Northwest Fishing Reports

So to start off I'm 27 and love to fish. Problem is I'm very inexperienced. I have caught one 25 lb.king salmon a little ways the narrows bridge. A couple lake trout and that's about it. Besides flounder and dogfish etc. This year I plan to do lots of fishing in the Puget Sound Commencement Bay area. Also some river fishing. What river I have no idea. But some friends and family have extra gear I will be getting soon so that should be no problem. Poles, waders, tackle , etc. SO, one of my main questions is how do I know what fish are what and do you keep all salmon? I was reading these forums and came across some terms like HENS and CHUMS. what does that mean. Can I keep them? I have also heard from some people at work that sometimes the salmon are basically bad because they are already dying in the water? How can you tell? What other fish are out in the bay that I can catch? Lingcod, Salmon and .... Also I have a 27 ft. Catalina sailboat I plan to fish from. Yes I know its not a fishing boat but it is already in the water and gets me around just fine. I also have a 8ft dinghy with 2hp motor. So any good spots/tips for a beginner that loves the water and wants to fish. Going to get my license today! Sorry if this is the wrong area to post this blog just kinda picked one.

hens - female salmon

chums - some sort of salmon that no one wants.

salmon in the rivers are great to eat, except the chum - apparently most people don't even smoke THEM. They don't 'start to die' until they are red.

All salmon swimming up river that are silver or slightly pink are great to eat. The red ones can be smoked - so I was told 40 years ago.

Real salmon fishermen will tell you all the rest.

Bucks=Male fish
Nates=native stock (not hatchery raised fish)
Silvers=Coho salmon
Springers=fish that return from saltwater to freshwater in spring time
Chromers=Bright shiny fish fresh from the saltwater (they get darker the longer they have been in fresh water)
Jack—immature male salmon
Boot=a fish that is ready to or has recently spawned and is nearing it's death. Generally not good for either eating or smoking!

First things first, pick up a WDFW fishing regs booklet and read it... all of it... or at least the general info and whatever it is that you want to fish for. It sounds like you want to fish for salmon. I would assume a sail boat would not be very good for trolling (but what do I know about a boat that uses sails to move...) so I would assume you'd want to drift and mooch (jig) I think a good website for everything you'd want to do would be http://www.salmonuniversity.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I'm kinda in the same boat (figuratively) as you are (27 and a 12 foot zodiac with a 9.9 motor and done mostly freshwater fishing). But hey, if you don't get a hook wet there is a 100% chance you won't catch ANYTHING.

Ill help you out with river fishing. Only saltwater fishing I do is in bays, hoodsport, and point no point.
Its a good year to start river fishing, because the pinks are in and they are always good to test your gear on and get the motion down.
Some good rivers to fish for pinks are the Puyallup, carbon, and the green river. You also have a chance of hooking a silver or a king as well!
The set up is pretty basic, corky/yarn. You should fish with a 2-7ft leader. But I rarely use over a 5ft leader, anything over that isn't very necessary! But some people feel the need to.
For lead In the rivers I listed above id fish with pencil lead, but for other rivers depending on the drift or how your fishing 1/2-3/4 cannonballs work well.
With corky/yarn sometimes you can fish with just 2 corkies, or just yarn. Or any combo that works well for you. Also, red and green beads work well in taking the placement of corkies. I prefer small corkies rather the medium-large ones.
For pinks and silvers I like to use chartreuse, red, pink, combos of corky/yarn. Pinks aren't picky, silvers sometimes are. Pretty much any bright color.
Kings I like black, orange, chartreuse, and blue. I like black/orange combos. And chartreuse the best.
Chum, chartreuse and purple work very well for them.
For your fishing line, try to stay away from braid because most river fisherman don't like it unless they are throwing hardware (spinners, spoons, etc) or bobber fishing.
For your mainline use 12-20 pound main line. Some use 25. I prefer 20lb trilene.
And for leaders, 8-17 pound line. I use 15. Some people go 20/20.
Ive caughten kings on 8lb test, but its not something id do every day. I was trout fishing lol
the order of your set up should go ;

Bead (on your main line, prevents sinker from damaging tip and prevents knots)
Lead snapped on a swivel. Tied from your main line, then leader.
2-7ft leader.
Corky/yarn.
Hook (Size 1-2/0) I like using size 1 hooks.
Theres lots of other ways to fish in rivers like bobber fishing so im not gonna give any advice on that because im still learning and don't want to lead you the wrong way. If you have any other questions just ask! Tight lines

Be sure to get the regs like SoDakboy recommended, there are a lot of rules to follow to stay legal. You can not keep all salmon and the ones you can't keep have handling requirements to improve survival rates. Most of the questions you asked can be answered searching through this and other sites. If you want to pm me a list of questions, i'll answer the ones i can. I got into fishing around here a couple years ago so not a ton of experience but have fished and read a lot since picking it up.
Outdoor Emporium has good people working there that have helped me, the gear they've recommended has worked well for me and their advice. Picked up some good info from fish mags, etc. i also fish with guides when i can, good way to learn a lot, i ask questions and pay attention to what they're doing to put us on fish. It's a lot of fun trying to figure this stuff out! Good luck and tight lines!

Chums arent useless. They make great crab bait. At times I'll use them in making salmon (patties) croquettes. I use the chum for a filler fish. Hens can be both Steelhead or Salmon.The eggs from the chum are used for caviar.