The silvers are coming!  The silvers are coming!  I am reminded of Tattoo heralding the arrival of a silver airplane to Fantasy Island.  The silvers are coming!

And the silvers are indeed coming.  It will not be long before numerous silvers are jumping along our shorelines from Port Townsend to the western side of Bainbridge Island. Along with them will be a horde of pink salmon which occur every other year. This is a pink salmon year.

It is best to intercept these silvers starting early July when they are comingling with pinks and before they get in the Hood Canal.  Point Wilson, Point Marrowstone, and Point no Point are the places to do this. Both the silvers and pinks are still on the feed.  They can be caught using normal salmon fly fishing methods described in Richard Stoll’s book “Fly Fishing Inshore Saltwaters for Pacific Salmon”.  Better yet take one of the beach fishing classes at Peninsula Outfitters in Poulsbo.

Starting mid-July silver salmon should be staging in Quilcene Bay to run up the Quilcene River.  The Quilcene hatchery fish are one of the earliest silver runs in Puget Sound.  Once they hit the Quilcene Bay they stop feeding and are most difficult to catch by traditional methods.  However, small flies like the Green Wheenie are effective when cast to milling schools at the head of the bay.

In September silvers will start showing in and around Agate Pass, Indianola, and Bainbridge Island. These are orphan fish; salmon without a river so to speak, the product of the Suquamish net pens.  Many of those that are not harvested will die in the salt. For some years now the Suquamish Tribe has released thousands of juvenile silvers from net pens in Agate Pass adjacent to the Port Madison Indian Reservation.  I for one am appreciative that the tribe inadvertently provides a great sport fishery that last through October.

When these fish show I will be plying the shallow shorel