It does not happen often, but every two years the “Humpy” run comes to the Puget Sound region. On years where King and Coho are plentiful enough to have open seasons it sets up up a unique opportunity to catch King, Coho and Pink Salmon on the same day.
For the most part, Pink or “Humpy” salmon return every other year to the Puget Sound region. Years that end in an odd number are “Humpy” years. These salmon are not the top of the food chain as far as salmon go, but they are not bad if you bleed them and get them on ice immediately after catching them. I think they are pretty darn good on the smoker too, and I save most of mine for that.
You can read more about Pink salmon at Washing Department of Fish and Wildlife HERE
Gabe Miller, Good Friend and Fishing Tackle Buyer for Sportco, invited me this past weekend to fish up in the Seattle area. Gabe was most interested in catching Kings, but I wanted to see if we could hit the triple play. Kings and Coho are great, but I am a fan of the lowly Pink Salmon. They are good biters and fun to catch - and, outside of Alaska, I have never been part of catching three salmon species in the same day.
I met Gabe in the Sportco parking lot at 4:00am, we jumped in his truck and headed north through Seattle and launched his boat at the ramp near Shilshole Marina. Gabe had been fishing this area throughout the summer so he was pretty dialed in on the bite. We trolled flashers with hootchies or spoons and in water depth between 45 and 100 feet.
Two Kings and Finally a Humpy!
The limit is two salmon per angler, only one of which can be a King. We started off targeting Kings and by 11:00am we each landed a king and had one silver in the box, but no Humpy. I was beginning to get worried that we were going to miss our opportunity, but as luck would have it, one of the rods went down and we landed our humpy to complete the Seattle Salmon Triple Play!
Humpy Time
We headed back to the boat ramp, loaded the boat and headed to Dick’s in Wallingford for a couple of double cheeseburgers and fries - I highly recommend this if you ever find yourself in Ballard WA.
Seattle Salmon Triple Play - Kings, Coho and Humpys!
It was an awesome day, and soon these Humpy’s will be headed up the rivers which creates an awesome new opportunity to target them. I plan on going soon and will keep you posted.
Thanks for reading.
Bill