THE BLOG

When Joey Princen called and suggested I come down to one of his favorite SW Washington tributaries to go chase some fresh King Salmon, I couldn’t resist.  Joey was working his tail off running two trips a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  I had an opportunity to fish the afternoon trip on the last day of the two-fish-retention.  We ended up with an absolute insane 4 hours of fishing, with blue skies, double-digit hook ups and big king salmon limits.  We didn’t have to go far to find our fish.  The first hole was full of fresh kings and utilizing eggs under a float was the key.  All and all it was an outstanding afternoon of fishing.

GEAR

The gear Joey used was absolutely dialed for float fishing for kings.  The casting rods were perfect for reaching the fish in the holding water(Isowater).  We were using both 9’6 GLoomis E6X rods (8-17 Line Weight) with Shimano Symetre reels and 10’0 Shimano Convergence (8-17 LW) rods with Shimano Curado reels.  Both of these rod/reel combinations were extremely well-balanced.  The rods provided exceptional sensitivity for detecting the occasional subtle king bite, but had plenty of back bone to land these robust fish.

TECHNIQUES

The game plan was to fish bait/eggs under a float.  At times, we added sandshrimp to our egg presentation to provide extra scent.  The key to this type of fishing is to be fishing at the correct depth where the holes are holding fish.  Joey’s ability to read the water and identify where the fish were holding was huge.  He also was constantly adjusting the bobber-stop when necessary and utilizing the correct amount of weight to find the perfect speed and presentation to entice the fish.  King salmon generally prefer the deeper holes and a slow presentation is very important.  Some holes may have too much current and adjusting the size of the weight is crucial.

LIMITS

King salmon are very particular about their bite.  Often they will nibble at the bait/eggs before a solid take-down.  It’s important to be able to distinguish between the soft bite and the weight gently bouncing on the bottom.  This will have a big effect on your catch ratio.  Reducing the amount of “belly” in your line will also contribute to better success when targeting kings with float & egg presentation.  Joey’s attention to detail really enhanced our overall fishing experience and put us on quick limits of large chrome chinook.  The timing of our trip was perfect.  We found fresh fish moving into the river system.  We had non-stop action for 4 hours, and ended up with 6 large Kings between 15 and 25-lbs.

VIDEO

It was undoubtedly the best day of king salmon fishing I have ever experienced on a river.  It was a pleasure to spend an afternoon with a couple of great guys.  Joey has an uncanny ability to put his clients on big fish.  He’s extremely knowledgeable and detailed in every decision he makes to put his clients in the best opportunity for favorable results.  Additionally, he spends the extra time to take exceptional photos to document his clients enjoyable experiences.  He also made some excellent videos with the help of this professional service which allowed them to get great social media visibility. It’s been a wild and crazy salmon fishery with all of the emergency closures, and I feel very fortunate to had such an epic day on the river this year.  Here’s a short video trailer of the day “River Madness”.

It won’t be long before the Steelhead start to show in the coastal rivers.  Once again, I have several trips booked with Joey and I’m looking forward to chasing trophy-size Steel with him this winter and spring. Give Joey a call and book an awesome Steelhead adventure.  You will learn a lot and spend a relaxing day on a beautiful coastal river.  Find out more about Joey by clicking JP’s Guide Service.  He is an extremely hard-working, experienced & capable guide who will make your trip a very memorable day on the river. You might love reading about onlinedogtor if you are a pet lover.