"Salamat, po!" to my host and captain for the day, FishNg1:
We made a late crossing over the bar at 7:30 am to avoid max ebb on a very low tide. After a sloppy first few miles, it was fairly smooth sailing out to 260 ft.
Even before I can wet a line, FishNg1 is onto a salmon on the first drop. In a few minutes a feisty 6# coho is brought to the boat, and with a quick twist of the de-hooker, I set him free for FishNg1. I had the foresight to break his trailer hook off with that maneuver so as to keep him out of the water a few more minutes to give somebody else a chance to catch one.
The action is pretty steady, and by the time we decide to find greener pastures a couple hours later, three rods have already brought nine salmon to the boat.... 4 for FishNg1, 3 for his lifelong buddy Dennis, and 2 for me. Why leave fish to find fish? Can any one say S-H-A-K-E-R?
Between the wild coho and the immature kings, we had yet to put a fish in the box.
We motor out a little farther, and true to form FishNg1 nails another fish on the first drop in the new spot. A decent sized silver of 8# or so cartwheels over my line (which is still fishing) and the fish is granted a premature LDR (long distance release). You know, that one just may have been missing a fin, too.
:p
Finally, after several more fish that could hardly pop the release clip, Fishing1 latches on to the biggest fish of the day.... by golly, what's this? Could it be? Yes, finally... a real live king:
Just as the fish is nearing the boat, it lunges straight for the trolling motor, and POP! Gonzo!
That would prove to be the only real king of the 8-hr trip. We moved to one more spot where FishNg1 repeated his "fish-on-the-first-drop" trick... AGAIN. We ended with 21 fish to the boat, but only one clip-fin coho in the box (mine, baby, mine)... too embarassing to post a photo of a 3 pound hatchery runt, so you won't see it here, folks.
In all, great weather, great company, great action, but not much to show for in the fishbox. Very few charters limited from what we could tell. I got to fish with some great guys, and even learned a thing or two about fresh whole herring... which is saying a lot for a dyed-in-the-wool brined plug cut guy.