Do Salmon Bite at Night? Understanding Salmon Feeding Patterns After Dark

In the late 1960s, Booker T and the MGs’ instrumental song “Time is Tight” was one of the biggest hits in music. Booker T and the boys were from Memphis, so they probably didn’t know much about Pacific salmon. However, the title of their little instrumental diddy could be the mantra of smart West Coast salmon anglers, especially those looking for big, mature Chinook.

When you’re fishing for kings, time does fly by quickly because the bigger they get and the closer it gets to spawning time, the pickier they are about when they eat. This means that after a full day on the water, anglers may only get less than an hour of good fishing. If you’re not where you need to be and doing what you need to do when those windows of chance to fish open, you might miss your chance.

Did I say luck? Salmon fishermen who catch fish make their own luck by being in the right places at the right times and making the most of the short times when the fish are biting. King salmon adults are picky about where, when, and how they eat, unlike other salmon species and even young Chinook. Catching kings requires using all you know and then some.

Chinook that are still “pasturing” out in the open ocean may feed and chase bait for most of the day and in most of the water column. As the fish get older and move back to the freshwater streams where they came from, they become more picky about where they eat and when they eat it. It gets harder and harder to catch these fast-maturing adult Chinook as they become more focused on getting where they’re going than on eating. This rule is the same for adult Chinook coming into the estuaries of California and Oregon, as well as for the waters “inside” Washington’s Strait of Juan de Fuca and northern Puget Sound.

When mature Chinook are moving back to their home streams, the bite can last anywhere from five to fifteen minutes, or even two hours if you’re really lucky. To catch fish, you have to be in the right place at the right time.

One of the “right times” to fish for kings is early morning. Northwest salmon fishermen generally know that king salmon bite best during the day, but a lot of them can’t fish at those times. Getting your boat out on the water at dawn is not the same as being at your fishing spot with baited hooks in the water at dawn.

Tony Floor is a famous salmon fisherman in the Northwest. He likes to tell the story of how getting out on the water early helped him catch the biggest king salmon of his life. He says, “I caught a 53-pounder as the first hint of pink was beginning to show on the horizon. The rest of the sky was still dark.” It’s likely that a lot of salmon fishermen were just getting their boats ready to leave the harbor or launch them when Floor hooked his trophy-class king.

Blaine Freer, an outdoor writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for a long time, liked to use “Haw’s Law” to explain how important it was to fish for Chinook salmon at the very first light. Frank Haw was a biologist for the Washington Department of Fisheries and an expert on salmon fishing in the Northwest. Freer quoted his law, which said, “If you can see the bait, it’s too late.” “It doesn’t get any easier than that; if you only go out to fish during the day, you’ve already missed your best chance to hook large Chinook salmon.” To get the most out of those first few precious seconds of daylight, you should set your hooks in the dark.

You should now know that if you stay up late, you’ll probably miss your best chance of the day to catch a big kingfish while boat fishing. The good news is that first light isn’t your only chance. Changes in the tides during the day and the second “magic hour” of low light just before dark also make Chinook salmon feed.

Floor says, “If you don’t catch anything in the morning, the best time to catch Chinook is when the tide and current change.” “The best time is when the current starts to change speeds on both the ebb and flood sides of the tide.” The length of time this bite lasts will depend on the geography and the height of the tide. ”.

Tide changes draw baitfish together in tight concentrations, and where baitfish congregate, adult Chinook come to feast!

The best tide and time for fishing depend on where you are, but a current speed of one knot is good everywhere. Stronger current makes it more difficult to fish effectively.

There are salmon fishermen who swear by the ebb and fishermen who swear by the flooding tide. Both are right. It depends on where you’re fishing.

Understanding the geography is the main thing. You have to know how the bait reacts to the moving water on which tide. In most cases, you want to fish downhill with the flow of water, getting deeper as it moves you. The best tide for fishing in that area is usually the one that moves you from shallow water to deeper water.

In general, they are least likely to bite when the tide is very low. Baitfish schools disperse when the tide is slack, and so do the salmon.

Salmon fishermen are lucky because tide and current tables can be found almost anywhere and can tell us ahead of time when these things will happen. When it comes to fishing, tides and currents are pretty much an exact science, so you don’t have to guess when and where they’ll happen on any given day.

The last rush of Chinook fishing activity of the day happens in the last hour of daylight, and the fishing may be just as good as early in the morning. A tide change during the final 30 minutes of daylight can be especially productive. Still, that means staying until the very end of the day and being ready to run back to the boat ramp or dock at night. Be sure your boat and your boating skills are up to it.

Chinook anglers who fish early in the morning or late at night may wonder if these feeding sprees last all night. The answer is usually “yes,” but not many anglers take advantage of the chances.

Tony Floor says, “There’s pretty good evidence that those salmon you fish for at dusk and again in the morning are actively feeding all night.” A man named Art Gallaghan liked to launch at 8 p.m. He used to work for Washington’s Department of Fisheries but retired many years ago. m. and come in about 6 a. m. , and he caught fish all night. ”.

If you haven’t tried it, though, that kind of fishing is very challenging. You can’t see your line angle, so you don’t always know where you’re fishing or where a hooked fish is. You also can’t see fish to net them, and you can’t see the rod tip twitch on a light strike, which is a sure sign of a fish. And don’t forget the deadheads and other dangers you might face when you’re out there by yourself at night.

There’s another aspect of timing that’s very important to salmon anglers. You need to be on the water with bait on your hooks at the right times of the day and at the right times of the year. Some anglers don’t pay attention to these details.

Floor says, “State fish and wildlife agencies along the Pacific Coast have years of records that show when different salmon runs happen in our ocean.” “For example, populations of Columbia River kings passing through Neah Bay, Washington, peak in July. We also know from year to year when that trip to Neah Bay is likely to be worth it and when it might not be so good. You have to know the run forecast and how it will affect the fishing. In the same way, 90% of the Chinook salmon caught off the southwest corner of Vancouver Island are going to Oregon and Washington. The best time to catch these fish is in June. So, be in Tofino in June for some pretty good Chinook fishing.

Along the whole coast, you can find information on Chinook runs’ size and timing. It’s helpful to look at data from several years to see how the patterns form.

But don’t just start thinking about all this in July to plan your summer fishing trips. Prepare ahead of time so that you can plan your future fishing trips and vacations to go to the right places at the right times.

Night Bite Salmon – Boatless Angler

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