Black Mouth fishing off the locks in Seattle.

[Thudpucker]

One of my most favorite fishing experiences while living in Seattle was winter fishing for Black Mouth off the output of the Ballard Locks. (Hirem M Chittendon Locks)

Black Mouth is a term given to Immature King Salmon who come back in their first year, instead of maturing and return in the Second year when they are supposed to.
They mill around outside the River mouths waiting to go upstream.
I never owned a Fish-finder so we could only troll around hoping....
Nowadays you could zoom around in a Zig-zag pattern till you locate a school, watch to see which way they are going and then just haul em' outta there like shooting fish in a barrell.

In those days, hardly anybody except the hardy and needy would go out in that kind of weather to troll for a 5 or 7 Lb fish.
It's always chilly. Sometimes sleety (Dont bother inviting your wife or SO) and the winds can sometimes make boating a challenge.
Your skiff is better to fish out of than your big pleasure boat.

But we were almost always alone. Sometimes a half dozen boats on a nice saturday AM, but as soon as those winds kicked up we were pretty much by ourselves.

I trolled Cut-plug Herring using a 1-oz to 3-oz sinkers. Whole Herring would work, but Cut Plug was better. Green Bag Herring was not too bad but there was fresh live Herring along the waterway and that was always better.
Occasionally we'd motor mooch using only a 5/8-oz sinker. When I was by myself I'd row. That's absolutly the best way to Fish!

The idea is to keep your bait moving up n' down but dont bother going below 20' depth. (on cloudy days they are closer to the surface)Slower is better but occasionally lift the rod tip to get a little action to the bait as it rises and then falls back down.
We noticed a better bite when the bait was falling, and when coming out of a turn.

They hit slow. Sometimes you cant tell the differnece between a Shark and a Black mouth right at first. A good rod holder is a must!

I always put a Bead or Chain swivel half way down the leader to keep the bait from spinning the leader into knots.

You'll catch a lot of Dog Sharks fishing slowly like that, so keep a lot of tied hooks handy. Bill D would probably eat those Sharks, but I never even gave it a thought. We stabbed them in the head and threw em' back with the leader and hooks still in their mouths.

At work, on my lunch hour I'd tie the Solid two Hook leaders on a Two foot long piece of 10Lb leader material. In that cold water the 10 Lb leader only had about a 6 Lb knot strength.
The upper section of the Leader was 20-Lb or so. If you make it too large the bait wont fall as well, and too small you may lose the whole works to a Dog Shark. The whole leader should not be longer than the Rod. Re-tie those knots frequently if your catching a lot of fish.

Never net a Shark! Always gaff em' so you can drop em' overboard after you cut em' loose. They will always roll and make a mess out of your net.

Judge Bolt (may he spend his eternity in turmoil and agony) and his fateful decisions back in the 70's may have changed some of the things I'm telling you about.
If not, go do it. Its fun. And dont forget the excellent taste and texture of Fresh Salmon.

 

[Ghost]

It's not convenient for me to fish. The ones I see outside the locks are the Indians (You know those wonderful environment loving folk) who like to string their nets across the entrance of the fish ladder (you know, like in the old days of their heritage). I'm so devastated by what I see in that area by the fine Indian folk that I don't think I could do it. Too much unfair pressure on the stock. Totally different than in your time.

Question: We keep blaming all the dams for the fish run problems. I was not around before the dams were built, but I do remember the fishing in 80/81 quite post damn installation and it was unbelievable how many fish were out there. I'm sure dams have a significant effect, but do we seriously believe that is the main cause? I don't think so. I think little stunts like gill nets in front of the entrances to fish ladders, gee just maybe, might have something to do with it.

You should see what they do to the local crab population. 50% my butt. You could walk across the water on the pots and not get wet in some areas during the Indian opening. Day 1 of the non native opening, you are lucky to see a single crab. As a diver, what i witnessed over a number of years in the outright devastation of our gooeyduck clam populations is nearly beyond belief. It's out of sight and areas that used to be fields and fields of clams are baren wastelands now.

Sorry Thuddy, I can't fish around the locks anymore, legal or not.

Just remember this whenever you see them "crying" about the environment. What a bunch of horse poo.

 

[Thudpucker]

Jeez, that sounds awful. It does not sound like the same place I grew up in at all. We may have been part of it because we used to get the limit of Salmon each time we went out.

Judge Bolt's decision to give Half of the Fishery back to the natives is probably the first hot poker. Hardly anybody believed that he was using the Treaty wording. Just Graft! His excuse was: "The Sportsman didn't put up a good enough defence!"

The rest is a problem of Escapement and the health of the spawning streams. The Indians are the greatest problem with escapment.

The Indians are like Children who suddenly got control of their Mommy's. You just cannot reason with them on Biological affairs.

I doubt if the Dam's are a problem because we've had a lot of Salmon since the Dam's on the Columbia have been in place. They all have fish laddders. We used to stop at Rocky Reach dam and watch the big Salmon go up the Fish ladder.
Agricultural chemicals and silt have been blamed as well, but none of those answers hold up in all the places where the Salmon stocks are depleting.

In Alaska we had good years and bad. Everybody cried. All opinions, no facts. Nobody listend to the Biologists.
Everybody argued. Finger pointing abounded.
I got disgusted with all of it and quit.

FnG biologists have been haggeling for years over the causes of the Decline. I was on an advisory board. I sat in on lots of meetings where the Biologists were asking for more money for studies. All of them wanted to stop the fishing pressure for some periods of time.

As a Kid around Puget Sound we never used to fool with Gueyducks. Too much work.
The best clamming was down at Westport.
Oysters in Hood Canal and down near the mouth of the Columbia in Willipa harbor.
Crabs up in Dungeoness bay.
Great bottom fishing off the southern tip of Whidby and over off Point no point. Those bottom fish had fewer worms.
I guess I'll just keep my momories and ignore the present.

 

[Ghost]

It's not all bad Thuddy. Whidby (Possession) is still great bottom fishing. Lots of holes and nobody can fish the whole thing in a day and hit every spot. Still pretty healthy there. Same for Pt no Pt. You have to work it, but even when I dived it a few years ago, it looked really healthy. Bottom fish are a whole nother game. The fish are territorial, you get used to seeing the same fish in the same spot. They don't swim around like Salmon. You can decimate one area, but 50 foot to the left, it might still be good and will recover. That said, most of us who used to spearfish all the "usual" locations (rockpiles) stopped in the sound about 10 years ago because concentrated locations were too easy to wipe out. They are jsut too small. Many of us stopped using guns and exclusively used pole spears already. It was obvious what was happening. Too few fish, too many people. Out near the coast is still is wild west, lots of bottom fish and impressive habitat. You know that area where the Indians like to go whaling now. In fact I first got into deep diving in the sound because that's where the fish were without traveling all the way up the Straight. We used to go pole spear (more challenging) fishing in spots like the Tacoma Narrows bridge. To this day, not many folks will ever be able to get to places like that. You can hunt yourself 30 pound lings every day if you time the current well enough and careful enough to not let the 50 pound lings hunt you too bad (they bite). Not to mention in those days it was high exertion air diving in as much as 150 feet of water (read: not smart). Dumb, but challenging and loads of fun. But that's another story, or two.

I think the theme here is where you can cherry pick, things have gone to hell. Where you have to work it, things are still healthy.

It's a complicated issue for sure, but there are some issues that are just obvious.

Back in the Alaska heyday, part of my wife's family (Wilsons) were heavily involved up in Alaska too. They owned a few boats here & there. Different world.

I still enjoy the salmon fishing. I only wish I was a better fisherman. Nobody mooches anymore, its nearly a lost art. My wife's grandfather ran a fishing resort up near Marysville (Sierer's Totem Beach Resort). Long gone with the fish. We still have some of the memorabilia though. Mooching was all anybody ever did. Everything is downriggers now, but I think there are a few spots where mooching is going to work the area so much better. I need some help with that!

bp

 

[Thudpucker]

LOL, "wish I was a better fisherman...." Dont we all.
I was always curious about Halibut. I never saw one caught in Puget Sound. Did you ever see any while you were diving?
Sole is what we liked the best from the Bottom.
Lings were a nice piece of frosting on the cake. They are a fearsome looking thing when you get them in the boat. I can just imagine what he'd look like face to face down in his territory. Not my bucket of worms to be sure!
Under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and under the Deception Pass bridge there are some big Ling's like that. But fishing those areas from a boat is dangerous. I just value my life too much to waste it getting caught in some of those whirling waters near those bridge pilings.

One the west side of Whidby is a big Whirl pool. The Humpys would come by there. Catching Humpys is a catch n' release thing for me. The meat is sub-standard on those things.

someday maybe, I'll be back up there. It's gonna be awhile though.
Keep your line in the water....