09-23 REELLIFE digital - Flipbook - Page 32
Shore Fishing for pinks and coho By Josh DeBruler
Thick fog rolled in off the north
Puget Sound, clouding the view
of a sleepy oak harbor in the far
distance. A fairly typical morning
on a North Kitsap Peninsula
beach, drizzly, damp, and bustling
with movement from early risers
looking to get their share of
migratory salmon. Though it was
still low tide and just barely into
first light, a handful of anglers had
already begun to put their lines in
the water and a number of them
had begun to reel in excitedly as
their rod tips bent towards the
crashing waves.
Bait fish by the thousands
swarmed around the tide-rips
that were occurring directly off the
beach, causing the water to boil
with activity. With the cool Puget
Sound water up to the hips of my
chest waiters I casted out past
the school of jumping herring. It
didn’t take more than a few casts
before I landed a shiny, chrome
pink salmon.
32 | NWFISHING.net
During pink and coho runs, the
beaches of the Puget Sound
and Hood canal can produce
a surprisingly vibrant salmon
fishery. It’s about as accessible
as they come, family friendly,
and leaves all the trappings of
boat-fishing tucked neatly away
at home. Even the gear itself is
minimalistic. A salmon rod with
a 1-2 oz metal jig or a spinner will
get the job done. With that said,
there are several other techniques
you can experiment with, such
as: fly fishing, float fishing a piece
of herring under a bobber, or
plunking with a piece of shrimp.
On odd years, pink salmon
continue to pass through the
Puget Sound and Hood Canal
into early September. At that
same time, coho fishing is moving
into full swing. Both of these
salmon species tend to move
into the shallow waters, thus
giving shore anglers a perfect
opportunity to catch a fish.
The pink salmon, unlike its
coho, chinook, and sockeye
counterparts, isn’t revered as highgrade table fare an is often used
for canning or smoking. Reasons
for this vary, but in general it’s due
to their softer flesh and lower fat
content. Furthermore, their small
size makes them less appealing
as a sport fish and this generates
a misguided belief that they aren’t
appealing as a food. Thankfully
this is a far cry from reality, and
I can tell you from plenty of
personal experience that the pink
salmon’s mild flavor and delicate
flesh lend itself well to a meal that
involves a pan seared salmon fillet
as the main course.
Whether it’s pinks or coho, the
shores are here for us to utilize
throughout the early fall season,
and thankfully, we have plenty of
public beaches to give us access.
The most productive spots are
points where tide rips occur, but
in a pinch, any beach that has a
bit of a shelf right off the shore can
produce salmon.