Snohomish River reports

[viet]

i fished saturday evening around 7, landed a really bright hen. really good condition. First pink landed this year, third time out. had couple others on, but they shook the hook. for some reason when i have the time to get out fishing its at sunset i only have an hour or so of light left. i wish i could get out earlier, i'm sure i would catch more.

[mallard83]

oneshot,
Mallard isn't giving you grief. He knows his stuff and was just helping you out by pointing out your mistake, so chill out and let him help you out...

awesome! its still pointless, thanks for pointing out where i am wrong i will correct my termonology, nowgo fish already! :cheers:

It is actually not pointless at all. All I was doing was passing on some info to someone who may have not known any better (i.e. you). So I am not putting you down, just trying to give some USEFUL info. If you are not willing to listen to others, than you will never learn anything. And that old guy did not know what he was talking about, and no the river did not slow down it just seemed that way, sometimes a rivers current can be very deceptive. Unless the river changed level very quickly, which in that stretch can only happen if we have a down pour then it was just the current playing tricks on your eyes. And you were right I don't really care if you get anything right, I am just another person on this site trying to help others with info. So if you don't want any info well thats fine because others may. I am not putting you down so don't take offense to this too.

[A9]

I agree with mallard. If i were in your shoes, and you previously mentioned you are new to it all and are just learning, I'd love to have people correcting my mistakes and informing me of stuff that I've been misinformed about. Just something to think about...

[MikeFishes]

I agree with mallard. If i were in your shoes, and you previously mentioned you are new to it all and are just learning, I'd love to have people correcting my mistakes and informing me of stuff that I've been misinformed about. Just something to think about...

I agree, and I am in your shoes (well, kind of, i'm pretty much clueless ).

In any case, back to the the topic at hand. For the Silvers, should I have more than 8# test line? That's what I currently have, so if the answer is yes, I'll need to get bigger line for the silvers.

[A9]

Mikey,
Not being a big salmon fishermen on the rivers, I don't know if you'd need any smaller or heavier duty line. For saltwater (buzzbomb tossing) off beaches I use 10-12, no more then 15, in fact if I can remember I think I got 12lb Pline CXXX on both of my spinning setups for saltwater salmon...I used 8lb for the pinks just fine, if you go too heavy you sacrifice casting distance, but I know mallard should have a couple good opinions..

[mallard83]

Mikey I fish rivers probably more than any other body of water and have learned a lot about river fishing over the years. So here it goes. The diameter of your line actually depends on a few different things. The kind of rod you are using (i.e. action), the river condition (i.e. clarity of water), and another is the experience of the angler.

As for your question about using 8# test for silvers or going larger. Generally fishing rivers for salmon and steelhead, I use 10# mainline and 8# leader on my drift rod. I will go as small as 6# test on a lighter action rod if conditions call for it. But generally if you are unexperienced fishing for silvers in the river it is a good idea to step it up to 10# test throughout the whole rig (leader and mainline). I am not saying an inexperienced river angler cannot land a silver on 8#, but it is more likely that the fish will be landed on 10#. Some silvers are small (about 5-10 lbs.), but others are larger and put up an unbelievable fight in the river (10-20 lbs.).

You will have more hookups (most of the time not always) on the 8# rig but a better chance of landing them on the 10# setup. Using a smaller diameter line for your leader than your mainline in a river is suggested for the reason that there is a lot more chances to hang up in a river than a lake and it is better to only loose a hook rather than your whole rig if the hook becomes caught on the bottom. Also it makes it harder for the fish to see your leader and when using a drift setup with a corky and bait or yarn, or a Dick Nite, the lighter leader allows the "bait" to stay up off of the bottom better (i.e. less line drag in the current).That is obviously only a small fraction of stuff to learn about river fishing but those are just some explanations why about line diameter.

As for your case I would suggest that you try out the 8# at first, but if you don't feel comfortable with that I would step it up to 10#. Remember when bringing in a fish though, your mainline is only as strong as your leader. Last year on the Snohomish I landed a 17# hooknose silver on 8# test (leader size) and many others in the 5-12# class, most on Dick Nites. My three biggest silvers to date 17#, 18#, and 20# have all come in on 8# test leader, so I know it can be done. It really comes down to your own comfort level/experience. Good luck.

[gpc]

Sam you are the man. Threw my pink hoochie for 45 min. yesterday (got bored trying to get a silver so I switched over to pinks ) got 1 pink and a fish on. Switched to green 2 fish in my 1st 2 casts. Finished the day with 6 pinks landed and what seemed like a million lost. Thanks brotha.


Word to the wise. This is my first year fishing for pinks. Everyone says once the fish turn colors and are in full blown spawning stage, don't eat them. Well I decided to experiment (and I am really hard headed) so I brought one home and threw it on the BBQ. BAD IDEA. Don't do it. In my opinion it was a step down from a Rainbow. You know its bad when your own mother comments on it LOL.

[A9]

Yea I tried to not keep any of them. I never did, and hated when I had to fillet friends fish when they HAD to take one home. A select few were chrome bright, maybe 5% of them I would keep, but still if I want fish, I can go catch em in the salt.

[MikeFishes]

Sam you are the man. Threw my pink hoochie for 45 min. yesterday (got bored trying to get a silver so I switched over to pinks ) got 1 pink and a fish on. Switched to green 2 fish in my 1st 2 casts. Finished the day with 6 pinks landed and what seemed like a million lost. Thanks brotha.


Word to the wise. This is my first year fishing for pinks. Everyone says once the fish turn colors and are in full blown spawning stage, don't eat them. Well I decided to experiment (and I am really hard headed) so I brought one home and threw it on the BBQ. BAD IDEA. Don't do it. In my opinion it was a step down from a Rainbow. You know its bad when your own mother comments on it LOL.

Okay, I finally saw this and remembered I never did a search on it. Now I know what they look like, how do you fish them? Simular to Jigs? How do you rig them? Weight inline or dropper? 12 inch leader? Do you use 5 inch ones? Will silvers hit them?

Sorry, so many questions, and somewhat late. Still would be fun to hook into some Pinks that are still around though.

EDIT: About the pinks turning dark, people say the only good thing to do with them is smoke them. I wouldn't mind trying as long as we hook into a few that aren't too dark.

[A9]

They are jigs. Hootchie jigs. Make em yourself.

Buy green spatterback mini hootchies, and then buy jigheads. Yes silvers will hit them too. Green jigheads would be the best, but I have trouble finding them, and black with yellow eyes seemed to work for the other guys so why not go with them, and I got no problem finding them. 1/4 oz, and then just slide on the hootchie, and then hot glue it or something to keep the hootchies on, and then your set. Scent helps, and you rig them right to mainline.

Cast out, let sink to bottom, and you twitch em in like a jig should be worked. It's not a buzzbomb jerk, just a slight and fast 6-12 inch lift of your rod tip and then let sink back a few inches/feet. Experiment though and find what works and stick with it.

[mallard83]

Well since everyone has figured the jig thing out I will speak freely. Use 1/4 oz Gamakatzu round jig heads and don't slide the hootchie onto the hook, rather slide the jig head inside of the hoochie. Sometimes it is a bit hard to put the jig head inside the body of the hoochie but it is worth it. If the jig is being stubborn and not wanting to go into the body try using some lubrication (i.e. spit or whatever else is handy), all you need is for the eye of the jig to poke through the hoochie and for it to line up striaght with the hook. It is better to rig them this way because it hides the actual jig head and the fish are none the wiser it is even there. I have been fishing squid jigs for years for humpies and silvers and they outfish anything else (for humpies). I even caught a 14# king on a squid jig the first weekend that humpies opened this year, a beautiful chrome bright hatchery fish. It is just to bad that I couldn't keep him. Oh by the way any and all color hoochies work well, some days certain colors work better than others, but they all work at some point. Now that the humpies are dying down the best thing to use for silvers by far is Dick Nites in half and half. Good luck.