Another weekend in September, must be Puget Sound Coho Fishing!
Robbie and I joined new Canadian friends CJ and Janice Kogler, Admin of the Facebook fishing group page, Hard Core Salmon Fishing. With a group name like that I figure they must be into fishing and I was right. We pounded the water today and while it wasn't red-hot, it was a pretty good day with some memorable moments.
We launched promptly at 7am from the Edmonds sling and had lines down in no time. Two downrigger rods, one Deep 6, and one failed attempts at a planer board (I couldn't help myself!). Wihtin ten minutes of fishing we had our first fish, at 55 feet on the cable, running a brisk 3.5mph with the tide. A nice 5 pound clipped shiny coho to start the day!
We did a couple laps in the general area and picked up another 5 1/2 pounder on the same rod and depth, this time into the tide, and then lost one again into the tide. After that things went quiet. We did see nets out, but not a huge number and not a red-hot bite as far as I could see. At 10am I decided we should pull gear and hit Possession Bar for the tide change and into the afternoon. Conditions were good for the run and the bar was in good shape.
It's interesting, no one much fishes the bar anymore that I can see. I remember years ago there would be hundreds of boats pounding the water, now there was barely a dozen spread out over the whole bar. I'm sure having to release unclipped fish has something to do with it. Even so, thew vast majority of fish we have caught in Puget Sound this year have all been clipped (10 or 11).
In any case, the east side of the bar is full of fish that we couldn't get to bite. We headed southwest and then north along the west side of the bar after the tide changed and picked up a dandy 8 pound fish caught by Robbie at 65 feet on the rigger. All our four fish came on the same rod today. The others just got shakers. The hot rod and gear from last week - nothing. Weird.
Robbie and I had a great time fishing with CJ and Janice and we'll be back out again tomorrow, yeah! Be sure to check out Hard Core Salmon Fishing those that enjoy civil and fun salmon conversation.
