My son Justin and I headed out last Friday and arrived at Neah about midnite. We pulled up on the side of the road and took a cat nap till 4:30. Got the boat in the water and headed out just past Wadah in the dark. We had 6 or 7 strikes but no hookups. By then it was light enough to see Tatoosh in the distance so we headed up to see if we could hit any kings. There was no fog until we got to Tatoosh and then it socked in. We decided if we kept the island visible we would continue on. We got around to the west side of the island and marked a bunch of fish on the finder so we dropped down about 60 feet. Justin immediately got a rockfish on his hootchie. When he went to put the downrigger down again the cable snapped. This was bad as I didn't have an extra ball and therefore couldn't fix it without going in. We decided to bag it and fish for rockfish on the east sire of Tatoosh. That was a great idea! We didn't find any lings but we sure had fun with the Bass! We put 10 in the box and 90 more back in the water before noon. We decided to head back in and see about fixing the downrigger. By this time I was tired of the limited visibility and no GPS or VHS with me (Won't happen again if I have my way!). I got a new ball for the rigger at Big Salmon and a new clip to hold it on. We put a new cable and headed back out. We decided to see if we could get anything off of Wadah as all the reports coming back for kings were that fishing was tough and visibility was non existant. By the afternoon it was just plain rough! About 3:00 we decided to head in and take a nap. After dinner we headed back out for a few hours off Wadah and finally got the first salmon to the boat. Unfortunately it had too many fins so it went back in the water.

Sunday we got up about 4:45 and headed out just off of Wadah again. We got our lines in the water just as it was starting to lighten up a bit. We both put on the gear we had used on Saturday. Justin an army truck hootchie and for me a green and silver bait buster. Justin got the first strike 2 minutes after putting the ball down to 35 feet. I had dropped mine to 42 feet and 5 minutes later I had a fish on. Surprise surprise it was a nice 10 lb KING. Back in the water it went and just as I'm releasing it Justin has one on. His was another king of about 12 lbs. It went like this for the next hour catching and releasing blackmouth like crazy.

Finally about 8:00 we were getting ready to release yet another king and Justin's rod is hanging with the flasher and hootchie trailing the boat by about 20 feet. A silver came up and slammed the hootchie right on the sureface! As the line is screeming from the rod and we're laughing our heads off I dropped my line back in to get ready to put it on the downrigger and another one slams mine! Our first double of the weekend! Justin's keeper and went in the box. Since we seemed to have located a school of silvers on the top I decided to break out the fly rod. Right after getting my line in the water Justin is into a big fish. This was took him for several long runs and we finally get it to the boat. It's a beautiful 12lb silver and Justin is done for the day. While taking care of Justin's fish a silver slams my fly and line starts ripping off the reel. Before I can get the rod out of the holder I'm down to my backing! This is the first fish on my fly rod. It's a small silver about 5 lbs but we keep it just the same.

My last fish came on the fly rod as well. Justin had gotten his limit so we decided to try something new. We pushed the speed up to about 5mph running on the jet. With the fly just about to the back of the white water from the jet I had a silver hitting the fly every few seconds but not getting hooked. I thought it might be due to my instincively jerking my hand when this happened so I decided to put the rod in the holder. Just as I reached towards the rear facing hold the fish finally hooked itself. Justin killed the engine and I had a great fight trying to keep the fish from running too far. He took me to the backing several times but finally I got my second salmon on the fly. It was a nice 9 lb hen.

I'm hoping to head out again in the next few weeks. I just hope they won't be as expensive as this weekend was! Not only did I have to fix the downrigger but Justin also broke one of my steelhead rods on a bass! OUCH.

Gary;
It's boat limit's so there was no need for Justin to be done. Everyone can keep fishing until the boat is limited on the salt!

You might try VHF 68 and ask if someone has a ball you might "borrow". You might be surprised. If I heard you ask and was in the neighborhood I would try and help.

Great story Gary, you and Justin faced down adversity and through tenacity ended up with a great trip and fish in the boat. Way to go!