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Toward the deep end of October, throughout November, chum salmon don grizzly tooth-ridden faces, black, purple, and green slashed coats, and humped backs. The colors are spawning recognition characteristics. Their skin becomes thick with the mucous that allows them to more easily slip through rocks, over gravel, and through obstructions.
Terminal chum salmon are not attractive, except maybe to other chum salmon. Despite their physical demeanor every once in a while, a not so gentle encounter tells me what brutal game fish chum salmon really are. While some anglers effectively pursue these fish with dead-drift ‘bobber and herring’ technique, one of the most consistent ways to legally hook chum salmon is with a 7 to 9 wt fly rod equipped with a floating line and one of the many custom tied chum patterns available at Peninsula Outfitters.
On a recent trip a local beach I was greeted with a slew of “buzz bomb snaggers”. Not wanting to mess with the shoulder to shoulder, illegal chaos, I launched my dinghy into the glassy water of a local estuary. Half hour later, half mile up the beach, I cast one of my famous “green weenies” to a swirl next to the shoreline. I expected a cutthroat. However, after slowly retrieving some thirty feet of line my lure was nailed by a freight train. My seven-weight fly rod doubled over to the rapidly accelerating weight.
“Very big silver!” I thought.
That is until 50 yards down the shoreline a huge Halloween-colored chum erupted several feet out of the water. A battle of some proportions ensued. Ten minutes later I brought the leviathan alongside my dinghy. I released it with no more than a small barbless hook puncture in its lower lip, her souvenir of survival for a hard-fought battle.
Chum salmon are making their annual showing in several local estuaries including John’s Creek near Shelton, Finch Creek at the Hoodsport Hatchery, and Chico Creek near Silverdale. Chums are the Mac trucks of the Puget Sound salmon world. They are relatively easy to hail, but impossible to slow down. What better fish for the Halloween season. Put on proper rain gear, and enjoy one of your potentially best battles of the year!
