Combat fishing is a term I have heard before but until recently I have avoided it. The Skokomish River is close to us here in Union, WA. The mouth of the river empties into Hood Canal and the river is spawning ground for several species of fish. The one currently holding my interest is Chinook or King Salmon. The salmon have been in the river for about a week now and the banks and river are lined with anglers, eager to hook one of these magnificent fish. The fishermen are sometimes so close together that it is near impossible to cast your line without hooking the person next to you. If you have to repair your gear, another fisherman will quickly take your place on the river. The limit is one fish per day and they have to be hooked in the head or the mouth, no snagging is permitted. You are allowed one hook and it must be barbless. You must release a fish that has been “foul hooked" or snagged; the fines are prohibitive if you are caught with an “illegal” fish. Since salmon have stopped feeding once they start their spawning run, they must be provoked to strike at your lure; they no longer feel the pangs of hunger. They are focused on more important issues now, sex!
Anglers are lined up on both sides of the river and casting their lines upstream across towards the opposite bank. The lines are crisscrossed across the water and the current then moves the lures downstream, hopefully across the deeper holes where the fish are holding. All you have to do is avoid the other lines, snags and rocks and get in front of a big salmon. With luck your line passes in front of a salmon and the fish strikes out of irritation or habit or your line drifts into the open mouth of a salmon and then is drawn across the mouth until the hook catches the corner of the fish’s mouth. This is referred to as “flossing”. The lines are carried to the river bottom by lead weights and the weight bumps along the bottom as it is moved downstream by the current. You have to decide what the bottom bumps feel like and whether the bump may be a fish. When you decide to “set” the hook it may be a fish and it may be the bottom that you have hooked.
If you are fortunate enough to entice a large Chinook into taking your lure, the water erupts as these powerful fish react to the hook. They will race upstream or downstream, jump, twist, shake and dive deep into the holes in the river bottom. Since the hooks are barbless, constant pressure must be kept on the line to keep the hook engaged. Tackle needs to be strong enough to withstand the forces exerted by these powerful fish. Too light and the fish will run all the line off the reel and break off. If the drag on the reel is set too high, the lines will break and light weight rods may even break as I have witnessed! If the fish are able to run without being held by the rod and reel, when enough line is out they often will find logs or snags and sometimes dive deep under overhanging ledges in the river bottom. This allows them to break off since the angler’s rod is no longer a factor. Often you will see an angler moving 1-2 hundred yards up or down the river to keep the fish in check.
Access to the river is somewhat limited since there are steep banks, limited parking, private land and even an Indian reservation that fronts one side of the river. A local establishment, Hunter Farms, owns the property across from the reservation from the mouth of the river to a couple of miles upstream. They allow public access to those willing to walk in and sell annual access passes that allow passage past locked gates where there is ample parking and you are in close proximity to the river.
My own experiences have shown that I am quite adept at hooking anything but fish. I am getting lots of practice tying hooks onto leaders. Two days ago I had sacrificed all of my leaders to the river gods and was preparing to leave to resupply. A fisherman had just come to the river and began fishing next to me. On about his third cast he hooked a fine fish and then announced that he did not intend to stop fishing so soon. He asked if I wanted to play the fish and if so, I could have it. It was an easy decision. Fifteen to twenty minutes later a bright 20 pound salmon was in the net!
Where do you put 20 pounds of fresh salmon in a motor home? We had fresh salmon for lunch, less than two hours from the river to the grill! We have some fillets and steaks in our small freezer and the rest went to others here in the RV Park. I have hopes of becoming a fresh salmon supplier here the remainder of August! In order to do so I will have to master the fine art of dental hygiene on a salmon, “flossing”!
See you on the river. I’ll be the one with the bird’s nest in my reel while my leader is drifting into a bottom snag! Fish on!
Anglers are lined up on both sides of the river and casting their lines upstream across towards the opposite bank. The lines are crisscrossed across the water and the current then moves the lures downstream, hopefully across the deeper holes where the fish are holding. All you have to do is avoid the other lines, snags and rocks and get in front of a big salmon. With luck your line passes in front of a salmon and the fish strikes out of irritation or habit or your line drifts into the open mouth of a salmon and then is drawn across the mouth until the hook catches the corner of the fish’s mouth. This is referred to as “flossing”. The lines are carried to the river bottom by lead weights and the weight bumps along the bottom as it is moved downstream by the current. You have to decide what the bottom bumps feel like and whether the bump may be a fish. When you decide to “set” the hook it may be a fish and it may be the bottom that you have hooked.
If you are fortunate enough to entice a large Chinook into taking your lure, the water erupts as these powerful fish react to the hook. They will race upstream or downstream, jump, twist, shake and dive deep into the holes in the river bottom. Since the hooks are barbless, constant pressure must be kept on the line to keep the hook engaged. Tackle needs to be strong enough to withstand the forces exerted by these powerful fish. Too light and the fish will run all the line off the reel and break off. If the drag on the reel is set too high, the lines will break and light weight rods may even break as I have witnessed! If the fish are able to run without being held by the rod and reel, when enough line is out they often will find logs or snags and sometimes dive deep under overhanging ledges in the river bottom. This allows them to break off since the angler’s rod is no longer a factor. Often you will see an angler moving 1-2 hundred yards up or down the river to keep the fish in check.
Access to the river is somewhat limited since there are steep banks, limited parking, private land and even an Indian reservation that fronts one side of the river. A local establishment, Hunter Farms, owns the property across from the reservation from the mouth of the river to a couple of miles upstream. They allow public access to those willing to walk in and sell annual access passes that allow passage past locked gates where there is ample parking and you are in close proximity to the river.
My own experiences have shown that I am quite adept at hooking anything but fish. I am getting lots of practice tying hooks onto leaders. Two days ago I had sacrificed all of my leaders to the river gods and was preparing to leave to resupply. A fisherman had just come to the river and began fishing next to me. On about his third cast he hooked a fine fish and then announced that he did not intend to stop fishing so soon. He asked if I wanted to play the fish and if so, I could have it. It was an easy decision. Fifteen to twenty minutes later a bright 20 pound salmon was in the net!
Where do you put 20 pounds of fresh salmon in a motor home? We had fresh salmon for lunch, less than two hours from the river to the grill! We have some fillets and steaks in our small freezer and the rest went to others here in the RV Park. I have hopes of becoming a fresh salmon supplier here the remainder of August! In order to do so I will have to master the fine art of dental hygiene on a salmon, “flossing”!
See you on the river. I’ll be the one with the bird’s nest in my reel while my leader is drifting into a bottom snag! Fish on!
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