Puyallup River Fishing Report

River Fishing Cheat Sheet

2012-01-22T13:37:00.000-08:00

How to build spinners: "Jed Davis style"

2012-01-15T08:06:00.000-08:00

One of the most exciting ways to river fish is using spinners. Unfortunately, most store bought lures just don't cut it when it comes to weight, and blade performance. After reading Jed Davis' book on spinners, and his instructions on building your own, I decided to give it a go.

Enjoy!

Fishing the Puyallup 2011

2011-12-25T17:03:00.000-08:00

Well.....it's was an awesome year for fishing. Thanks to all contributors, and commenters. Any participation is greatly appreciated.

Started out with a ton of pinks, and losing a couple kings; the b-run of silvers never fully developed, even though I landed a couple, but the chums are always great for wrapping up the year.

Good luck to everyone who's going to brave the winter for some steelhead up on the Carbon, and I'm looking forward to a productive year in 2012.

I'm reading a couple great books for next year, mainly about reading water, and what to use when conventional drift fishing is not suitable for a given stretch of river. I know the titles have a lot to do with steelhead, but I know a lot of the same principles apply. I'm probably going to be making my own spinners after reading Jed Davis' book. If I do, I'll post some videos about how to make them.

I'll be back in July, a couple weeks before the river opens back up! Until then, good luck fishing.

Catching this fish with a spinner got me thinking about not being SO centered in on corkies and yarn, and it's been paying off! Still using 'em qutie a bit, but I want to see any portion of the river, that I know holds fish, and be able to fish it properly, wether that means bobber & jig, spinners, eggs, or corkies.

Lower Puyallup still producing

2011-12-24T18:26:00.001-08:00

A lot of fish still in the lower, although the run is slowly coming to an end. This huge buck was landed this morning along with two smaller hens. Seems the hens are a little brighter over the last two weeks. Dark colored Spinner Corkies was the ticket this morning. Check out the teeth!

Having trouble with the reports page link, but this will get you there.

Puyallup river fishing regulations

2011-12-18T07:14:00.000-08:00

Having questions myself, and from others about the regulations on the Puyallup, so thought I'd break it down. I think this is the correct interpretation of the rules.....but I'm open.

Good luck fishing today!

http://puyallupriverfishingreport.blogspot.com/p/puyallup-river-fishing-regulations.html

Chum all over!

2011-12-17T12:59:00.000-08:00

Lots of chum in the lower Puyallup still. Lost a couple (one was HUGE); landed two, and saw so many jumpers! Good time overall.

Thanks to 253 & Flying Hawaiian, for the good time, and the netting :-)

The run should be strong thru the end of December. E-mail photos, and I'll post 'em on the reports page.

Fishing in the dark

2011-12-10T18:01:00.001-08:00

Met up with Flying Hawaiian down at the soccer fields, right after he'd landed this huge chum. Didn't land anything myself, although we both chased schools of chum up & down the river with no luck.
All in all a good time fishin', and I'll give it a go here again soon. I think the water being so clear and low just made the fish spooked, and put 'em off the bite for the most part.

It sounded like this morning was pretty hot up at clarks creek.

Thanks Flying Hawaiian....good time.

December Puyallup Fishing

2011-12-10T06:53:00.001-08:00

Looking to get out there today & repeat last weekends success. It sounds like most everything is still being caught in the lower river, although I know they're up in the carbon already.

Good luck to everyone this weekend......DRESS ACCORDINGLY! It's so cold!

Although...it doesn't matter how cold it is if you have a fish on the end of your line.......Hmmm...seems like it just warmed up :)

Chumtastic!

2011-12-03T14:18:00.001-08:00

Awesome fishing this morning down at the soccer fields....

Our crew landed a couple, and lost a ton!.....Good fightin' fish for sure!

Lost a 15lb.+ chum after quite a fight....a couple jumps and everything!

Good luck to everyone....This is a video of a couple of the fights!

Puyallup River Fishing Regulations

2011-11-30T06:42:00.001-08:00

Looking to be on the river this weekend for some excellent fishing. The lower river sounds like it's loaded with chum.
Anywhere from mama stortini's down river is shaping up nice.

As of December the rules on the Puyallup are changed...check this out...http://puyallupriverfishingreport.blogspot.com/p/puyallup-river-fishing-regulations.html

Good luck

Where to fish on the Puyallup river

2011-11-26T06:36:00.001-08:00

Posted Saturday Morning
Not able to make it down to the river this weekend, but I know where and when I'd go, if I was able!

Not looking to make a surge of people all going to one place at the same time, but if you email me, I think I can give you a pretty good shot of getting into some nice chum either this afternoon, or Sunday morn.....

Looking forward to getting back into some nice fish, but if I can't fish...i'm hoping to at least hear some good success stories!
Ignorantfisherman@me.com

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Posted Sunday Night
Hey! looks like there's a couple lucky ones! Nice fish from 253 & Flying Hawaiian. Glad I was able to help....it bothered me knowing there would be fish there, and not being able to hook into 'em, but this is the next best thing for sure! Hope to see you on the river soon!

Fish ON!!!!!!

Puyallup River netting chum salmon

2011-11-22T06:23:00.001-08:00

This video was sent to me by F.H. -- thank you
This is down across from Clark's Creek....a yearly setup area where all the boats come & unload their catch.

Check out the river level predictions! From what I've experienced, the river won't be even close to fishable until late friday morning.....quite a storm!

Lost a silver! Lost a chum!

2011-11-19T13:30:00.001-08:00

Good fishing today, but nothing to bring home. First tried up at 116th....saw one silver lost, and not too many signs of anything else.

Headed down to the lower river, where my brother lost a nice silver, and I lost a 10-12 lb chum!
AAHHH! Anyway, good to have fish on the end of my line, and didn't get rained (or snowed) on!
I was up about 100-150 ft from clarks creek. Both of us were using corkies & yarn.

Beautiful fish

2011-11-18T06:09:00.001-08:00

This was caught by Flying Hawaiian last night in the lower river....beautiful fish!
Looking to hook into a few myself this weekend.

Good luck fishing.

Done with silvers...onto the chum

2011-11-12T13:14:00.001-08:00

Went up to 116th st. this morning, and saw a couple silvers rolling, but couldn't get any biters!
I think it's this sudden temperature drop this morning.....anyway, there are still silvers in the upper river, and I think they'll be in good numbers up till next weekend, but I'm going to move down lower for the chum.
The chum have been in the river for about a week and a half now, and I'm expecting the next couple weeks to be pretty hot......lots of catch & release, and maybe a couple smokers. Chum aren't in the deep pools like silvers....they're more in the 2-4 ft. of water, and they'll hit spinners, corkies, spoons, eggs....you get the idea. The most common color used is green, but pink works great too.

Good luck fishing!

Puyallup River Chum Salmon

2011-11-08T19:12:00.000-08:00

Have had enough questions about chum salmon, so thought I'd make a post.

Chum salmon are a blast to catch. Their size alone makes it a good fight. The average chum that comes out of the Puyallup will be in the 8-12lb range, but I've heard reports of a 29lb er from someone who's lived on the river for years. It seems they're in the shallower water compared to the silvers which are looking for deep pools. I've seen chum hooked about a foot from the bank in 3.5 foot water.

I use 15lb mainline, and 10lb leader....yes....I'll probaly lose a couple fish to snapped line, but to me it's much funner than just horsin' 'em in.

If you fish in the lower river right now, you'll have a good chance of getting either chum, or silver.....although it seems most of the silvers are mid to upper river by now. Give it another week or so, and the lower river will be packed with chum......

Send me pics of your catch, and I'll post 'em on the reports page.

Good luck to all.

Puyallup river silver salmon

2011-11-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

So...about a month ago, a reader e-mailed me pics of a couple silvers he'd caught in about 30 minutes....he'd used eggs, while everyone else was using corkies & yarn, and spinners.
I though I'd give it a try.... No :( I had't been saving eggs during the pink run....in fact, I'd given quite a few away, because I had no intention of drifting eggs.

So off to sportco I go. What! NO EGGS! I couldn't find eggs anywhere ( i tried - BELIEVE ME!), so I finally ended up ordering online from www.sunrisebait.com. Really had no hope of it working, but thought I'd give it a go this morning.....

I used 5 foot leader because the water was soooo clear; casted up river, and a the end of my drift felt a good little tug....set the hook.....yeah! fish on!

You might get a chuckle out of this other video....my brother had "the big one on" about an hour before I hooked up....you can tell I was pretty excited :-)

Puyallup River netting for chum salmon

2011-11-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

The Puyallup opens on Sunday, at noon, for netting of chum salmon. Here's a link provided by one of the readers of last year netting of the chum. http://blip.tv/nwifc-video-stream/pt-chum-test-fishery-10-10-movg-4363075 Thanks Emmett.

I'll still be trying up river this weekend, because I'm still wanting more silvers, and it'll give the lower river a chance to fill up with chum.

Good luck fishing this weekend.

How to fish dick nite spoons

2011-10-31T20:33:00.001-07:00

Well. went down to the puyallup on saturday evening, & saw lots of fish jumping down by the white river...couldn't get any to bite which can get a little frustrating. They seem to like it right along the pylons there....they were surfacing along the opposite shore quite a bit.
I figuring that's their "travel" lane up river, and there just shooting straight thru. Couldn't get a blue fox to operate correctly except a little lower down river, and couldn't get my corkies to float straight along the pylons. Made me start thinking about plunking right in that travel lane.

I'm gonna try out a couple different things this weekend a little farther up river. Excited to try eggs in the upper river which i've never tried, and I'm gonna try some dick nite lures, which i just ordered a couple days ago.

This video is pretty amazing...it's a fishing guide talking about dick nite lures, and how COHO LOVE 'EM...very informative.

Mixed Reports...but they're in for sure

2011-10-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

The Coho have definitely been in the lower river for at least a week and a half now.
I stopped on my way home from work & saw a nice jumper ....so chrome! Couldn't get it to bite anything I threw at it, but I'll get 'em here a little farther up river next week :)

I've heard very mixed reports on the lower river...."all day fishing - not one sign of a fish" -- "saw lots of jumpers & rollers" - a wide range for sure!

Talking & reading, I'm hearing that the b-run of silvers don't hang out in the lower river as long as the a-run at all, and that sometimes people catch b-run silvers in the carbon with sea lice still on them, which means they move up river pretty quick!

I don't know if i'll be able to get on the river this weekend, but next weekend I'll be trying the upper portions of the river hoping to get into some nice silvers....hopefully the weather cooperates.

Here's a book I came across I thought someone may be interested in. I'm gonna get it myself. I guess this guy took all the state's catch cards & made a calendar about when & where the best fishing is in the state of Washington according to actual fish caught ....good idea - i'm hoping there's good info in it.

Puyallup river water level

2011-10-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

It looks like the river's almost back into shape. Look at the hydro from the last couple days..- what a difference!
Not quite sure how long it takes for the water's color to get back into the "green", but Im hoping it might be getting there by today. On friday night, the visibility was about 5-6 feet which is extremely clear for the Puyallup.
I'm going to try to stop off on my way home from work & give it a go.

Fish ON!!!!

2011-10-21T17:28:00.000-07:00

Phew....It looks like they're on their way in. Hooked this nice hen this afternoon in the lower Puyallup a bit up river from Freddy's, on a #4 blue fox (pink).

Hit it so hard, I thought my lure hit bottom.
I'm going to stay home tomorrow, cause it looks like the river is shooting strait up with this rain, but I'll give it a go on Sunday.

Reports of silvers?!?

2011-10-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

Hearing a couple reports of silvers making their way into the Puyallup, but it seems pretty hit & miss right now. I'm hoping they'll be showing up by this weekend.

I'm going to try a couple new things this week, because of the area I'm fishing. There's a hug back eddy, that I'm having a hard time drifting corkies thru, so I talked with Bill Herzog, and he recommended a couple lures for such an area. I'll let you know if I have any success with 'em.

I'm also going to try drifting eggs, which will be my first time.

Thanks for all the reports.

When will the silvers be in the Puyallup?

2011-10-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

Well...here goes my longest post....

I talked with a man who's lived on the Puyallup for 30 years, and fishes every year; he told me this weekend should be the beginning of the b-run of silvers. I was expecting quite a bit earlier, but then I started doing some research to explain why this year would be so much later than in 2009 when I hooked a silver on the 3rd of October while I was not even expecting it (never saw any other silvers), and then saw, & had fish on the next two weekends....all down behind fred meyer.

Here goes my best explanation.

The high tides which bring in new fish in 2009 were about ten days earlier than this year.
So this weekend would be the very first signs of the b-run, and the next two weekends will be fairly good in the lower river, is what it think this means. I really have no way of knowing unless I put in my time, and log every trip.

I have to keep remembering my goal....the five year plan.....I will get this figured, even if it means, I know of certain weekends that are better off staying home.

Any thoughts on all this??? Am I just grasping at straws to explain a couple bad weeks of fishing??? Hope someone had more success than me.

Friday night?

2011-10-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

Might be hitting the river right after work tomorrow on my way home, as well as Saturday. I'll let you know how it goes.
I just bought this book online....anyone have any other good recommendations? I'm thinking of having a page that lists the best books on drift fishing.