Dan
10/8/2014 8:24:00 AMHi Stan, appreciate you reports and your faith. I fish along Keystone beach quite a bit. Most everyone seems to be casting buzz bombs & rotators but have yet to see anyone using the bobber & herring technique. It sounds very productive. Do you generally find the bobber approach more effective? Could you please describe in detail how you rig up?
Thanks, Dan
Thanks, Dan
dutchman2858
10/8/2014 9:07:00 AMLooks like I should have been trolling 4' from shore yesterday :-)
Stansjoy
10/8/2014 2:23:00 PMDan... Thanks for your kind words! Have been fishing west side of Whidbey for four years now. Turned on to it by John who works at Ted's Sport Center in Lynnwood. Have fished Bush Pt., Lagoon Pt., Possession Pt. (actually east side at end of island), but my favorite is Fort Casey. What I have learned... 1) Coho seem to prefer the Rotator over the Buzz Bomb. Buzz Bomb is great for Pinks, but the Rotator has a more "spoon-like" action on the retrieve. 2) I fish live herring under the float at Possession... that's a hoot... but at Fort Casey I fish plug-cut herring. I generally brine my herring in blue dye for at least a day before fishing them. I fish a variety of floats, but my favorite at FC is the Beau Mac Super Slip Float (SSF40) with 1 1/2 oz in-line weight under it, a mooching leader with 2/0 & 3/0 hooks (leader is usually 6' to 8'). Do not have to cast far for the technique to work. The BIG secret is to watch for the strong current to develop out front. I do not understand the dynamics totally... John at Ted's explained it the best he could, but the developing current seems to occur indiscriminately. Sometimes it lasts for ten minutes, sometimes for a hour. Usually before or after a tide change. As the water comes down the Strait, it bounces off the west side of the island and hooks around the bay just to the north of Fort Casey, creating to strong eddy. Sometimes the resulting current hugs the shoreline (bingo for the fishermen), sometimes it stays farther out. When it moves in, it seems to collect bait-fish with it... and, ergo, the Coho! I have seen fishermen use whole herring and catch fish here, I prefer the plug-cut as I can really see it spinning under the float, and it drives the Coho craazzy! I only fished Keystone area once, for Pinks. My guess is, that Keystone is around the point from FC beach, and the current may dissipate by then, or it may by deflected out too far to help the fisherman. Hope this stuff helps! PTL!
Stansjoy
10/8/2014 4:15:00 PMdutchman... Sometimes 4' is enough!!! Problem is to keep the downriggers and all that hardware working in 8" of water!!! LOL! PTL!
AJFishdude
10/8/2014 8:01:00 PMGreat report Stan, as always! I should really try out this float fishing method! I can also add a little bit of factual info to what you said about those current changes. Last Saturday morning (10/4) I was fishing the morning low at Bush Point using a chartreuse rotator and hoochie. Before tide change the current was dead, no water really moving at all. But if I remember correct, it was right after the low tide occurred that a very strong current began moving down the beach from the north end to the south. By this point some of the guys next to me had stopped fishing so I took advantage of their absence to wade out to about waist depth and cast up along the edge of the beach, rather than straight out. The reason why I do that is I figure if the fish are holding close to shore, you will be presenting your lure to a lot more of them if you fish it as parallel to the shoreline as you can. Anyway, as I was out in the water I happened to look down and saw a massive school of bait fish (about 6" long, very skinny, no wider than maybe a penny....smelt?) swimming by, heads facing into the current. I also saw quite few larger fish (more like 7" or 8" long, about 1" to 1.5" inches wide) swimming around as well. I did see two or three fish caught that morning, but nobody was floating herring. Maybe if I had been I would have had better luck!
Dan
10/11/2014 10:05:00 PMThanks Stan. I've fished a fair amount at Bush, Lagoon, Ft Casey & Keystone stretch & there is not much current except at Bush & no eddying at the other beaches. I certainly have seen the currents & eddies at FC; in fact they seem to be there any time the tide is running at all. but not always close enough to cast into. Your set up sounds like it is a challenge to cast out very far.
I have never fished with herring so I have a few more questions if you will graciously indulge me:
1. Why the blue dye & how do you do that?
2. Just dead herring not gonna work? Seems like in those eddies anything would be spinning.
3. You say you use live Herring at Possession. Is that because there is less current & you need the live fish for action? How do you rig them?
4. I won't be able to come back for the rest of this season but normally hit the beaches hard every Aug & Sept. Might be fun to link up with you some time & learn the tech 1st hand.
Do you fish the island beaches for Steelhead also?
God's best to you and yours, Dan
I have never fished with herring so I have a few more questions if you will graciously indulge me:
1. Why the blue dye & how do you do that?
2. Just dead herring not gonna work? Seems like in those eddies anything would be spinning.
3. You say you use live Herring at Possession. Is that because there is less current & you need the live fish for action? How do you rig them?
4. I won't be able to come back for the rest of this season but normally hit the beaches hard every Aug & Sept. Might be fun to link up with you some time & learn the tech 1st hand.
Do you fish the island beaches for Steelhead also?
God's best to you and yours, Dan
Stansjoy
10/12/2014 5:47:00 PMDan... Sorry for the late reply, been a busy week. Will try to cover all your questions. 1) I dye with Pautzke's "Fire Brine"... they make other colors, but blue works best for me. It seems to enhance the shine of the herring in the clear waters of the Sound. Directions are on the bottle... I put one or two trays of herring in a zip-lock gallon bag, pour in enough brine to cover and set in refrigerator for a day or two before heading out. Another brand calls their's "Brite 'N' Tite" it works too!
2) I would imagine that rigging herring any old way would work, have seen Coho take herring dead floating in the water... but I always plug-cut mine. Learned how many years ago when my dad and I fished LaPush, Sekiu, Neah Bay... I was his "bait boy", so I learned to do it right. The plug-cut puts a fast spin on the herring, and it drives the Coho craazzy! Rule of thumb from those days, plug-cut for Coho, whole, slow roll for Chinook. Old habits die slowly!
3) There are good currents at Possession, and plug-cuts will work fine there too. They sell live herring there, so when in "Rome, do as the Romans do!" When the current is dead, the live herring will attract the fish. Use a regular mooching leader... I like 1/0 & 2/0 if you can get them, but 2/0 & 3/0 are fine. Put the top hook through the nose of the live herring, from the top down, and bring the hook point through the lower jaw of the herring. Will stay alive for quite a while. Don't need to cast out too far, as the Coho come in close to the shore.
4) Next season will be a "Pink" year, I fish the beaches for them in late July through August. Coho don't show much until September. I don't fish herring for Pinks, don't know if it would work for them? Would love to fish with you sometime! Keep me in mind.
I grew up in Seattle, and while attending the UW I made a couple of trips to Bush Point to fish for Steelhead in the winter... big "Spn-N-Glos"... caught a couple back then (1970's). Was going to try this past Winter, but things got away from me. Will probably try this Winter (January and February). PTL!
2) I would imagine that rigging herring any old way would work, have seen Coho take herring dead floating in the water... but I always plug-cut mine. Learned how many years ago when my dad and I fished LaPush, Sekiu, Neah Bay... I was his "bait boy", so I learned to do it right. The plug-cut puts a fast spin on the herring, and it drives the Coho craazzy! Rule of thumb from those days, plug-cut for Coho, whole, slow roll for Chinook. Old habits die slowly!
3) There are good currents at Possession, and plug-cuts will work fine there too. They sell live herring there, so when in "Rome, do as the Romans do!" When the current is dead, the live herring will attract the fish. Use a regular mooching leader... I like 1/0 & 2/0 if you can get them, but 2/0 & 3/0 are fine. Put the top hook through the nose of the live herring, from the top down, and bring the hook point through the lower jaw of the herring. Will stay alive for quite a while. Don't need to cast out too far, as the Coho come in close to the shore.
4) Next season will be a "Pink" year, I fish the beaches for them in late July through August. Coho don't show much until September. I don't fish herring for Pinks, don't know if it would work for them? Would love to fish with you sometime! Keep me in mind.
I grew up in Seattle, and while attending the UW I made a couple of trips to Bush Point to fish for Steelhead in the winter... big "Spn-N-Glos"... caught a couple back then (1970's). Was going to try this past Winter, but things got away from me. Will probably try this Winter (January and February). PTL!
Dan
10/13/2014 10:16:00 AMStan, thanks for taking the time to share this info, I appreciate it very much. I don't anticipate being back down to Whidbey (live in Bellingham) till Jan when hopefully I will be slinging "Bush Point Specials" (Big Spn-N-Glos) out in hopes of getting a Steelie. If you don't mind, PM me so we can hook up sometime in the future. danlisahall@comcast.net
PTL!
PTL!