We skipped yesterday’s Puget Sound Chinook opener, but made it out today and it sure was a good one! The crew comprised of my two good buddies Ross and Chris, and of course boat mascot and salty dog Miles. Last week was his tenth birthday but he’s still barking at seagulls and diligently stares at the end of the line nervously, waiting for a slab to get netted and put in the boat.
We headed out super early and arrived at Point No Point just as the sun was cresting over the Cascade Range. The regulars were crowded in that classic mooching spot just off the lighthouse beach, just out of casting distance from the shore fishermen. I had high hopes, after all this is hallowed ground if you are in the mooching club. Then nothing happened. We fished a few hours and there was a small bite that happened eventually, but I only saw a hand full of Chinook boated. We released a Wild Coho and lost one Chinook during that bite, then it died off. We cruised to Possession.
I’m trying really hard to hone my craft with mooching, but I did something sacrilegious and deployed the trolling gear. We worked the West Possession Bar for a couple hours and witnessed countless Chinook landed by other boats, but we couldn’t even get a bump! Sometime you’re the pigeon, sometime you’re the statue. Eventually we realized that it wasn’t meant to be, and were ready to call it a day and head home.
Not one Chinook to the boat in six hours of fishing on day two of Chinook Season.
Ross, Chris and I put in maximum effort and couldn’t make it happen. I couldn’t believe it, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.
I wanted to stop at Jeff Head on the way home and make a couple drifts with the mooching gear, just to say we did it and hope for a mercy fish. We slowed down on the north side of the bar and the screen was alive with salmon and bait!
We made a drift and immediately found that the salmon were on the feed, and there were plenty of them. First Chris hooked up, then Ross, then me, then Chris again! As we sent our cut plug herring down, they were intercepted by salmon almost every time! We lost more than we landed. Had a double, even a triple. Dogfish were nowhere to be found which is a rarity when mooching in Puget Sound.
Twice we had trollers ignore common courtesy and trolled right into salmon on our lines and cut us off. Twice we had boat dog Miles ignore common courtesy and jumped out of the boat onto Chinook as we were trying to net. Bad form Miles! We had three Chinook and two Coho in the cooler before the bite died.
Our day started out slow, went straight to dismal, then ended up exceptional. It goes to show that just when it seems that your luck has run out, if you keep at it, you can be rewarded. We headed back to the dock with a feeling of gratitude and accomplishment. I appreciate every day on Puget Sound, and when we bring home a few salmon, it makes it all the more worth while.
Puget Sound Chinook Fishing July 22
