Howard Cove

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.

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.

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.