Vera Bay

Tackle & technique

Pink salmon

Pinks travel in large schools along shorelines toward their home streams in late summer and often come within casting range of beaches and points near river mouths. Cast small pink spoons, spinners or flies, or troll a pink hoochie or spoon slowly behind a small flasher at 40 to 80 feet in open water. Puget Sound pinks run in odd-numbered years only.

Coho salmon

Coho feed in the top 30 to 50 feet along tide rips, kelp edges and bait schools, and often hit within a few feet of the surface. Troll faster than for Chinook, 2 to 4 mph, with a small flasher and hoochie, bucktail fly or herring, or cast spinners and flies from beaches near stream mouths as fish stage in late summer. The hour around a tide change is often the best window.

Pacific halibut

Halibut sit on sand and gravel bottoms near drop-offs, bars and pinnacles, most often in 90 to 500 feet in Alaska and on the shelf off Washington, Oregon and far northern California. Anchor up-current of a likely edge and fish herring, squid, octopus or a salmon head on a circle hook with 24 to 32 ounces of weight, or bounce a large jig on the bottom. The best bite usually comes in the hour around slack tide.