By: Todd Daniels Western Washington’s pink salmon run came in much higher than forecasted and it’s not over yet. Anglers starting catching pinks in the salt in late July. Although pinks are still being caught in the salt the bite shifted to the rivers in August. Meanwhile, we are nearing the tail end of the […]
By: Todd Daniels This season we are experiencing higher than average water flows which has given us off colored water. To be successful catching steelhead we must adapt to those conditions. By adapting we are going to go bigger, bolder and brighter. What I mean by that is I’m adding more ingredients on the hook […]
By: Todd Daniels Curing pink salmon eggs is different than curing other salmon and steelhead eggs. The outer cell of pink’s eggs is a thinner membrane compared to coho and Chinook. Therefore, you have to treat them more delicately. For example, I go lighter on the cure and use a combo of BorX O Fire […]
By: Todd Daniels The Cowlitz River is the only place in Washington that has hatchery steelhead now. That’s it. Essentially, it’s a ghost town everywhere else. This being said the season has started off on the slower side. However, the numbers of steelhead returning are picking up daily. The good thing is, this year the […]
By: Todd Daniels After expecting historic low numbers we’re fortunate to have the experts miss on this one and there’s lots of coho in the Snohomish system. The fish showed up. The numbers are way, way, way over preseason forecasts. The hatchery has plenty of fish and is at or near escapement already, Sunset Falls […]
By: Todd Daniels For the last year we’ve been hearing about expected historical low returns of coho in Puget Sound. However, the forecast was wrong and we’re seeing fishable numbers of these feisty silvers in many of our Puget Sound rivers. Fortunately for us living in the Central Puget Sound the decision was made yesterday […]
By: Todd Daniels This isn’t a great time of year for getting fresh eggs. Those of us chasing summer steelhead in the Northwest are likely using eggs from the fall or winter. In fact, all of my eggs were cured months ago in either BorX O Fire or Fire Cure. Finding fresh eggs is rare […]
By: Todd Daniels We’ve had record high water since November on the Cowlitz River. And, it’s been high and muddy. On the other hand, now that the river is dropping into shape it’s slowing the fish down and they are starting to congregate where they normally do. Most important, there’s a ton of steelhead in […]
While many anglers overthink it, curing coho eggs is much easier than Chinook eggs. Coho eggs are small and have smaller skeins so I don’t butterfly them. I cure the skeins whole, which takes a step out of the process. With these eggs there isn’t this big glob of eggs. Therefore, the cure can get […]
We’ve been expecting an enormous run of pink salmon in the North Puget Sound. In fact, more than six million are expected to return. Our pink run on the Snohomish River opened on Sunday and it’s been very good since the minute it did. Action is already incredible and the numbers of pinks are building […]
