Chum

[AndyK]

PTS and I drove north today to fish a Washington river for Chum. A fair day for chum with each of us catching four fish.

All my fish took a #4 chartreuse Comet Fly.

http://karamanos.us/Fishing/chum1.jpg


http://karamanos.us/Fishing/chum.jpg

http://karamanos.us/Fishing/phil1.jpg

[TroutGirl]

VEry Very nice. I still have PTS envy. :)

[Mokai]

Nice looking fish..I would like to catch a Chum someday...

[deerslayer]

they are a blast. i caught my first chum on a fly yesterday in about 10 years. and thank to andy k and pts for the help.


you 2 should have stayed another hour os so. they came in thick

[Flying Roast Beef]

You're torturing me. I'm going next weekend.

[garyk]

For NW flyrodding it's tough to beat those bad dogs of November.

I really miss fishing the Tillamook chum, and sure wish that population would rebound so we could fish for them again without guilt.

BTW, what was the drive time to get to those Washington dogs?

PTS and I drove north today to fish a Washington river for Chum. A fair day for chum with each of us catching four fish.

All my fish took a #4 chartreuse Comet Fly.

http://karamanos.us/Fishing/chum1.jpg


http://karamanos.us/Fishing/chum.jpg

http://karamanos.us/Fishing/phil1.jpg

[Dom C]

Looks like a balst boys! I think we all suffer from PTS envy:)

[PTS]

deerslayer, glad that we could be of some help. On the drive home, I just suspected that leaving early was a mistake. We fished fresh water all day and I wasn't to excited about going thru the clean-up process if our gear went into the salt. Going to get salty next week though.:)

garyk, it's about 150 miles from Clackamas town center in PDX to hood canal and adjacent rivers, so between 3-4 hours. Further than the Miami or Kilches but definitely no reason to feel guilty with the numbers of chum in WA.

[MattPark]

I caught a couple of those a few weeks ago, and released them. I see that one is up on the bank. Are they any good to eat?

[AndyK]

I caught a couple of those a few weeks ago, and released them. I see that one is up on the bank. Are they any good to eat?

Neither PTS nor I kept any fish. The photo posted was a quick photo so the fish could be seen clearly. It was released and swam away in the 44 degree water without any apparent harm.

I personally don't plan on keeping any steelhead or salmon in the next year except for some nice Chinook. I catch enough Chinook to meet all my needs to eat fish.

There are some fishermen who keep Chum. We always hear comments about how they will "smoke up nice"! Some bait fishermen keep the females just for the eggs.

According to some "old" statistics (1994) from the Alaska Dept of Fish & Game http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/pubs/notebook/fish/chum.php (http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/pubs/notebook/fish/chum.php)
the commercial catch of Chum salmon is over 11 million a year and the sports catch is only 25,000! With a commercial catch of 11 million, someone must be eating them.

[Steelie Mike]

Keta Salmon. You find it in the grovery store all the time. I find it funny how it is marketed behind the glass. You also will find it with the smoked salmon. There is also a large market for their eggs over seas. Apparently it is great for sushi because the eggs are the largest of the salmon species. I am not sure if the eggs are good for curing, but I am sure they would work great.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/SteelieMike/Sitka2005MD077.jpg
I might have to look for a few of these nextweek.

[deerslayer]

i can tell you personaly that *** eggs are a baitfishermans dream. i usually keep about 4 hens a year ust for the eggs. my parents eat the fish. so nothing goes to waste. but man their eggs rock for steelhead.

[foxer]

Chum are probably OK when caught in the ocean. I would love to go up and fish those sometime, although I dont fly fish.

[deefly]

I just got back from a cruise to Alaska in Sep and interestingly enough, the hatchery manager said the bulk of chum provide eggs for the sushi trade in Japan! Pinks too. I just could not understand why they would be RAISING chums and pinks in ALASKA! the answer: Asian egg brokers!
Sheesh!:idea:

[deerslayer]

question??? so i hear everyone wanting to get up to washington to fish for chum??? is there no chum run in oregon???

anyway to any of you who want to get up here and fish them, they are everywhere right now and will only be getting thicker as novemeber goes on.

[TroutGirl]

Oregon has mostly decimated the chum runs. Only rivers with open runs are the Tillamook ones. And its a zoo of shoulder to shoulder. Hard to flyfish in that situation.

[TillamookChinook]

My first trip to Alaska, about 7 years ago, I lucked into a run of Chum salmon. I spent the whole day standing Spring Creek (out of Talkeetna), shoulder to shoulder with several hundred other fishers. Everyone said they were fishing for coho, but 99% of the fish caught were chum. I caught about 40 chum and one coho on the fly. The chum were way stronger and more fun.

I drove up to Kennedy Creek (Hood Canal) a couple of years ago and it was an ugly zoo. Lots of snagging, few that I saw caught in the mouth. I'd love to catch some chum again, but I would need directions to a different stream before I would drive up there again.

TC

[deerslayer]

most of the good chum fisheries are a zoo. but there are some good rivers with big runs that dont get fished to hard. the skokomish doesnt get to packed, but can be at time.

the green river, puyalup, carbon, skykomish, all get good runs, and should be a blast on flyrods. and iwill soon be checking them out as soon as i get casting down better.

[VO2Max]

Deerslayer,
I did some reading as of late and found that the Nooksack and Skagit rivers both have good runs of Chum salmon but I was wodering when during the month of Nov would be a good time. I will not be able to get there until over Turkey day vacation so if you have any information on those rivers it would be greatly appreciated. too tied up with other things at this point unfortunately. Thanks for the help in advance! ERIK

[deerslayer]

you know i really havent fished either of those rivers. but right now till decemeber should have good fishing for chum and the later in november you wait to com up the more steelhead there will be.

i usually fish for chum in my local rivers around turkey day and reason cause i rifle hunt for deer, but this year i am archery hunting so im doing my fishing earlier then normal. cause my late elk and deer season run during the time i am usually hitting the waters for chum and early steelhead.

but yeah anytime after turkey day till about mid to late december should have chum in the rivers for sure. obviously the longer you wait in december the uglier they will look

[Navigator]

Sweet! :bowdown:

[raptorschild]

Tillamook,

Like stated before, almost all "good" chum runs will be a zoo.

I fish for Chums exclusively with fly gear, and i can say that 99% of the fish are not hungry for my little charteuse fly. I am flossing/Snagging, in the mouth. I know this becuase you can put your fly right in front of fish that are swimming up past you, and dangle your fly in front of them. They won't be interested. yet when you cast out horizontally you can't keep em off that hook!

What is it about Kennedy creek that has you so uphauled that you won't go back? The snaggers?

[Slayer]

Not only are there lotsa snaggers but its MUDDY! at low tide its only about 10 ft wide and 1-3 ft deep. Not much of a sport

[raptorschild]

So mud, snaggers, and the size of the creek?

I can certainly see your points. I'd say to deal with the mud, just buy hip waders.

As for snaggers, fly fisherman are the most efficient snaggers of the bunch. I know becuase i'm one of em. Only I snag em in the mouth whereas the others snag em in the back/tail/face, etc.

As for the creek being small and being "unsporty", well....we are talking about fishing for CHUMs you know. Not exactly a prestine prized fish. THese are toothy, green and purple salmon that are easy to catch. If you want something sporty to catch, you are wasting your time with Chums....If it is sport you want, then fly fish for Carp, or Steelhead, or Kings. ya know! :laugh:

[deerslayer]

actually i disagree with the chum not being sporty. it all depends on the creek you are fishing. sure where they are pilled up shallow waters and easily caught. sure its not to sporty.

but in bigger water i have watched chum fallow spinners and spoons, then proceed to slam then hell out of them. tell me they arent hungry then. i have watched them chase down sandshrimp that hs fell of my hook while steelhead fishing and eat them.

and on a plus note. they fight like tanks. and are an awesome catch on lite tackle.

[raptorschild]

I certainly won't disagree with ya Deerslayer. I've never seen Chums track down my chartreuse flies, but just because i havent seen it doesnt mean it doesnt happen.

Certainly Chums can be sporty if you choose a stream that doesnt have as many in it, it will obviously be tougher, but again, I'd say if i wanted to catch something sporty, I'd go after some steel, or a salmon species thats a little tastier off the grill!

That said, i believe i will be visiting Chico Creek this thanksgiving!

[deerslayer]

yeah dont blame ya on the tasty part. i do like chum. but they are by far lower on the taste scale.

also i definately wont be targeting them if there are steelehad in the rivers :bowdown: they are by far the better of the 2.

[TillamookChinook]

Sorry for the late reply.
Kennedy Creek was disappointing because (as someone else noted) it was really crowded, most fish were snagged, and the creek was down to just a trickle at low tide across the mud flats and people were still snagging the fish.

I have seen chum strike the fly. I made a return trip to Spring Creek out of Talkeetna a couple of years ago, but I was several weeks later in the season. The chum and silver run was mostly over and I had the river to myself, which was a little spooky because there are big bears in Alaska. Anyhow, there was a school of chum right at the mouth of Spring Creek and I could catch fish by just casting near the school and a fish would come out of the pack and strike the fly. But they weren't prime fish anymore, so I moved upstream to where they were spawning and cast egg patterns for rainbows. That was great and they really fought hard. I didn't catch anything too big, maybe 18", but the jetboat driver who came up to get me in the afternoon was more bold about venturing farther into the bush and he said he got a 29" Dolly on a bead.

I need to go back to Alaska.

TC

[waterman]

Oregon has mostly decimated the chum runs. Only rivers with open runs are the Tillamook ones. And its a zoo of shoulder to shoulder. Hard to flyfish in that situation.
I checked out the issue of Oregon Chum runs with a fish biologist last fall. He pulled out a book that indicated that the southern most runs of Chums in the US has always been the Tillamook river system. They never appeared too much south of that area. You would think they were all over Oregon before modern times, but they supposedely weren't ever below Tilly. The farther North, the better runs, I guess.

[fishnfun]

What I think is cool is there used to be a run of chums in the clack, way back in the 1800's and early 1900's.
Also a lot of small columbia river tribs get small runs of chum in them. I think the washugal is even open to fishing.

[AndyK]

In some places that chum are so numerous, you need to watch where you are stepping:

http://karamanos.us/Fishing/chums.jpg

Here's a link to a 2 meg version of the above photo:

http://karamanos.us/Fishing/chums1a.jpg

[Mokai]

In some places that chum are so numerous, you need to watch where you are stepping:

http://karamanos.us/Fishing/chums.jpg



I wish I had that problem...:smirk:

[Super Fluke]

Nice fish and pics

[waterman]

I checked out the issue of Oregon Chum runs with a fish biologist last fall. He pulled out a book that indicated that the southern most runs of Chums in the US has always been the Tillamook river system. They never appeared too much south of that area. You would think they were all over Oregon before modern times, but they supposedely weren't ever below Tilly. The farther North, the better runs, I guess.

Well, after checking onto this more, they did have a greater range than what I was told last fall. Apparently, the info I gave on my origianl post was for their current range. Here is some more (hopefully better) info on this issue:

"Chum salmon have the widest distribution of any of the Pacific salmon. They range south to the Sacramento River in California and the island of Kyushu in the Sea of Japan. In the north they range east in the Arctic Ocean to the Mackenzie River in Canada and west to the Lena River in Siberia."

I also read that Monterey Bay in California was there southern most extent of range, historically.:redface:

[Flying Roast Beef]

Well my trip was cancelled by the flood stage waters but we still want to try. Need recommendations on where to start. Is the Sultan area worth looking at? We'd like to make a weekend out of it so we need to be within reasonable distance of a motel. Thanks.

[etacada]

nice chum! I'd like to get one on the fly rod.

cb

[garyk]

What I think is cool is there used to be a run of chums in the clack, way back in the 1800's and early 1900's.
Also a lot of small columbia river tribs get small runs of chum in them. I think the washugal is even open to fishing.

FYI, the Scappoose Bay Watershed Council is trying to get the chum restored there...Milton Creek, if I recall.

[Flying Roast Beef]

This is killing me. I went to sportsmans and bought a couple of things I was out of and tied a bunch of flies I think will work for chums and now my buddy cannot get day care for Saturday. We are shooting for next Saturday to explore the Hoodsport hatchery area. How long will these fish be around? I hate to take our first shot at this fishery after it is already done. Any help? Thank you. FRB.

[AndyK]

It's my understanding there are runs through the end of December!

I was planning on last Monday being my last trip for the year, but with the rivers still blown out for winter steelhead, I may head up again next week.

[raptorschild]

Chum report:

Buddy of Mine and I went to Kennedy creek this weekend. Fishing was very slow. Some big fish in the creek though.

Me and my friend managed to hook 1 fish a piece on fly's. I hooked a 15 lber, and it quickly proceded to show me my backing. had to clamp down on him!

Anyway, looks like that fishery is pretty much petered out. Next year maybe i'll hit it right.