Northwest Fishing Reports

We didn't quite get to single digits, but our mini cold snap did bring temps low enough to freeze a 4 to 1 mixture of water and sugar. I bring the feeders in at night and put them out in the morning just before it gets light. At these temps, even being in close proximity to the house, they only last about a hour or so before they need to be thawed. Anna's Hummingbirds are tough little SOBs.

My one humming bird feeder froze and the ice expanded and shattered the juice holder alltogether.My you know its cold is when your guides freeze up on your pole and you dip it in the water to defrost them.

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Spray your guides and reel with wd-40.or a silicone type oil.

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racfish wrote:Spray your guides and reel with wd-40.or a silicone type oil.

or, a trick I learned from Nate, use some antibiotic ointment (it's the ointment you want, doesn't have to be antibiotic per say) and apply a little bit to the guides. Same principle. So next little tube of Triple Strength antibiotic you see expired in your medicine cabinet, don't throw it out, put it in your winter steelheading tackle box.

Mike Carey wrote:

racfish wrote:Spray your guides and reel with wd-40.or a silicone type oil.

or, a trick I learned from Nate, use some antibiotic ointment (it's the ointment you want, doesn't have to be antibiotic per say) and apply a little bit to the guides. Same principle. So next little tube of Triple Strength antibiotic you see expired in your medicine cabinet, don't throw it out, put it in your winter steelheading tackle box.

Then when a steelhead or salmon, that doesn't feel pain, bites you with a hook in it's mouth, you have some ointment to smear on the bite.

Gets too cold for hummers to overwinter here, they all leave sometime around first frost and head for warmer climes. Not to mention lack of food since everything is covered in a blanket of snow for months on end.

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Mike Carey wrote:

racfish wrote:Spray your guides and reel with wd-40.or a silicone type oil.

or, a trick I learned from Nate, use some antibiotic ointment (it's the ointment you want, doesn't have to be antibiotic per say) and apply a little bit to the guides. Same principle. So next little tube of Triple Strength antibiotic you see expired in your medicine cabinet, don't throw it out, put it in your winter steelheading tackle box.

Wipe them down with a little RainX the water just jumps right off.

gfakkema wrote:I like the ointment idea. I am a little leary using wd-40 on or near the hydrofloat because it has a wax-type (not sure what it really is) coating on it and I don't want the lube to degrade or eat away at the coating. I'll have to give the ointment a try. Thanks Mike/Nate.

WD-40 is fish-oil based. Or at least it used to be.

Used to spray it all over and inside fish heads when crabbing. Crab rings would be so heavy on the first pull you could barely lift them. back when there were lots of crab to be caught of the piers/docks, that is.

gonnahookit wrote:
WD-40 is fish-oil based. Or at least it used to be.

A common misconception perpetuated by fishermen over the years who have used it as a scent or scent remover. No one is quite sure why it works as none of us has a sense of smell remotely as sensitive as that of a fish. Now for the bad news, it is illegal to intentionally release petroleum products into our waters, thereby making the use of WD-40 as a fish attractant, illegal. And with some of the overzealous enforcement officers out there, I would not put it past them to cite a person for using it.

For the good news, it makes an excellent cleaning product. WD-40 will remove every last remnant of gunk and stank from your lures. All you need to do is coat your lure with it and let it soak overnight, no scrubbing required! Afterwards you just wash/rinse your gear in a little bit of Lemon Joy and water and you're set.

Ive always thought of why is our scent so bad . Maybe for native fish it would be bad but for hatchery fish I would think that human scent meant food for the fish. Im not sure how the pond tenders feed their fish (with or w/o gloves). To me hatchery fish know human scent as a dinner bell. Ive seen hatchery workers grab pellets from a bucket and toss them in with human scent in them.
Back to the original topic of Hummingbirds. In seattle when my feeders are not frozen I get hummers all year long. They're amazing lil birds to watch.

We have 3 breeding pairs of Anna's that hang around all year. How they find enough bugs to eat this time of year is amazing, especially when we get socked in with snow from time to time.

racfish wrote: Im not sure how the pond tenders feed their fish (with or w/o gloves).

I'm pretty sure they use the automatic feeders that have built in timers. But it probably varies by the hatchery.