Tight Lines

BY MARK YUASA

Thinking Pink

Columnist MARK YUASA gets you ready for the wave of pinks (and some surprising silvers) returning to the region for salmon season.

When it comes to salmon, pink and silver are the primary colors of August. Leading off this colorful moment are the more than 2.9 million pink salmon predicted to inundate our marine waterways here shortly. As strange as it may sound, pinks mainly migrate to local streams during odd-numbered years due their brief two-year lifecycle, and around the turn of the 21st century—2001 to be exact—their numbers started to thrive exponentially. The largest return of 10 million occurred in 2009 with subsequent strong returns in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Pinks are the smallest of the salmon species, weighing 3 to 6 pounds and averaging 20 to 25 inches. They can be distinguished by their large dark oval spots on the back and tail fin. The pink run around the Strait of Juan de Fuca, off Neah Bay and Sekiu, and northern and central Puget Sound peaks early to mid-August. In southern Puget Sound you’ll see the bulk of pinks during the last week of August and early September. Oddly enough, pinks are enticed by the color pink since it resembles their main diet of krill or plankton. A small, hot pink, mini squid with tandem 1/0 red barbless hooks; a Gold Star octopus squid or mini squid; or a 3-inch spoon tied 13 to 16 inches behind an 8- or 11-inch white colored dodger or silver flasher works well. Be sure to add scent like Pro-Cure, Mike’s Gel Scent, or Smelly Jelly to your presentation. As for rod and reel, stick to an 8- to 9-foot salmon or trout rod with a level wind or spinning reel. Downriggers are effective since you can dial in the precise depth of where fish are located. Those without the high-tech gear aren’t left out of the game and can attach a 6- to 8-ounce banana-shaped lead weight or trolling diver a few feet ahead of the dodger. Another choice is a pink Buzz Bomb or Point Wilson type jig that you cast away from the boat and let sink about a foot per second. Once you feel the jig go slack, reel up, but don’t jerk hard because pinks have a very soft jawline. Lastly, be sure to troll very SLOW (1.5-2 mph) depending on the current, tide, and wind. In early morning, or just before sunset, pinks can be found from just below the surface to depths of 50 to 100 feet (but never right on the bottom). The fish schools will go deeper on sunny days.Taking care of your catch is vital as the flesh of pinks can become mushy and lose their flavor, especially in the summer heat. Bleed, clean, and gut your catch, and get them on ice right away. And then chrome is the color of choice for anglers heading to the brackish waterway of Lower Columbia mouth at Buoy 10 off the ports of Ilwaco and Astoria. The forecast for coho salmon—commonly referred to as “silvers”— is more than 1.5-million coho and anglers should be aflutter at the thought of the largest return since 2015. The large fishing ground where thousands of boats converge in late summer at Buoy 10 covers about 20 miles from the red buoy marker near the river’s mouth upriver to the Rocky Point-Tongue Point boundary. That fishery is open August 1-10 for hatchery-marked Chinook and hatchery-marked coho only, and then from August 11 to September 6 for all Chinook and hatchery-marked coho. In late August through September, anglers can follow the salmon procession further upstream of Bonneville Dam to the Gorge area, and eventually clear up to Hanford Reach in September and early October.

Mark Yuasa is a longtime fishing and outdoor writer. Born and raised in Seattle, and a UW alum, Mark joined the Northwest Marine Trade Association in 2017 as the Director of Grow Boating Programs after 33 years at The Seattle Times. He also volunteers with the BSA Chief Seattle Council and National Order of the Arrow organizations, and enjoys fishing for salmon and other fish species in local waterways.

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