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Port Townsend, aka Mid Channel Bank
 Chart courtesy of Captn. Jack's www.capjack.com Click on chart for bigger view
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CASH IN AT THE BANK!
Mid Channel Bank is located just a little over a mile from Port Townsend at the entrance of Puget Sound and is the gathering place for large winter blackmouth and your first shot at spring Chinook before the closure.
Employing some simple proven salmon fishing techniques here can pay off big time on the old salmon punch card this season.
Mid-Channel: Launch your boat right in town at the boat basin, it has a great one lane ramp and dock. Mike Thornburg owns the local tackle shop (Fish-In-Hole 360-385-7031) at the end of the pier here and is wealth of information on Mid Channel Bank fishery.
If you have a smaller boat Ft. Worden State Park ramp just north of town is a good bet and real close to the fishing.
You don't fish the Mid-Channel Bank itself, which is located between Marrowstone Point and Fort Worden Lighthouse. The water here is only 50-60 ft. deep. The prime water is on the outside of the bank, where you're looking for an average depth of 120 ft. Most of the fish will be in that 90 to 140 feet of water. You won't find many fish suspended this time of the year, most all will taken within a couple of cranks of or right on the bottom.
Mooching-Jigging: This place is known for some spectacular jigging, especially if the fish are concentrated. Pt. Wilson Darts in 1/0-5/0 size are the top producing jigs. Mooching small cutplug herring red label size with smaller hooks or a candlefish if you can get some will score winter blackmouth here too.
Top jig and mooch fisheries take place on the south end of the Bank, the steep underwater ledges here are much better suited for this style of fishing.
Trolling: As a charter captain I can tell you there's no way to beat a downrigger for consistently producing salmon. Being able to troll a lure on the bottom covering large amounts of water on Mid Channel is going to produce fish.
The trick is when I say on the bottom that's what I mean. Many times I will lower my Scotty downriggers down to where the weight is making contact with the bottom start trolling then take boat out of gear and drag the weight along the bottom for a few seconds then put it back in gear. This tactic can really get a blackmouth to hit a lure. Top lure for this fishery is and has been year after year the Silver Horde Coho Killer spoon. This small spoon is just deadly on Mid-Channel blackmouth when rigged 40 inches behind a HotSpot flasher with a liberal coating of Smelly Jelly applied to it. These fish just inhale it. It really imitates the local candlefish present this time of the year that's the favorite food source for salmon.
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You can tell a fish has
been right on the bottom feeding on candlefish when you catch one and it has
scrapes on its gill plates like this one does. |
Top fishing here for me seems to come during a good tidal movement, not during the tide change. Troll with the tide when you reach the end of the troll pickup you're gear and run up and repeat the process. Best trolling speed is 2.5 to 3 MPH.
Most of the local blackmouth run 8-15 pounds but there are always a few that hit the twenty pound mark each spring. In late March and early April you even have a shot at tying into a large spring Chinook passing through.
When the wind blows: Mid-Channel is pretty much right in the path of some strong winds that can come without warning, especially the prevailing westerly winds, and some strong south winds during the winter months. When this happens there are other options.
Try trolling off Pt. Hudson located close to town across to Marrowstone. I have taken many fish during windy days when you can't fish the Bank. Motor mooching a herring just off the town waterfront can score fish too.
You can also move south and fish Admiralty Inlet near Mats Mats Bay. It's a short run through the cut on the south end of Indian Island from Port Townsend. Troll this area in the 90-120 ft water in front of Mats Mats Bay entrance.