Salmon running near Whidbey Island?

[chowdan]

Hey everyone,

Ill be over on Whidbey Island for my birthday tonight and tomorrow and I'd like to fish for some salmon over there.

We'll be staying in Clinton tonight and Coupsville tomorrow night. Curious to know if anyone has any recommendations on areas that might be good right now?

I was thinking about giving Bush Point and the area between Fort Ebey and Libbey Park a shot.

Recommendations on lures?

Thanks guys!

[Larry3215]

You better check the regs. Im pretty sure salmon is closed in the entire area except for the Tulalip Bubble - and that may already be done too, but I havnet checked the emergency rules recently. They have been changing almost every day, so you really need to check on-lone before fishing.

[chowdan]

Oo your very right! I missed that. Seems like they all are closed now!

Looks like I was a bit too late to the party on that one

[beeman]

There was no party

[dogslife4me2003]

I normally spend my lunch breaks in a spot near NAS Whidbey Island. While I was gone most of September overseas, I have yet to see one salmon jump this year in the waters off Whidbey. Normally around the last week of September and October, you can still see some.

November 1st cannot come quick enough, even if the silver run is over.

[riverhunter]

Blackmouth fishing can be good early in the season on Nov 1 but you may have to sort through a lot of smaller fish to get your legal sized fish. At times though I have seen some big bruisers come out in Nov

[Scheindogg]

@riverhunter So what's the method for those guys?(blackmouth) Trolling near shore? Trolling UBER deep? Deep jigging? Please do tell

[riverhunter]

@riverhunter So what's the method for those guys?(blackmouth) Trolling near shore? Trolling UBER deep? Deep jigging? Please do tell

You could jig if your into hands on fishing. Another way would be mooching with a banana weight and 3ft leader to a whole herring rigged so it spins. Drop it down and reel in slowly, drop down again and repeat but my go to technique would be trolling with downrigerrs 10ft off the bottom. Coyote spoons and flasher or flasher and hoochie with brined herring strips. Keep an eye on your radar for bait balls and fish that. These Blackmouth are resident fish so they will be chasing shrimp and sandlance near the bottom. I like depths from 70ft to 250ft deep.