by Jason Brooks, October 30, 2015

Chum salmon are very aggressive fish and thankfully they are also plentiful in Puget Sound. As they near their natal streams and rivers the fish quickly turn from silver sided to the green and purple striped beast with large protruding teeth that will viciously attack just about everything you throw at them. Their size is second only to the Chinook and even then the Chum can reach over twenty pounds. Their size and willingness to bite makes them one of my favorite salmon to fish.

Just about any beach open to the public in the southern Puget Sound will have Chums cruising the shoreline in early November. If you find a stream make sure you concentrate around the fresh water outlet as Chum are known to spawn in almost every stream and river in the south sound. Floating an anchovy under a bobber can be very deadly but throwing spinners and spoons, along with buzz bombs, all of which need single barbless hooks in the salt, will produce fish. While the fish are in Puget Sound they are still very edible and often a great fish to smoke with their high oil content.



As the fish enter the fresh water their flesh starts to break down as the fish morphs into its spawning colors and the large kype develops. I rarely keep a Chum salmon that I catch in a river often spending the day catching and releasing these brutal fish.

For river fishing try floating a 3/8 ounce jig tipped with a piece of raw prawn; a very exciting and fun way to catch Chums. There is nothing like seeing the bobber go down and the feel of a giant fish as you set the hook. Floating jigs also keeps you fishing without worry of losing gear and having to retie other than needing to check your leader for nicks as the fish have sharp teeth that can cut a leader. Throwing spoons and spinners can also be productive and those who like to drift fish do well. Last fall I perfected my jig twitching on Coho and then turned to Chums as they entered the rivers and found out that they will attack a twitched jig much better than a Coho will. I use the same jigs for twitching as I do for floating with a prawn. My preferred jig is the Rock Dancer by Mack’s Lure. This is a buck tail jig with a stout 2x hook that rarely fails with these big fish.



No matter if your using jigs, either floating or twitching, or throwing spoons, spinners or drift fishing, color can make a huge difference. Chum salmon are aggressive but especially so if you use a bright color. In order of my personal preference are cerise, chartreuse, purple, and orange. My jigs are often one of those colors combined with the contrasting black but if I am using a spinner I like Blue Fox Vibrax in size 4 to 6 with a silver blade and bright green body. When drift fishing use a chartreuse Cha Cha pill float by Mack’s or a corky and a piece of cerise yarn and again tip the hook with a piece of raw prawn. I have also used these floats that are in the shape of a large pill instead of a round ball just in front of my spinner with a rubber bobber stop to keep it near the eye of the spinner. You can use contrasting or complimenting colors with this set up and the idea is to give your spinner a bigger profile. For spoons it’s hard to beat a one ounce Dardevle 5500 series, especially in the green glow color which will glow bright on overcast November days. I like to switch out the treble hook to a siwash so I can use this spoon in the salt as well as in rivers.

These are big and mean fish and they need a strong outfit to haul them in. For float and drift fishing I prefer to use a North Fork Custom’s Series One 905, which is a 9 foot rod rated for 10-30# line with a reel filled with 30 pound hi-viz braid. My leaders are 20# Platinum series by Izorline as this monofilament is very abrasion resistant. When throwing spoons and spinners I’ll run 20# braid tied strait to the lure. These fish are not line shy.

Regardless of which tactic I am using I always make sure to scent up my offering. Chums are aggressive and by adding scent you can keep the bite going. If I am using a jig I make sure to either use Pro-Cure water soluble oils, or Super Gel my favorite being sand shrimp. Put the scent on the chenille collar just behind the head of the jig so not to interfere with the jigs action. When using spoons or spinners I will use Pro-Cure’s Super Gel’s, a very sticky scent that will not wash off until the end of the day when I give my lures a good soak in warm soapy water. My “go to” Super Gel is Bloody Tuna, but shrimp is another top producer. When drift fishing I will fill the hole in the Cha Cha Pill Float again with Pro-Cure Super Gel.

Where to go: Most of us won’t be able to travel too far and if you live in the Seattle area there is a prime river within an easy drive, the famed Green River. Make sure to check the WDFW website for emergency rule changes as this river was his with a late Coho closure. The upper stretch was due to open November 1st for fishing but could close at any time if there are poor fish returns. With plenty of public bank access as well as a nice stretch to float if you have a drift boat or are an experienced oarsman on a pontoon the Green River can make for a quick half day outing or an all-day fishery if you like.

Starting at the top end of the fishery is Flaming Geyser State Park. With lots of bank access here all you need to worry about is making sure you stay at least 150 feet from Cristy Creek, also known as Keta Creek, as this is closed waters. Drift fishing and floating a jig tipped with a piece of prawn are the most popular techniques in this area of the river. You can also launch a pontoon and during higher waters a drift boat and float down to Whitney Bridge a few miles downriver. This is a short float but very productive and can get you some elbow room to get away from the bank crowds.




My favorite float is from Whitney Bridge to Highway 18. This float is fairly long and can take all day especially in low water as there are places where you could have to rope the boat around some obstructions and push it through some riffles. Last time I floated this stretch there was one large log across the river that you can go under in lower water but if the water was high you needed to move to the far left side and rope your boat under the log as you carefully stepped over it on shore. Other than that this isn’t a technical float as long as you pay attention especially as you near the takeout where the river picks up speed and can push you right past the takeout. About a mile below the takeout is an impassible log jam but there are plenty of warning signs to let you know that you need to get out of the river at the last takeout just upriver of the highway 18 bridge.

Between Whitney Bridge and the Highway 18 takeout is Metzler Park. This park is accessed off of the road on the north side of the river. It’s not much of a park but is a public access area to those that fish from the bank. To fish this stretch, again most float jigs but the key here is to realize that this is a cut bank and the fish are literally at your feet. Once I anchored above the park and watched people fish by drift fishing the middle of the river. Then a guy showed up who obviously knew how to fish the area and tossed his bobber about two feet from the shore and let if drift downstream where he immediately hooked a fish. Those around him soon switched to his technique and multiple people had fish on. At our vantage point we could see fish just upstream from the park holding along the bank in the brush making it hard to fish for them as the blackberries grew out over the river making it impossible to cast to the fish. I later returned to fish this spot with my young son from the bank. We hooked into a lot of fish by running jigs under a float right along the bank. This is where scenting your jigs really helps as often times you will get more than one bite per drift. If you miss the bobber down, just let it keep floating down river, as Pro-Cure’s Super Gel continues to put out scent and again is very sticky. Of course once you reel in make sure to re-bait with another piece of prawn.



At the highway 18 takeout there is a small dirt parking lot and some bank access. Primarily a gravel bar island and in low water you can wade out to it and fish the far side of the river. This is one place that drift fishing will out fish jigs due to the current. If you go west after taking the Black Diamond exit and head downriver there is a park and ride which can be seen from Highway 18. You can park there and hike across a flat to the river. This is where Soos creek dumps in which leads to the Soos Creek Hatchery and is also just above the impassible log jam. Explore the banks from Soos Creek to the highway 18 bridge to find pockets of fish but this is also a popular place so don’t expect to be alone.

Continuing downriver you come to Auburn with a river walk trail along parts of the river providing some access though the banks are steep here as they have been diked to keep the town from flooding. Between Auburn and Kent there are various access areas most of which are fairly small and can be crowded with just a few people fishing. Make sure you take a net as again a lot of this area has a fairly steep bank and you won’t be able to walk the fish to a gravel bar.

The lower river, below I-405 is known as the Duwamish with tidal influenced waters. Though this is a very popular Coho area earlier in the fall, after November 1st you are not allowed to fish from a floating device which means that this isn’t really much of a place to fish for Chums. If you can find a place to fish try and twitch jigs for incoming Chums during high tide. The fish will stack up and circle around when they hit the tides deadline. From fishing other rivers with this same type of fishery I have done well for Chums as they become aggressive as the water starts to drop with the tide going out.

November is a great time to get out and go fishing with various hunting season’s most sportsman are in the woods and not on the rivers. Don’t forget to check out other places to fish for Chums like along Puget Sound beaches and at outlets to streams. The Puyallup, Minter Creek, and Mud Bay areas are a great place to find Chums in the South Sound as well as Hoodsport or the Skokomish River in Hood Canal. Tie on a bright colored lure or float an anchovy and go catch some Chums.