Caution Passage

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.

Chinook salmon

Chinook hold near bait off points, kelp edges and tide rips, usually suspended 20 to 120 feet down and deeper as the sun gets higher. Troll slowly, under 2 mph, with a flasher and herring, hoochie or spoon on a downrigger, or mooch a plug-cut herring at the depth where the sounder shows bait. Winter blackmouth and feeder kings sit within 10 feet of the bottom in 60 to 200 feet.

Chum salmon

Chum stage off stream mouths and hatchery beaches in late fall in Puget Sound and Hood Canal and in midsummer in Southeast Alaska. Fish from the beach or a skiff in 5 to 30 feet with a green or cerise jig under a float, a large fly or a spoon. They fight hard, so step up to 12 to 20 pound line.