 was my fault... 2 were tourists issues... and the last one I just didn't get the hook well set.

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I think I read that in the Seattle Times that Area 9 was averaging .9 fish per rod.... wonder if that took into account the zillions on the Edmonds Pier and if they did take that into account would it be closer to um....... .2.... :D

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Just a dumb reminder pinch those barbs... Its not just for the fish but for the human too. Somebody had to go to either a walk in clinic or emergency room because they couldn't get a barbed hook out of their finger today.

[Matt]

To answer the question regarding foul hooked fish... to simplify: Would you break the law? Yes/No.

I would answer No.

[Gonefishing]

Mat I know I wouldn't because the day I did that would be the day the warden would be out. I did the I'm going to deliberately speed though Woodway (was doing 29 maybe 30 in a 25 zone)thing when I was much younger and sure it enough it was the day the police were hanging sitting on the side of the road waiting for young idiots in a hurry (I had an interview in Edmonds and I was running late). That was my first and last speeding ticket.

[Shad_Eating_Grin]

the question about the legality of keeping a foul hooked fish, in saltwater, gets tossed around every year in all the internet fishing bulletin boards

Clearly, it is illegal to keep a foul hooked fish in freshwater, per the regs:

It is unlawful to possess a fi sh taken from
freshwater that was not hooked inside the
mouth or on the head. The head is defi ned
as any portion forward of the rear margin of
the gill plate.


The above language is missing in the Saltwater general rules. So, the conclusion has been in the bulletin boards that it is legal to keep a foul hooked fish in saltwater, so long as the fish was not intentionally snagged (since "snagging" as defined in the statewide general regs as follows:

Snagging Attempting to take fi sh with a hook
and line in such a way that the fi sh does not
voluntarily take the hook(s) in its mouth. In
freshwater, it is illegal to possess any fi sh
hooked anywhere other than inside the mouth or
on the head.



Use the comments/information above at your own risk. Contact the WDFW or your lawyer as needed.

[Chefbrian117]

I accidentally kept a snagged Pink,(note snagging wasn't intentional it just happened that way) last year at Picnic Point beach, though I hadn't read the regs properly to see for that rule, though if your on the pier at Edmonds how do you release the tired fish into the water without him constantly going belly up on you??? Also Im thinking of fishing there today and possibly tomorrow and even more, but I'm using braided line, is that gonna be a real problem for anyone? I dont want to anger anyone on the pier for the fact they might be the person to help me land my fish.

[Gonefishing]

We actually had a long discussion on the accidental snag thing many times. And said considering on the pier you are a good 15 feet plus above the water most of the time... and half of the foul ups occur so far out how can you call it intentional.

Anyways way back in time we had a warden that would come out and inspect the fish for a snag up and if he found evidence that the hook hit anywhere but the head you would be written up.

We also asked the current warden the question and he said that he would site a person for foul hooking if he/she retained the fish. I commented something well what if the fish is so exhausted after the whole affair that it will go belly up and become nothing more than um crab bait in the end. Or what if on top of the foul hookup the line wraps itself around the fish and looks likes a total mess.... again likely to die. Or in the case of the foul hooked fish somebody (not the person that landed the fish) clubs the fish to death? In that case who are you going to site... the fisherman that foul hooked or the one that clubbed the fish or both? The fisherman that hooked the fish can say well I intended to put it back in before Rocky beat the stuffing out of him sir...

I don't recall getting an answer to it but I'm gonna guess they'd both be sited in this case.

As for the braided line... if the pier isn't too over crowded be braided shouldn't be a big issue. It's when you are shoulder to shoulder that it does become an issue. I know 4 or 5 that do use it and I watch them cast and double check the current before I start casting... and hopefully avoid the problem.