Deep water stealhead and kings

[bluewater]

I was wondering if anyone was still fishing for stealhead and juvenile kings out in deep water. If so what depth and what are you using to catch them? I was told they were out in 450-500 FOW but I have not tried it yet, I plan to this weekend though. I was planning on using spin doctors and flies but If something else works better please let me know. Thanks for any info.

[GAMBLER]

Blue,

The offshore stuff is good into late November most years. Run normal trout and salmon stuff. Spoons and flashers and flies will produce. Find the thermalcline and rig above it. The fish at this time of the year can be all the way to the surface.

[bluewater]

Thanks for the info Gambler, I will hook up my fish hawk this weekend to find the thermocline.

[skipper19]

Look and smell and check for flies buzzing (on a nice day) and you will find the scum line. Out there somewhere near the 500 ft of water. The scum line will have floatsum in it and a slick appearance where a breeze blows ripples elsewhere, bird feathers, sticks, seaweeds, colorful mylar balloons that say happy birthday or I love you on them are common visual indicators. If the breeze is blowing from the scum line you will smell it, kinda fishey some days and other days it's something else but you will notice it being different in some way. Flies are most always near the scum line buzzing around on a sunny day, you can't miss them, some of them won't miss you either, the biting stable flies sometimes let you know.

Once you find the scum line it's like gold, stick around it and stitch your troll through it and note the sounder picking up a veil appearance and bait in it, then watch out for the hits. troll out side the line and back in a few hundred feet and see if the bait is lurking on either side and set your program to troll in the bait zone. Last weekend I had plenty of hits with divers on braid 30lb pulling spin docs, pro troll flashers and flies in blue green and green orange patterns, set on 2.5 out 270 and 290. riggers were firing with spoons green or orange gold patterns down 70 to 100 ft. 2.6 to 2.8 GPS. The steelies were schooled tight and when you find them mark it and loop through them. The bite window is about from 9 am to 12 noon for me, and all the fish I kept were stuffed with alewife. Hope this works for ya, I know it does for me, but be patient and troll a little fast and cover water till ya find some of the things I mentioned above. Remember they are schooled tight and it is a bit of a search along the scum line but if ya find that you have half the battle won. Good Luck this weekend. Wish I could be out there but I got another steering wheel to hold for the next three weeks.

Mark

[bluewater]

Thank you very much Skipper for the detailed information. I will be out all weekend and trying that. It will probably be my last good chance to fish for the year.

[bluewater]

I will keep a close eye out for the balloons!!!

[bluewater]

Were you using flashers with spoons or just straight spoons off the riggers

[skipper19]

Straight spoons 30 foot leads...30lb ande mono with a 6 foot 30 lb Seaguar flouro learder.