Puntledge River
- Thread starter winephart
- Start date
just saw this now, but it was a pretty good season on the Punt last fall.
caught a few pinks and saw a bunch more caught in early Sept. i had killed my 10 nooks within the first few weeks of Sept and released at least 30 others before i stopped catching them. right behind them were the coho and chum, and there were a few weeks in late Oct/early Nov where you couldn't go 2 casts without hooking a chum on just about anything you threw at them. i understand not a lot of chum made it back to the hatchery last year, which was strange considering the thousands that were clearly in the river and then littering the banks and side channels with their corpses.
some days it was tough to catch a clipped coho, other days you'd catch 3. on average from what i saw though, i'd estimate about 80% of the coho i saw landed still had fins.
about 90+% of guys are just using wool and a 1/0 under a float. i caught a good 75% of my fish last fall on the pin with just wool. later on in the season when the meat farmers were all gone and i was alone or one of a few i did a lot of twitching for coho and was really successful. must have pulled at least 50 fish out of the river with jigs. also did really well on the chum and coho using soft beads.
if you're familiar with the river and where/how to fish it, then last year was a good year. i caught coho as late as Dec 23rd and the only day i got skunked once i had caught my first salmon was on Jan 1st of this year. by then it was clear the run was 99% done so i didn't bother going out again. the lack of fall rains seemed to extend the season. i was surprised to be catching so many fish in Dec.
caught a few pinks and saw a bunch more caught in early Sept. i had killed my 10 nooks within the first few weeks of Sept and released at least 30 others before i stopped catching them. right behind them were the coho and chum, and there were a few weeks in late Oct/early Nov where you couldn't go 2 casts without hooking a chum on just about anything you threw at them. i understand not a lot of chum made it back to the hatchery last year, which was strange considering the thousands that were clearly in the river and then littering the banks and side channels with their corpses.
some days it was tough to catch a clipped coho, other days you'd catch 3. on average from what i saw though, i'd estimate about 80% of the coho i saw landed still had fins.
about 90+% of guys are just using wool and a 1/0 under a float. i caught a good 75% of my fish last fall on the pin with just wool. later on in the season when the meat farmers were all gone and i was alone or one of a few i did a lot of twitching for coho and was really successful. must have pulled at least 50 fish out of the river with jigs. also did really well on the chum and coho using soft beads.
if you're familiar with the river and where/how to fish it, then last year was a good year. i caught coho as late as Dec 23rd and the only day i got skunked once i had caught my first salmon was on Jan 1st of this year. by then it was clear the run was 99% done so i didn't bother going out again. the lack of fall rains seemed to extend the season. i was surprised to be catching so many fish in Dec.
vanisleangler
New Member
Was at the Puntledge below the bridge at first light for today's opener ... there are LOTS of pinks in the river. Hooked up 3 within an hour, all of which escaped before making it to the bank, which is fine considering there's no retention of pinks in the Puntledge.
vanisleangler
New Member
Who was out today for ho's in the Puntledge? Any success?
Fixit
Well-Known Member
two coho and a few foul hooked pinks for me today
kind of a cluster F day. spent a lot of time retying leaders, flys etc. even my nail clippers broke, had an eyelet come loose.
should have worn my waders and used a full sinking line but was trying to make due with sinking tip and gumboots. lesson learned. get your gear ready before you hit the river
kind of a cluster F day. spent a lot of time retying leaders, flys etc. even my nail clippers broke, had an eyelet come loose.
should have worn my waders and used a full sinking line but was trying to make due with sinking tip and gumboots. lesson learned. get your gear ready before you hit the river
