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Get the point: Salmon limits at Point No Point
Washington state fishing map feature
By Joel Shangle
Fishing and Hunting News
Take it from a skipper who's in his 18th year of making a living boating fish for clients throughout Marine Areas 8-2 and 9.
"Point No Point can be very good in this November time frame," said All Star Charters owner Gary Krein (425-252-4188), whose 28-foot Uniflite Salty Dog, the Morningstar, will be a common sight around No Point during the coming 30-day blackmouth season. "That area probably represents one of your better chances in Puget Sound for getting chum, which you're also entitled to keep here in November. If you're looking for that chum to add to the one-blackmouth limit, Point No Point is a good spot to do it."
Located on the south side of where Admiralty Inlet turns into Puget Sound, roughly 8 miles due west of Possession Point, Point No Point serves as a major breakpoint for fish cruising into the Sound from Admiralty. Because of its location on the south side of the waterway, just a few miles east of Hood Canal, it provides a feeding location for fish bound for the entire Sound system. "The thing about Point No Point is that you get a lot of South Sound fish mixing in with those Hood Canal fish," Krein said. "There have been a lot of years when Possession and some of the other big blackmouth areas have died going into the last week of November, but Point No Point keeps producing. It can hold up better toward the end — it's actually a better late fishery most of the time." Play the tides
The basic mechanics are the same at No Point whether you're fishing for blackmouth or chums: troll east of the point on an incoming tide, and switch up to the west side on the outgo as bait washes around either side of the point. Hit it on a big drop or rise for blackmouth. "Anytime there's an exchange of 6 feet or more, the eddy is really noticeable," Krein said. "I really like that area when it has about 6 to 9 feet of change — you see the rips forming, and the bait seems to get really concentrated on either side of the point. And so do the fish." Start right at the point on the tide change and troll east and then south along the shoreline past Pilot Point toward Eglon on the flood. If it's a strong tide, ride it all the way down past Eglon toward Appletree Point. "The further and further into the incoming, you'll get further and further down past Pilot into the Eglon area, but that entire shoreline down to Appletree can be really good," Krein said. "If it's a good tide, don't fight it." The first part of this trolling path, from No Point to Pilot, throws some hooks and humpty-dumpties at you — keep your eye on your electronics until you get south of Pilot, where the bottom contour flattens out. On the outgo, start at the point and troll the 70- to 130-foot depths, following bait along the shoreline into Skunk Bay, out to Norwegian Point. You can extend all the way out to Foulweather Bluff if you want, but it's usually not necessary to run out that far. "You'll usually find your fish between No Point and Norwegian heading west," Krein said. "The whole thing is pretty routine going west, but coming east you have some real hooks, up-and-down valleys and ledges in the 90- to 100-foot range. You really have to watch what you're doing, especially close to Point No Point." "As you get further down toward Eglon, it gets more flat." Moochers' delight
"No Point is probably the best mooching spot available north of Jeff Head," Krein said. "If you're going to mooch, it's as good a spot as any because you can get a fairly long drift because the contour stays even. The problem with Possession is that you drift through the strike zone so quickly, it's almost not worth the time. At Point No Point, the current travels along fairly parallel to bottom structure, so you can set up in the 150-foot lane and stick fairly consistently in the strike zone a longer period of time." Blackmouth gear Krein swears by one particular piece of hardware for winter blackmouth: "My favorite is a Coyote Spoon. It just continues to work, year in and year out. It doesn't require you to flavor it with any bait — it just requires you get it in the water and get it in front of fish, and it seems to catch fish at a variety of speeds, whereas some other things you troll with, speed is so critical. A Coyote will catch fish for a guy working at 1 knot or a guy working at 3 knots." Krein will typically fish spoons sans flasher, but a red or green Hot Spot, Alaskan Eagle or Coyote flasher can sometimes stimulate a bite when it's slow. Effective spoon colors include the No. 188 (green and white) or the Funky Chicken. Other baits to consider include a flasher and green hornet squid or herring. "No Point is a good place for the guy who wants to fish herring," notes Krein. "You don't have quite the dogfish problem, and your bait doesn't get beat up as bad. Chum gear
Here's where that second set of gear comes into play: chums typically won't hit blackmouth fare, so if you've boated your Chinook limit for the day, pull the spoons and plugs and tie on 44- to 46-inch leaders and chartreuse squids behind red or green flashers. "If you're going to target chums specifically, you have to completely change your gear," Krein said. "You want to troll about the same speed for them as you would for humpies: slow. They're not very aggressive about chasing stuff." Keep your gear off the bottom too. "I've caught more chums at 70 feet on average than any other depth," Krein said. "We've caught them at 30 feet sometimes, but most of the fish I've caught have been in the 60- to 70-foot zone." The past two salt chum seasons have been spotty at best, but mid-October intel hints at a breakout year this year. "It's been pretty tough the past couple of years, but I'm hearing that the commercial guys came in with a whole bunch of chums," Krein said. "I've already caught three, so I'm hopeful that it's going to be a pretty good run." At a glance What: Point No Point blackmouth and chum salmon. When: Blackmouth season runs Nov. 1-30 in Marine Area 9. Limit: Two fish per day, no more than one Chinook. Punch the other half of the daily limit with a chum. Where: West side of Puget Sound, 8 miles due west of Possession Point. Point No Point is a 16-mile run out of Everett. How: Troll spoons, bait from No Point down to Eglon on the incoming tide, switch up to the west side out to Norwegian Point on the outgo. Also drift mooch along the 150-foot contour. Information: Gary Krein, All Star Charters (425-252-4188); John Martinis, John's Sporting Goods (425-359-2056)
Material from Fishing & Hunting News |
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Copyright © 2007 Last Modified 8-21-07
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