Chum pics

[Salty]

It is great to contrast the troll caught chums I have been posting pictures of and the CR and net fish represented by the last post.

[Abundance]

I actually caught this one trolling. They tend to fade colors after being bled and iced, and I wanted to get a picture of one in all of its resplendent glory. Even though it was near the end of September, I was still catching some bright ones though. But yes, I am sure that most of the seine fish and absolutely all of the cost recovery fish are getting black and elderly by the time their harvested. On the day I caught this one there were a bunch of seiners up the bay from me, catching nice loads. They really don't bite very well at all when they reach this point in life, which is for the best actually. It keeps us hook and line fishermen after the shiny ones, which may reflect well on us if the meat market picks up. Those spawner dogs really put up a good fight though.

[TomD]

These are all some really great looking fish ! The memories your kids will have the rest of there live's!

[Salty]

I thought it might be a good time to share this photo of my color sounder as the chums dive on the troll gear.

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[Drew]

The big ones were fun!

[Abundance]

Weren't they though!

[Salty]

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[Salty]

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These nice big troll caught chums are certainly beautiful, but the problem this year for most of us long time chum trollers is that with the crowded conditions (that some of us deserve some blame for) there were no big days. Not one for me at Neets Bay in 2012. Scratching chums with over 100 spreads out in a crowd for 30 or so fish a day is my version of troller hell.

I know the Chum Trollers Association, of which I am no longer a board member, is working hard to develop more areas and spread the fleet out. I was disappointed this year in that Seiners got two opportunities in Terminal areas on large chum concentrations (Amalga Harbor and the Head of Neets Bay) when trollers could have had a day or two before the seiners giving us the opportunity for at least a couple of big troll days.

Another thing is that while these pictures of these huge male chums are nice, the fact is that most of our troll chums are quite a bit brighter typically. I will post a brailer bag full of the more typical shade of troll caught chums.

[Salty]

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[Salty]

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[khaos]

Thirty/day certainly isn't great for chumming, but monsters like those pictured are 3x larger than what we are used to seeing up here. To all who posted photos - thank you for sharing!

[SilverT]

Really nice pictures. I have chum envy.

[Salty]

I will post some more in a few days. Also, for equal time will start a Chinookie, and coho threads.

[Salty]

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[Salty]

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As promised, here is a picture of a more representative sample of the bright silver nature of most troll caught salmon. The larger chum in this picture was about 18 pounds.

[Salty]

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Let me know how you like this one. I was fooling with a picture and with a little help from my wife ended up with this.

[SilverT]

Nice! Now, let's just paste that on a hotspot. It's amazing how much detail there is in the scales.

Lane

[Kriegmob]

No chums in the pic...but my buddy was trolling for chums.

F/V Good News up Lynn Canal, near Berner's Bay

[Homeshore]

Icy strait chum