We had two clients in the boat that we needed to get onto some fish. The weather was barely nice enough to let us out for the morning.
Winds were scheduled to come up by afternoon, so we tried to fish as much as possible, early. We got the okay from the coasties that the bar was open and off we went.
We started fishing just out in the bubble. Herring were deployed and waiting for action.
Not more than a couple mins before my rod hits hard and starts taking line. I quickly grab the rod, set the hook, and hand it to the gentleman in the back of the boat. "Take the rod", I said. Al was his name. A father and son combination that had come along. His father played the fish great, all the way back to the boat. We saw it was a coho and had to release it. The regulations for this area were no coho, wild or hatchery, could be taken from the ocean...ONLY from INSIDE the jaws. Well, we were outside, so off he swam to live another day. After this it was non-stop. We couldn't keep the coho salmon off our lines. These fish were getting large and almost could be mistaken for chinook. Some were in the upper teens! Pelicans and gulls were diving everywhere!
Baitballs were being pushed up to the surface by the fish underneath, and the birds would dive and have their way with the bait from the air.
The water was black with anchovies as we drove the boat through these giant black balls of bait. Each trip through one of these bait balls brought the rods screaming. Doubles! Triples! Coho action everywhere! We had some definite fire drills on board. Finally, after weeding through 20 or more coho, we found a couple chinook for the clients! They were happy and so were we.
What a great day and thanks to JB for the invite! I love getting out on the salt and just enjoying the world out there!
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