Fishing Tramp Harbor offers a peaceful change to local blackmouth
fishing in Marine Area 11. Point Robinson, lying directly southeast, draws the
attention on an ebb tide from anglers crossing the East Passage from Des Moines
or Redondo. A few adventurous anglers from the Tacoma area will make the run
north, but only by “salty ones” even with Point Defiance being an ebb fishery
too. Even then, the majority of the “salty” Tacoma anglers only make the run in
August for returning Kings. To only make matters better for Tramp Harbor
anglers, the flood tide pushes most anglers to the south side of Point Robinson
or other locations, and the flood tide is when you want to be there. This should
leave Tramp Harbor virtually void of traffic to anglers.
My typical approach to Tramp Harbor starts slightly north of
Point Heyer ensuring all the gear is in the water before turning west. In the
early morning I will typically start in fairly shallow water (50 or 60-feet) for
a few reasons:
1) More often than not you’ll find bait is tucked in
tight to the bank immediately west of Point Heyer at the beginning or midway
through the flood tide. This forage has been pushed south from the beach line as
far away as Point Beals and this their (bait’s) first opportunity to avoid
current.
2) With a quick glance at the chart, you’ll notice
there’s underway structure that the herring can lay in close to the bank out of
the main current push. This structure lays immediately to the west of Point
Heyer.
Once down in front of Portage (isthmus area between Vashon and
Maury Islands)) I typically start heading out to deeper water and I like to hug
the 80 to 90-foot line. If the tide isn’t too strong, I can turn towards the
beach and head north again covering the aforementioned depths. If the tide is a
little stronger, it pays to pick up the gear and start over from an area near
and deeper from the original starting point. However, this is a good time to
mention that on major tides (big swings) the tide can form an eddy and push back
towards Point Heyer in a counterclockwise rotation (towards the beach). If this
is the case, a large counterclockwise “race track” trolling pattern will be your
best strategy and you can methodically work various depths until you‘re
productive.
If I opt to head back to the starting position, I’ll position
the boat in the 110 to 120-foot line. This depth should be covered thoroughly
and further down to roughly the middle of the bluffs on the shoreline. If
unsuccessful along this depth contour, I’ll proceed out further and cover
150-feet, 180-feet, 210-feet, etc. Remember that chinook are instinctually
deeper water fish and can be found at these depths frequently. It pays huge
dividends over the long run to attempt to fish these depths if you’re having
problems locating bait in the “typical water.”
You should see bait before deciding to head out in deeper water.
However, it is not uncommon to find large schools of herring as deep as 200-feet
plus here and you should follow them. (For the record, I have put fish in the
boat fishing as deep as 260-some feet here.) The point being you have to be
willing to fish beyond the 90 to 150-foot parameters that all of us have been
taught over the years.
A question that often comes up at my seminars, “Can Tramp Harbor
be fished for returning Chinook in August?” Absolutely! Although it is rare that
I make to this location in August anymore, a few of my buddies that fish out of
Des Moines can be found there when the tide is “ripping” at Robinson. A lot of
fish will back off from the Point Robinson area and tuck themselves in to Tramp
Harbor.
Lastly, if you have fished through the flood or begin at the end
of the swing, you can easily troll all the way down to Point Robinson and fish
the beginning of the ebb tide as most of the fish and bait will have generally
pushed that way.
Spoons:
Silver Horde Sonic Edge- Cop Car, Green Splatterback, Easter Egg, Chartreuse
Splatterback and UV finishes
Silver Horde Kingfisher- Same as above. Add Army Truck finish
Plugs:
Tomic, 3-inch Tubby, #140, 534 (UV), 612, 602. 603, and LL Pearl Pink (no
number assigned)
Tomic, 4-inch Standard, Same as above.
Hoochies:
Captain Downriggin Special (Glow) (An absolute must for blackmouth anglers)
or (UV Pearl), South Sound Special, Puget Sound Oil Slick, Lime Jellyfish, and
Jailbird. Remember to scale down the standard hoochies to sizes 3 ¼ to 3 ¾-
inches.
Flies: Ace-hi, Any color scaled down.
