Trying to decide on where to go salmon fishing this weekend in the sound?

I made some phone calls this morning not only for you folks, but for my own research as well on where I should wet a line in the morning, and here is what some lucky folks had to say who were out on the water or at the boat ramp today.

I talked with Pete Sergeef, a state Fish and Wildlife sampler at the Don Armeni boat ramp in West Seattle and here is what he had to say:

"Fishing was better this morning and I saw 19 fish for 78 boats on my shift, and saw a 31 and 26 pounder," Sergeef said.

That sound much better than what the Muckleshoot Tribe did on their test gill-net fishery in Elliott Bay on Wednesday night. The tally for five boats who laid out five net sets for a grand total of 10 kings. I heard though that the algae bloom in the bay fouled up their nets, which could have been the reason for the low catch.

Outside of the bay just about the entire Shilshole fleet of charters were playing the waters off Jefferson Head this morning.

"It was very slow first thing this morning, and I didn't hear of much caught until around 9 a.m.," said Gary Krein, owner of All-Star Charters in Shilshole Bay-Everett. "The coho bite came on later and it ended up being like an average of one coho per person, along with just a few kings."

Other places where an odd king had been caught was Skiff Point on Bainbridge Island, West Point off Shilshole Bay [where Krein caught a 40-inch king on Thursday], Point No Point and the Edmonds area.

Keith Robbins, owner of A Spot Tail Salmon Guide in Ballard headed out this morning to Kingston, and found the place inundated with pesky leader fraying dogfish, and saw only one guy hooked up to a salmon.

Fishing was also somewhat spotty at Midchannel Bank off Port Townsend and Possession Bar.

So what's my advice on the weekend. Be like me and close your eyes and throw a dart on the fishing map.

I can tell you this much: I am headed north in the pre-dawn dark at 4 a.m. from Shilshole, and you won't find me mooching a cut-plug herring at Kingston for hordes dogfish, but I'll be nearby.

I'll blog my results as soon as I get in from the water on Saturday.

Happy Fishing!