Lots more Humpy news "revised"

[fishing collector]

Humpy News from the Bellinghan Herald news paper ...... http://www.bellinghamherald.com/outdoor ... 19031.html

Hope this will help some of you..... and this http://www.steelhead-fishing.org/WA_Snohomish_Pinks.jpg

This is from the old fishing and hunting news... They no longer publish it...Too bad

When fishing in the Snohomish from the town of Snohomish down, troll or cast spoons and jigs.

On the flood tide, fish bigger pink Bombs, smaller ones on the outgo.

If tackle shops are out of pink, buy another color and get yourself some nice nail polish and repaint 'em.

They mojoed some fluorescent 2? -inch BBs with Revlon's passion punch shimmer, and they look absolutely breathtaking!

Also trys trolling Dick Nites, jigging leadheads with pink hoochies, fishing smaller pink FatFish, Wiggle Warts and Hot Shots and plunking sand shrimp.

"A pink Wicked Willy is one of the better lures" for trolling on the lower Snohomish, adds John Martinis of John's Sporting Goods (425-259-3056) in Everett.

And there's always the venerable Humpy Special spoon, Kastmasters and, well, anything pink with a hook.

Upstream setups

From Snohomish upriver, try a Dick Nite rigged steelhead drift-fishing style with 3 to 4 lead beads or a jig or bait under a bobber.

For the former, run a snap swivel and tubing with lead up your mainline, add a bead, then tie on a barrel swivel, 4 or 5 feet of 8-pound leader and a No. 1 half-and-half (50/50) Nite. If you don't have a 50/50 the any one will work. I got a 8 lb coho in the Skagit on a wee dick night and a bunch of humpies on just some pink yarn 2 years ago.

Cast out, let it drop a bit and then retrieve if there's little or no current. Don't worry too much about keeping your lure near bottom; pinks seem to be spread throughout the water column at this stage of their journey upstream.

If ebb tide's sucking water out, cast out and let it drop until it's quarter downstream, then retrieve slowly.

As for jigs and a bobber, rig up with a bobber stop, bead and a float with a ?-ounce weight just above a swivel.

Give yourself 2 to 3 feet of leader and then a bait or jig of some kind ? sand shrimp and other shrimp baits will fly as will your steelhead jigs and small pink crappie tubes.

For whatever reason steelhead and crappie jigs worked better in relatively faster-flowing pools while bait did best in the slower-moving pools.

Toss to the head of the pool and drift through.



Basically you want to target pools and inside turns rather than riffles. Here are the better spots and shore access points from Monroe down:

Below the boat launch off Tualco Loop Road there's a long pool that's good for back-trolling or casting Dick Nites, or floating jigs or bait.
Anchor up near the rock jetties at the end of the hole and toss your bobber towards them.

You can also fish this pool from shore by paying the $2 trespass fee the farm at the end of 177th Ave. (the road past the Monroe prison) charges.

It's where Alex Minerich caught his state freshwater record 14.86-pounder.

At 300 cfs a person could wade the river and fish from the aforementioned rocks.

The next hole down has a rock jetty and house on its south side.
Anchor about 25 feet or so off the jetty and drift bait or jigs under a bobber. Fish will keg up in this hole. Also back-troll bait or spoons.

For some odd reason in 2001, bait consistently worked better at the Nordstrom Hole, the next spot down, than jigs, though both fished. (At the hole above, the opposite was true.)
Below there, the river divides into two channels.
The channel on the right is narrow and fast with a 90-degree left-hand turn, but has several deeper spots where you can toss a bobber and jig.

At the corner, anchor and back-troll spoons.

Remember Humpzilla, Avis Pearson's 14.49-pound Oncorhynchus gorbuscha giganticus?

He was caught in this general area.

From the confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers down to the 522 bridge, float jigs, back-troll bait or toss spoons or Kastmasters.
Below 522,(This was Curado's hot spot a few days ago) "Beach fishing".... where the Snohomish banks off the bedrock of Lords Hill, drift a bobber through that slick and into the slack.
Down the north bank of the river there are a couple places with deeper water before the main channel switches to the south side.
Bob Heirman Park, off Connelly Road near Cathcart, offers shoreline access to Thomas' Eddy if you're on the bank.
Toss all manner of spoons. If you're running a boat, the river splays out into shallow channels with lots of woody debris.

Just above Douglas Bar, where you can launch your boat for a $50 fee (talk to Fred Zylstra), there's a deep hole where you can cast spoons or Buzz Bombs, etc.
Also, there's shore access off of Shorts School Road.

Below Doug Bar to Everett things are a tidal show. Anchor up and cast spoons, jigs or plugs, or troll.
There's a massive amount of public access in Snohomish, off Lowell-Snohomish River Road and Rivershore Drive, and at Rotary, Riverfront and Langus parks in Everett for tossing spoons, jigs and even floating a bobber and jig.

The Snohomish and Skagit will be killer for the next few weeks...It will get better then the chums and coho will be there to have fun catching.....:-)
Good luck to all...Steve

[code3daddy]

Thanks for the information.