Hit elliot bay saturday Saw Easy limits who would of guessed that. We fished between Duwamish and and alki point and picked up four nice silvers before 10 am. One was a double that allways adds to the fun. We got back to the ramp and the checker found a tag in one of them. that was a first. Great weather out thier.

Your boat did better than we did. We were only able to muster up three silvers. We just could not get that fourth fish.

Easy, About 5 minutes after we passed you we picked up a double. We also threw back a four pound blackmouth to grow a little . I would say you did better we had four poles you only had two. Good to see you out their.

Went out to EB yesterday morning and started fishing at Alkai at about 0700, picked up one 5# at about 0745 and a 9# at 0900. Both fish and a couple hard releases all deep (70-90 feet) and TONS of shakers.

Lots of fun!

Hiit Saturday also. Started at 4 mile and we p/u pickd up one there. Died down so we headed over to Alki point and p/u another there. Boy those shakers really attacked us, we went through 3 packs of bait. Also put back a Black Mouth that was around 4lbs. Maybe a good sign this year for some winter Black Mouth. Should be fun.

Erndog

Did you guys hear the coast guard come on in the morning and say that someone had their mike keyed up on their vhf radio. When I left it was still transmitting. We need to start up a pictorial pursuits vhf channel so we can pass info around. The shakers were thick It still amazes me that a 5 inch fish will strike a lure the same size as it.

Started out at 4 Mile Rock yesterday morning at 6:30am. Had 1 bite before a big pod of what appeared to be Pilot Whales showed up.
Ran over to Duwamish Head and put 3 in the boat in about 45 minutes. Then the bite went dead. Just couldn't rumage up the 4th fish.
2 of the fish were 5-6lbs, and the largest 9lbs.
Had another type of Whale following us around the rest of the morning. I was hoping he woudn't take a sexual liking to my boat.

"I was hoping he woudn't take a sexual liking to my boat."

I hate it when that happens.

Hey Charr....I started at Duwamish then worked my way over to 4-mile and Westpoint. Unlike you I didn't boat any fish. I stopped trolling and sat in the middle of that bait ball right off Duwamish head and mooched until I ran out of bait. Oh how I wished I'd had some herring jigs. Lots of action, but I wasn't able to get any keepers to the boat. By the time I went back to trolling the solo Pilot whale was cruising the area (and I assume put the bite off).

Oh well, it was fun anyway and nice to get back to my roots and do a little mooching.

Little Fish, You seen him too? That sucker made a complete full body, half gainer just 30 feet from my boat! Scared the crap out of the half baked partner of mine. I thought it was cool to see. I do think it put the fish off the bite though. Was that big pod still up at 4 mile?

i seen that thing jump to, what an incredible thing to see, it was great. fishin was great to.

I snapped a couple of pictures of the single whale, but missed the pod up at 4-mile.

Even though I still think it ruined the fishing, the whales were a really impressive thing to see. Hope they feed on Sea Lions and Seals.
Bon Apetite!

Charr, Little Fish
I am a grad student at the UW and work with marine mammals and would be interested in hearing more of the sighting you thought might be a pilot whale(s).

Although pilot whales have been seen around Vancouver Island, that would be rare as they are typically found in more tropical waters.

If I had to guess, you might have seen a False Killer Whale. Imagine a female killer whale (small dorsal fin) but smaller, more slender and almost entirely black in color (no white patches like a killer whale). Probably around 15 feet in length.
There was a lone false killer whale reported around San Juan Island last week. So, there's been at least one in the area.

FKWs feed mostly on schooling fish and squids. If you've got that photo in a digital format, it would be great to post.

Other options would have been Dall's porpoise ... mostly black, but some white like a killer whale. Much much smaller (5-7 feet).

Cheers

Hershel, The whales I seen at 4 mile rock were what I thought were a type of porpoise. No real dorsal fin and seemed to be about 5'-6' in length.
When I asked the fish checker if anybody else had seen them, he told me that they had and they were Pilot Whales. So that's where my assumtions were coming from on those fish.
The one that was following me around at the Duwamish head definatly had a larger dorsal fin. About 2' tall. When it jumped, I saw the whole body and I swear I seen a horizontal tail. Much like a Dolpin. An Orca has a vertical tail, doesn't it?
What do you think?
Craig

Hershel,
Your descriptions sounds accurate. I asked the fish checker what type of whale he thought it was because it didn't look like a killer whale - no white that I could see and a small dorsal fin. He suggested it was a pilot whale.

The pictures I snapped aren't very good, but I will send them your way and maybe you can let us know.

So do you think the bite is gonna be on again this weekend at EB, if not were is a good place to be ?

Hard to say. You will just have to give it a shot and find out. Start shallow in the morning and work your way down in depth as the sun comes up.

Sounds to me like the whale you saw that jumped and had a 2' dorsal fin may very well have been a False Killer Whale. All whales, dolphins and porpoises have a horizontal tail flipper. Only fish have a vertically oriented tail flipper.

As for the 5-6' animals with hardly any dorsal fin, I'd say those were most likely Dall's porpoise. They are probably the most common cetacean in Puget Sound and are known to bow ride. You can easily identify them from a distance because when they come to the surface there will usually be a rooster tail of water. The only other species that size could possibly be a Harbor Porpoise. But, they are smaller (4-5') and very subtle and difficult to spot.

Both Dall's and Harbor porpoise have a triangular shaped and small dorsal fin ... not curved like a dolphin.

Basically, if you are out in Puget Sound, you have four choices when it comes to whales/dolphins. Killer Whales/Orca, Dall's Porpoise (think baby orca and rooster tail), Harbor porpoise (small, grey color and very subtle) and grey whales.

A place to check on the web for cetacean sightings is www.orcanetwork.org. The focus is mostly killer whale sightings, but they do a pretty good job of tracking other sightings in Puget Sound.

Cheers and good luck fishing

Fishdontbiteforme, Man that's a mouth for for a moniker! I do think that there will still be Silvers around in EB this weekend. I always start up at west point and 4 mile rock. Doesn't seem to be as many shakers as around the Duwamish head.

Hershel,

I have never heard of the fake killer whale. Could you post a link or some other info for these animals.

Thanks

Wolly Bully

Below is a link to the Mammals of Washington page through the Burke Museum. The photo is not that great, but if you follow the other links you'll find more photos and information.

http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/mammalogy/mamwash/pscr.html

Cheers

Hershel, BINGO! That's without a dought the Whale I seen at the Duwamish Head.

what is this ? i took it 2 weeks ago.

It looks like the perp for sure!

Looks like a Minke whale to me.

got a 5lb silver off of westpoint on sunday, 5 oz of lead and 50 pulls plus some scent , lots of bait around, picked up some crab as well