Ok, lets hear the reports.

Had it not been for "Cracker Parker of Team Nabisco" to lose his first two fish, I would had my limit in the first 45 minutes of fishing. That being said, we fished out in No-Mans-Land, by ourselves, and banged out our limits of 6.

In talking with the game wardens on the water, most people were getting fish.

Hope you all had a productive day out on the Lake!

I took my buddy and our two boys out this morning, we got our 8 fish but it took a couple hours. We lost at least 15 fish to land the ones we got. The boys are 7 and 10 years old, I would like to blame all the lost fish on them but they had a better record of getting them all the way in than the adults! Some guy next to me needed a DR release so I gave him one of mine, ("gave" for $10) I don't think that's unreasonable, it was a brand new Scotty. Another guy at the launch had his boat partially submerged and unable to get on the trailer since it was sitting on the ground, too low to start on the trailer. Aparently a hose came loose feeding his livewell, he barely made it back to the launch. We helped them out and they got going alright though. All typical events for Lake Washington sockeye. Oh, and before I forget, I ran 3 rods, 2 off DRs and one free with a weight in front of the dodger, the rod not on the downrigger hooked as many fish as the 2 others put together.

I went out with my Mom (of all people - but she had a great time - hadn't fished for salmon for decades). We launched just south of I-90 on the west side of Mercer in my little 14' Portabote. We had a good time, but no bites and we only saw one boat catch one. Maybe banana weights (no DR or fishfinder)are not the way to go. I'm still hoping to catch my first sockeye this year - if they open it for another day.

--Bank Angler

Saw 2 fish caught (legally too!) on the Baker this morning...one about 8 lbs., the other about 5.

Nice fishies, both! They bit on plunked sand shrimp...sad part was, I had just stopped down there for a minute on the way back from the hardware store and wasn't there to fish.:-(

Going to try later this eveing.

MB

We to limited in a couple of hours. 3 guys 6 fish. We were also fishing all by ourselves. 1/4 mile away there were hundreds of boats. We just stuck to the same spot we fish every time. 80 ft was the ticket, didn't take more than 5-15 minutes per bite.

Buddy and I started fishing at 5am. Had our limits in 40 minutes . Called my brother inlaw to meet us at the launch by 6:30am. Picked him and started fishing by 6:40am, he was done by 7am . All two easy this year for them. Took me three hours each day on the last opener, 2002. Talked to my friends out there and the same for them limiting out just as early. Hope it opens next week.

Got nothing but aching joints.....

This was my first and maybe the last. I went to the Coulon boat ramp yesterday at 6:30 and launched by 7:15PM. Anchored off Boeing plant with 50 other boats and went to the south end of Mercer Island by 5:00 AM like the magazine said and put my Delta Diver in the water with my flasher and 1/0 Gammy. Granted, no downrigger and no trolling motor but thought that since I had seen similar setups catching fish, should ne no problem.

WRONG!

Left this afternoon at 3:00 and unless I can get somebody to teach me next year, screw-it.

Four of us, limited by 10:45am. The last one came slow. Tried a variety of colors for the heck of it and all worked, including the "All American" red and blue hook tandom. Seemed like the fish were running smaller tan last open season. 5 females, 3 males. DR, 55 to 85 ft, west side Mercer Island.

Nice day on the water.

Hey Bank Angler,... good on you taking your mother fishing, no doubt in my mind she had a great time. Sure wish you could have gotten her into a fish or two. Hope you get another opportunity.

I sure do enjoy reading these reports after reading, for the most part, about all the enthusiasm leading up to today. Thank you!

So far, the fishing looks like it was either a quick feast or famine today.

Had the mornig bite 11 fish crackered but all limited by 7:30 and made it back for breakfast with the family.
Nice to see ya Dog on the water ya sure had the hot boat

Right back at you ybnorml. Give me a Westport report when ya get back.

This was my first year doing the Lake Washington sockeye. My buddy and I launched my boat at coulon around 7:00pm on Friday, motered around a bit and anchored up at Seward Park to spend the night. Got out around 4:30 to start fishing. Wasn't having much luck early but people were catching fish. We just couldn't get a take down. Had only one takedown, a small one, but it got off right away. My buddy saw another friends boat and talked to him on the radio. He was catching fish so we asked him about his set up. He told us what he was using and everything we were using was the same except he was only using a 7-9 inch leader behind his dodger and a little glob of bright red power bait on the shank of the hook also 75-80 feet deep. We shortened our leaders and dropped down from 60 to 80 and we started getting takedowns. The first came on my buddies rod and after about 10 seconds into his fight BAM down goes my rod. Both fish landed. The next came about 20 minutes later and the last about about 30 minutes after that. Once we the set up down we limited in just a little over an hour. Lets do it again, sure hope they open it up for another day or so.

out of 8 people on three different trips we brought in 14 fish. The first trip was limited to time. I started the morning with glow in the dark 2/0 gammis, then switched to blue, 10" leader, size 0 dodger, 5' behind the ball and 70-80' down. On our last voyage they limited in an hour and a half with one of the 3 double headers we had. The largest fish we got was 8# weighed.

Hey Mount10Man
its like any fisher'y pay attention to the details,

boat speed is critical!! and as soon as the sun hits the water two rods one 65/85 and leave them there until you are done.

the article from liars news was probably right on for gear and leader length???........

Bud.

Got out on the water late to avoid the lines, drank lots of beer, caught limits for three in about as many hours, only lost 1 to the wire of the Bayliner next to me that it ran into , and my buddy, who had too much apparently, lost one over the side while rinsing it off :rolleyes: so we had to make him catch one more. All our fish were hooked in real deep water in the heat of the day, and came in bunches as I found willing schools. Didn't have any trouble landing any except for the one that tangled in the wire, but I use snubbers to solve the soft mouth problem. Talked to lots of people while waiting for hours to take out and not too many had limits - all the slickers got off the water early obviously Even saw DR out there - sad to say he was one of them that was lagging :p so I gave him some of the hook sauce I was using - get caught up DR? All in all, pretty entertaining day - hope they give us another one so I can get my wife and daughter out there and really load up on those tasty morsels - they had to play for a wedding today and so couldn't go:(

Spawnout.... yep and in a hurry to boot! Thanks!

Launched about 9:00 am at Sandpoint with my 6 year old daughter and a buddy. First fished south of the 520 bridge and caught nothing, then south of I-90 with same result. Finally hit some fish on the south side of the 520 in 80' out from the crowd. Ended up with 5 nice fish. I was proud of my daughter who was a patient little fisherman and for waiting 3 hours to take the boat out.

Are they considering opening the season for another day?

Started at 6 and had 3 fish by 10:00am, then hit a tough drought . I picked up a buddy Andy and after fishing with him for 3 hours, we thought he had accidentally brough his bad fishing mojo for sure, but then the rigger pops!
2 fish in 15 minutes and he gets dropped off, then pick up my little brother and his crew. From 5-7:30 we picked up 4 more for them.

9 fish for the day, you can see from the Picture where I was. It wasnt as crowded as expected, and there wasn't as much catching as expected on a broader scale. I talked to the WDFW boat with Curt? from Mill Creek a couple times and they said by their measures the catching wasn't very hot.


Anyways, a great day on the water, I am sure we will be out there again in the next 7 days.


Tom N. Were you the captain of this boat?

This is more of a boat retreive story than a fishing one.

I drove straight to the Sand Point launch at 8:45 am, no line, plenty of parking on the west side of the building at the overflow lot.

Only one fish, and that one was out in the middle on the north side of 520. Lines up around 12:30 because both of us had things to do in the afternoon which was fine with us.

The surprise was the two hour wait to pull the boat! The line of empty trailers was almost to Sand Point Way. I ended up anchoring my boat and swimming to shore thinking I'd come back with the kids around 5 pm, fish a little, then pull the boat with no problem. Wrong!

At 5:15 pm the line up of trailers was still almost to Sand Point Way. Thank God it was overcast and there was an ice cream truck driving around! The kids were dissapointed but I wasn't about to risk going out fishing and then still having a two hour wait to pull my boat in the dark.

Of course, the punch line was that when I finally drove out of the park around 7:15 pm with my boat, the line had dissapeared!

I love taking kids out fishing, but the procedures at the ramp really don't make it possible. If you have two adults, one could put in two more hours fishing while the other fetches the trailer, but single handed, there's no good way or place to tie up the boat while getting the trailer.

couldn't hit the water until late afternoon. Fished from 4:30 until dusk and no fish . No take downs nada. Hope we get another day this week!

We launched my buddies shiny new two week old Campion @ 7:00 Friday night and spent the night anchored off of Seward Park. No electronics or downriggers no problem as I knew right where to find them first thing in the morning. Me and my big mouth. We fished in my usual spot first thing catching and releasing one 15"er.

Then the fish moved out of the area and deeper. We spent the next several hours calculating the gas consumption of the shiny new kicker as apposed to actually catching anything. The good news is my buddy not only knows exactly where to put the DR's and electronics but also got the Ok from his girlfriend (other peoples busy nets will do that to ya).

We still had a great time and I'm looking forward to another day next week.

budnate, I had two buckets off the side, a sea-anchor off the stern and my trim half-way up and the slowest I could get was 2.1 mph into the wind. I am assuming that mooching with the wind pushing us would have been a better option. Is 2.2 still too fast?

2.2 is to fast, we go dead slow and watch the cable angle real close, wind , waves etc... and roll on the kicker throttle once in awhile to entice the bite, 16" leader length and shorter at times, and watch the rod tip thump ever so slightly to make sure speed is right on, it dont take much to roll the dodger, once it starts rolling around you are no longer fishing..... dont give up heck I have been fishless out there a few time as well, humbles a guy especially when you know your doing it right....

Nothing like the scent of a blue 2/0 gammi

We had 6 people in the boat and had our 12 fish in 15 minutes. We are incredibly smart and know how to fish better than everyone else.....We were fishing in that zipper spot with the secret zipper sauce and the zipper leader length at the secret depth.

my buddy had to work till 2, so we didnt get on the water till about 430... 3 hookups, nothing boated oh well, maybe next week if they open it again.

We launched from I90, headed south of the big island.

Curtis

Predator-less Dawg showed us how to find them, but the crew had some issues getting them in the boat. Took us close to 40 hookups to get eight in the cooler. Had two, count-em two, quad hookups where they all got off. Started the day with a double, finished the day with a triple, all netted in the same scoop. For a bunch of drunken screw-ups, it was a stylish ending.

But I can do without the wait at the ramp.

I worked until 12 and got to thesand point ramp at one only to wait until 230 to hit the water. we started at the 520 then the north east corner of mercer then the south west corner then to the west side away from mercer until 10pm with not one hit. I got the right gear at the right depth at the right speed, really dam slow, but not fish. I only saw about 4 fish caught from 300 boats in the afternoon. next week if it opens i will launch on friday.

I worked until 12 and got to thesand point ramp at one only to wait until 230 to hit the water. we started at the 520 then the north east corner of mercer then the south west corner then to the west side away from mercer until 10pm with not one hit. I got the right gear at the right depth at the right speed, really dam slow, but not fish. I only saw about 4 fish caught from 300 boats in the afternoon. next week if it opens i will launch on friday.

It seems odd to me that either folks limited fairly easily, or got skunked. I saw the same thing at the Magnuson ramp when we pulled out, lots of full coolers and lots of folks scratching their heads.

We did well enough, didn't hit our first fish until 7:30, but got our six limits before noon. It took a little while for the last two since we were having to pull rods out of the water for those with limits. We missed/lost probably another dozen or so. My 4 & 6 year old girls caught their first fish and are still blabbering about it to everyone they see.

We hit fish on every color hook I'd tied up, from red to blue to black to hot pink, all on 14 leaders, and most in 55-70 ft of water. The last two we got at 90 ft. We were going very slow, under 1 mph the whole time. The downrigger lines were almost vertical, and we could see the slow thumping of the dodgers on the rod tips. Interstingly, similar to comments on the other post, we only had one hit on the fifth rod, rigged with 10# powerpro, a 5 oz lead, and 00 dodger run down the middle. It was running deep, clustered with the other gear (could see it on the ff), and just barely behind, but zilch.

We had to work to get our 6 fish. Started at dawn and finished around 2pm. Man, was I glad to see those clouds roll in. I know that tan fat looks better than white fat, but nonetheless!

I think that will probably be enough Sockeye Fishing on LW for me to last until next year or 2008.

I found a great way to avoid the launch line! We put in Friday night at Mercer Island and tied up at a friends place in Meydenbauer Bay. When we finished, it was through the locks, drop the crabtraps and guest moorage at Shilshole. Back at 4 am in Elliot Bay. (0 nada lotta dogfish). Pulled out of there around 2pm Sunday.