Never trust a marine forecast. I can’t tell you how many times I have been blindsided by the weatherman. It is rare that summer weather will be intense enough to keep us from fishing, but winter is a completely different story. Today was one of those days that gave us a nice surprise.
Last night, the forecast called for light winds. This morning, the forecast called for winds to 10 knots. Once we got the boat out past Everett’s Jetty Island, I think we were closer to 15 knot sustained winds. The wind was cold and cut into you, reminding you that yes… it is still winter! Wind chop was a solid 2 feet and made for a long and bumpy ride out to the Racetrack. We decided that we would tough it out, hoping that the winds would calm. We ran up to Camano Head and trolled southbound toward Hat Island. By our third pass with nary a bite, I was already thinking about how I could talk Chris and Ross into heading in early – I don’t think it would’ve taken too much convincing, as we hadn’t caught anything in the first hour and a half of fishing. Anyways, we made another two passes and the wind did calm down substantially, and the fishing got easier.
Our two downrigger rods were both dredging 4″ Tomic plugs on the bottom. That was what they wanted today! Chris had the first fish, and it ended up being a nice 24″ hatchery Chinook. I think we had about a ten minute break and then my rod went off. A little better fish at 26″ that was my biggest of the Blackmouth season so far. We tagged out the second fish, agreed that we were all sore enough from the morning froth, cold enough from the winter wind and happy enough with our catch to head in feeling accomplished.
Seattle Blackmouth Fishing January 5
