Northwest Fishing Reports

i am new to the whole river fishing but want to get into it.. how do i set up my pole accurately for fishing for salmon in the rivers? any info would be grateful as im lost. thank you.

What about either a small or larger pink spoon with a BB? I plan on heading to snoho shortly to get some sand shrimps, they should have them in by then.

For plunking (cast out, put the rod in a rod holder and wait) the Spin-n-glow/pink hoochy set-ups should be rigged with about 30" of leader, some form of three way swivel or spreader and on a 12-20" dropper (distance from the weight to the spreader or 3-way swivel). As far as where to fish goes, there is no need to look for deep slots. Very often the fish will be in 3-6' of water on the edges of the sand/gravel bars. I would start looking for fish on the Snohomish between the 522 and Hwy 9. I think that there is good access all along both sides of the river. Good luck and hurt some fish!

P.S. I had some pictures to add to the reply but can't figure out the process.

As of right now I wouldn't even bother plunking for the pinks. There are so many in the rivers right now almost every method will work. Plunking can be a little overwhelming for beginners, I still only do it if thats the only way they are catching them. There are a number of different weights for plunking, all designed for one particular river bed or another. So unless you know exactly what the bottom of the river consists of, its a guessing game, wich will lead to a lot of lost gear.


Right now if I were fishing a river for pinks, I would tie a 1/8 oz 604 gamakatsu jig head with a pink mini hoochie right onto the main line of my trout rod. (Or any 7' med action 8lb test set up). Add a dab of shrimp or krill smelly jelly and your set.

Any 1/4 oz - 1/8 oz steel head jig in pink will also work

Wee dick Nites in pink, pink/white, 50/50, chartrues will also work. They get pretty creative when fishing the dick nites, but the jist of it is, a weight swivel 3' leader then the dick nite.

Drifting corkie and yarn can also be deadly. If you are fishing a deeper stretch of the river than a 2" 3.5" all pink buzz bomb will also knock em dead.

But my go to would be the hoochie set up followed by the buzz bomb

thank yall for all the comments as i went to the skagit river and fixed my rig with a 4 oz sinker with a line spreader with sand shrimp and in 10 minutes had two 4 pound pinks... awesome.. nothing much rest of the morning but it got hot.

linesider33 wrote:thank yall for all the comments as i went to the skagit river and fixed my rig with a 4 oz sinker with a line spreader with sand shrimp and in 10 minutes had two 4 pound pinks... awesome.. nothing much rest of the morning but it got hot.

Just wondering what area of the Skagit were you fishing??

i was fishing the bank under the downtown bridge where the river bends. alot of humpies are being pulled out of there. ill be there bright and early tomorrow.