Yesterday we found out that the show’s almost over… one more day! We had a great run this year, but today is the final day to keep Summer Chinook Salmon in Seattle’s Marine Area 10. So I called a few buddies and planned for a quick morning trip before work. We met super early, untied the Whaler from the dock and headed to Kingston.
We decided to leave the dust on the downriggers and brought six dozen herring and a couple mooching rods. The fleet joined us in full force by 6 am. The tide started to ebb as soon as we arrived, so we knew Kingston was the place to be for us salty moochers. The screen looked good and we marked great bait inside Kingston from 200′ in front of the ferry lane all the way north into 80′. I don’t know if it was the full moon, or if the salmon were just flat out playing hard to get, but it wasn’t easy fishing this morning. The bites were subtle and the salmon didn’t seem to commit. And the dogfish! They were in full force this morning.
But I ended up getting a nice one to take home after about an hour into our morning, and lost another that had some heavy shoulders and put up quite the battle. Evan released a blackmouth as well. Even though fishing was not easy we were rewarded for our efforts. We raced back to the dock, washed down the boat, filleted our fish, and I was only an hour late for work… I’m calling it a win!
Mooching in the Rain and Chinook Bounty
