Fishing For Sockeye Salmon

Fishing for sockeye salmon is so easy it is silly. Basically one rule of thumb, if you are not catching fish, go slower. This hub will be specifically about the sockeye fishery in Lake Washington which is in the middle of the greater Seattle metropolitan area. The techniques however will also work on other bodies of water where sockeye are found.

The sockeye salmon in Lake Washington primarily spawn in the Cedar River which enters the lake at the extreme south end. The Cedar River is prone to flooding in some winters and low flows in the summer months. Spawning success is hit or miss as we have many years without a sockeye season. The Dept of Fish and Wildlife has set a spawning escapement quota of 350,000 adult sockeye entering the lake. Anything over 350,000 fish and we get a season until we catch the numbers down to the 350,000 mark. The last few years the numbers of sockeye returning have been dismal. So far this decade we have had seasons in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006. The return rate for the Lake Washington system is very poor. Less than 1.5 fish returning for every adult spawner. The reasons are still not totally understood.

So each season we check the fish counts at the locks and hope for a fishery. For 2010 the forecast is only 123,000 which is way short of the required escapement. Salmon forecasting is like forecasting the weather, but with more variables so we can hope.

This is a fishery where downriggers rule. Precise depth control is very important. Typically you will start at first light fishing at a depth of about 60 feet deep. As the morning wears on and the sun gets up you want to be working your fishing depth down to around 90 feet deep. This is the fishery where I will only use 6 pound balls on the end of my downriggers. We are trolling as slow as we possibly can and still have control of the boat. With a light wind it can be just as productive to just drift with the wind.

 The basic gear is a size "0" dodger with 9-18 inches of leader to a bare 2/0 or 4/0 hook. Yeah, I said bare red hooks? Sockeye salmon are plankton feeders. Krill and small shrimp make up a large part of their diet in the sea so it makes sense to mimic something about that size. I have tied several styles of (sockeye flies) with mixed results. Usually the less bulk tied onto the hook the better. I do prefer wrapping a small piece of yarn onto the hook to hold shrimp oil scent. Less is better here. We have also experimented with bare blue hooks and black hooks. Both will catch fish but the red seems to out fish all others. This makes little sense if you understand the color spectrum in water. Red fades long before the 60-90 foot depths. This alone tells me we don't really understand how fish perceive color in water.

 I stack two rods on each downrigger. 10 feet apart.  By staggering the depth of the downriggers I can thoroughly cover a range of depth. First downrigger at 55 and 65 feet and the second at 60 and 70 feet. 

 So we are going so slow that the dodger takes about a second for each side to side cycle. Leader size is a minimum of 30 pound test and up to 60 pound test is not uncommon. Two reasons for the heavy leader. The dodger will impart more action to the bare hook with a stiffer leader and a sockeye when it fights will roll up the line and dodger and can break the line against the edges of the dodger. Fluorocarbon leader is a good choice here but we still catch them without it.

 The most common color dodger is chrome or chrome with silver prism tape. I have had days where white an green glow painted dodgers will out fish the chrome but those are not common.

Sockeye is one of the best tasting of the salmon species but only if you take care of them. Put them on ice immediately. This is a July and August fishery which means warm air and water temps. Clean them, cut off the head and tail and wrap them in foil. Spice to your own taste and put them on the bar-b-q. They are a feast.

 The typical sockeye salmon is 4-9 pounds. If there i a season the limits will be announced and it varies with some years being only one per day and some years I have seen it as high as 6. And mid-season changes are common.

Most of the best fishing is from the Mercer Island floating bridge southward. The south western tip of Mercer Island and the entire west shoreline from the Rainier Beach area to the airport are some of my favorite areas. This is almost downtown, do not be surprised to hear the count of 10,000 boats on the water on any given weekend. Be prepared to launch hours before first light and wait a couple hours to load your boat back on the trailer after a day of fishing. Patience is the word here. There are multiple boat launches around the lake with the largest being Coulon Park in Renton. 8 lanes with very well built docks. Parking is in short supply. We have family that lives on the lake so we dropped the boat and kept it moored and just took the trailer home. It is common for people to launch the night before and just sleep on the boat. The crowds are something to see.