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Fishing Techniques  BOTTOM FISHING If you want to catch a fish, bottom fishing is probably your best bet. Make sure you check the fishing regulations so you know which fish are in season and what their limits are. There are many different species of fishes you might hook, but the most common are quillback rockfish, copper rockfish, lingcod, or kelp greenling. If you are lucky, you might catch a cabazon (similar to a sculpin but much larger), a red irish lord, yelloweye rockfish, or even an octopus! Where to fish Bottomfish are found anywhere rocks or reefs are. If you look to the south of the resort, you will see some rock cliffs littered with bull kelp (bull kelp is actually a form of algae that floats on the water and is attached to a rocky substrate below). This area is great for the smaller rockfishes and kelp greenling. You might also try the kelp bed off the point to the north of the resort. Basically anywhere that is rocky (see our map) will have bottom fish on it. A word about kelp beds: These beds are nursery grounds for hundreds of different species of fishes. Approach the kelp beds in your vessel very slowly to make sure you don't run over the top of the kelp. Your prop will cut the kelp very easily and the kelp fronds (the big leaves that stretch out from the floating bulb) will wash away with the tide. The kelp fronds provide the protection for juvenile fishes that make up the bottom of the food chain on the reef. If enough kelp has been cut, which has happened to many reefs in this area, the entire reef system could vanish. Also, if you can't see the kelp, the tide might be pulling it just under the surface of the water. Again, approach the bed slowly and watch for submerged kelp. Kelp beds are in approximately 35 ft. of water. When to fish You want to fish for bottom fish at slack tide. If you try to fish while the tide is flooding or ebbing, you will not be able to reach the bottom as your line will be so far out from your vessel that it is sometimes impossible to hit bottom. Slack tide enables you to have a relatively straight up-and-down arrangement so you can easily hit bottom without wasting too much line. Make sure to plan your fishing trip around the tides. Use the Tide Guide (Bellingham is close enough) as a prediction for slack tide times. Use the Washburn's Tables and accompanying Current Atlas to get a more accurate prediction as to when exactly the tide changes from a flood to ebb or vise-versa. Depths to fish The deeper you fish, generally the larger fish you will catch. The rockfish species can generally be found anywhere between 20 ft. to 400 ft. If you are inexperienced or unfamiliar with our waters, we suggest you start shallow until you get the hang of things. Additionally, the more shallow you fish, the generally better chance you have to catch something as the diversity of life in shallow areas is generally better due to the availability of penetrating sunlight and the presence of zooplankton and phytoplankton which form the absolute base of the food chain. What to fish with You will have your best luck catching bottomfish with lures and bait. Bait: Use a banana weight and some salmon leader (either slip tie or fixed hook works… we suggest the slip tie as they are easier to handle). Cut about a foot and a half off of the salmon leader before you tie it to the banana weight. Always use a fisherman's knot! Use frozen herring as bait. Put the first hook through the gill plate of the herring, pull it all the way through, and hook it about an inch away from the fork in the herring's tail. (see our display). Bring the other hook up through the chin of the herring and through the bony nose of the fish. Tighten the slack if you are using a slip hook. Lures: Pt. Wilson darts work well, along with any of the Zinger line. Or, you can make your own lure. Take a lead jig head, put a skirt on it, and pick out a worm and thread it over the hook until it hits the skirt (see our display). Tie straight to your line. Fishing technique One of the biggest problems with fishing for bottom fish is that you hook the bottom and can't unhook it… this happens to us all. However, you can avoid this 95% of the time if you pay attention and "feel" your way to the bottom. Place the lure or bait assembly in the water, flip the bail, and it descend. KEEP YOUR THUMB ON THE SPOOL AND LET THE LURE DOWN SLOWLY. This prevents a "rats-nest" on your spool that will make you spend the rest of the afternoon untangling your line. Know roughly how deep you are (if you are near a kelp bed, the bottom is about 35 ft. down). The farther out from the bed you are, the deeper it gets… generally. As you are slowly letting out your line, watch your rod tip. When your lure hits the bottom, your line will go slack and your rod tip will lurch upward a bit. IMMEDIATELY reel up about two turns when you feel bottom. If you let your lure sit on the bottom, it will snag. Also, sometimes it is hard to feel when you hit bottom, especially if the tide is "ripping". Inexperienced fishermen will hit bottom, not detect it, and keep letting line out. This, of course, will snag your line on the bottom every time. If you are fishing shallow, if you havenot hit bottom after 20 seconds, STOP. Reel up a bit to make sure you aren't snagged and when you're sure you aren't snagged, continue down until you hit the bottom. You want to "jig" both the lure and bait assembly off of the bottom. Bring your rod tip up slowly about four feet, then back down slowly, then back up, etc. Even at slack tide, you will probably be drifting a bit. ALWAYS know where the bottom is. If you lose the bottom with your lure, drop it back down as the depth might have changed. Try to avoid drifting "up-reef" as this has the greatest chance of snagging the bottom. If you feel bottom hit, reel up. Often times you will drift up reef and you will have to reel in your line until the reef drops back down again. Just stay alert and know where the bottom is and what it is doing (i.e., if it is "coming up-reef or going down-reef"). When you hook a fish Of course, set the hook. If you are fishing "catch-and-release" style, make sure you reel the fish in slowly as decompression damages the soft tissues as the fish comes up. It is best to use a fishing net or a gaff hook to bring the fish in. If the fish is small enough and you have thick enough line, you can often just bring it in the vessel straight on the hook. And please be humane to your catch. Knock him out… don't just leave him starving for oxygen. The gills collapse once they are out of water. The fish can still breathe, but it is breathing at about 10% capacity. If you don't knock it out, it will have enough oxygen to just stay alive, but will obviously suffer. Please respect your catch. Once he is knocked out, you should "bleed" the fish if you aren't going to be cleaning it for awhile (both to keep the meat from getting saturated with blood and to make sure the fish doesn't wake back up). Make a slit on both sides of the fish just below the gills on the white tissue. Either do this in the water in your net or in your vessel (if you have a sea drain). SALMON FISHING Salmon fishing on the San Juans is not as great as it once was due to the many factors that cause death for pre-adult salmon. However, there are plenty of salmon out there to catch… it's just a little harder than catching a rockfish. You generally need more gear and patience to catch a salmon. Start by determining which type of salmon you would like to go after. The San Juans are unique in that our waters carry all species of pacific salmonids. Chinook salmon are the largest, and they are around pretty much all year. Coho come through around late August through September and into October. Sockeye salmon are also here in the summer, but they generally aren't feeding and are very hard to catch. Chum salmon are much the same… they won't bite your lures (they are said to eat jellyfish). Pink salmon are the most numerous of the pacific salmonids but only come through late August and early September every odd year on their way to the Frazier River in Canada. Trolling or Mooching You can fish for salmon by trolling or mooching. If you have a downrigger and you're reading this, chances are you already know what to do. If you don't have downriggers, you can use a Deep Six, which enables you to get down deeper into the water as your vessel is "trolling." Trolling here means to move your vessel at the same speed as a very slow walk. Trolling setup with a Deep Six Attach a Deep Six to your line. Approximately four feet from the Deep Six, tie in a flasher or dodger. From this and anywhere between a foot-and-a-half to three feet back, attach your lure or bait (see display). Everyone has their own preferred "trolling speed." We suggest you set your speed to about the same speed as a slow walk. Try trolling both close to shore and farther out. If you see bait balls on your depth finder or on the surface, fish at a depth just below the ball. Mooching If you don't want to get all "geared up" to go salmon fishing, we recommend you try "mooching" for salmon. You can use anything from a Zinger to a Pt. Wilson Dart. Each lure has it's own strategy, we recommend you read the back of the package of the lure you would like to use to get the best "play" out of your lure. You want to fish where bait will be accumulating: look at the direction of the current predict where the bait will be. Bait will often seek refuge behind any point or projection to get out of the current. These areas are often visited by salmon and is a good place to start. Additionally, if you see gulls congregating and feeding out in the channel, that is also a good place to fish. You want to start your lure at the bottom of any bait ball and work your way upward. Usually bait is near the surface, but lower your lure far enough down to make sure you will be coming up into the bait. "Bait" here is anything from candlefish to herring. Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) Common name: King or blackmouth, Tyee Kings are the largest of all pacific salmonids (largest recorded king was 124 lbs from Alaska). Use spoons, bait, or squid to troll. Use Pt. Wilson dart, buzz bomb, or Zinger to mooch (jig). See our displays. You generally want to troll between the depths of 50 - 90 ft., with 80 being a common depth. However, you will often see Chinook salmon jumping on the surface. If you are running two polls, it's a good idea to set one "deep" and the other "shallow" to maximize your chances. Chinook also commonly hang out near the bottom. This can be dangerous as you have a higher chance of snagging your gear on some treacherous peaks and valleys out there. This is only suggested if you have a depth finder. Chinook are commonly found south of the resort at Lover's Cove, north to Pt. Doughty, Pt. Hammond over on Waldron, Pt. Lawrence on the east side of Orcas, and all along the west side of San Juan Island. Coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) Common name: Silver Most people use a flasher and green squid for Coho. Space the squid a foot-and-a-half back from the flasher and fish no deeper than 50 ft. Coho can sometimes be seen schooling on the surface. If you see this, and you have a bait caster, try casting out with a Buzz Bomb. Coho come through late summer and are commonly found at Lover's Cove, Stuart Island, Henry Island, and Pt. Hammond. Pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) Common name: Pink or humpy These are the easiest to catch of all pacific salmonids. Pinks are the most abundant of the pacific salmonids and are the smallest size at adulthood. They are characterized by displaying dramatic sexual dimorphism (males have a large, exaggerated hump, dorsal). Most are two years old by the time they migrate back from the open Pacific to the Frazier River. You will see them schooling and jumping much like a ball of herring. The best way to catch pinks is to watch for these schools. When you see them, cast a pink Buzz Bomb out in front of their path. You have a 90% chance of hooking a fish if you cast the lure right in front of their path. People have done well all along the west side of San Juan Island, Henry, Stuart, and even right out in front of our resort. Sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka) Chum (Oncorhynchus keta) These salmon are extremely hard to catch. They generally aren't feeding as they pass through the San Juans. We don't suggest you waste your time trying to catch either of these species unless you have absolutely nothing better to do. FISHING OFF OF OUR PIER Someone once caught a 60 lb. lingcod off our dock. Although your chances of catching a fish that large from our pier is slim, you will definitely catch a fish. You will probably catch either a bullhead, pile perch, shiner perch, or a greenling. You are not limited to these species, however. Many people have hooked rockfish, salmon, both crab species (red rock and dungeness), mackerel, dogfish, and even the occasional skate that comes in to feed on fish carcasses. Technique Your best bet is to use a smaller-sized hook. We sell them here in the store. Many of the fish species under our pier and floating docks have pretty small mouths and can't get their lips around a worm on a large hook. Attach a "split shot" weight, or any small weight, on your line approximately 1.5 ft. up from your hook. Now, depending on what you want to catch, you have a few options on where to fish. Pile perch and shiner perch like to hang around, you got it, pilings. They are also commonly found under the floating docks. Bullhead and greenling hang out on the bottom, and you usually have to cast out from the pier or floating dock to get into them… especially the greenling, who only reside in our eelgrass beds. What to use for bait Any kind of meat will work (chicken, herring bits, etc.). Try to bum a fish carcass off someone who just came back from a fishing trip. You might also try tube worms, which are flowering "worms" that reside in a tube approximately 1 ft. long. They attach themselves to the underside of our docks, especially the gas float. Reach under there and try to snatch one up - but be careful, they are attached very well and are hard to pull off. | ||||||||
