After reading and hearing so much about the sockeye fishing in Brewster, WA, I just had to plan a trip. So I convinced two buddies to come along for our first ever sockeye fishing experience. I had read previous reports about this fishery and talked to a few people, but had no idea what we were getting into other than knowing there would be a lot of boats. The morning started rather slow for us while we were getting use to trolling so close to other boats. There was absolutely no room to S-curve in the mass of boats so we relied on trolling a straight path with 2 downriggers on the outside and a long line out the back. We picked up a few fish early in the morning, then the bite slowed way down so I started to experiment with depth, trolling speed, hoochie colors, leader length, and scent/bait. Nothing really seem to matter until about 10 am when the bite absolutely went through the roof. From 10 to 12 noon we ended up with18 sockeye and 1 jack chinook. Most of our fish seemed to be caught on a pink or orange mini squid with tandem red hooks tipped with curred shrimp. Trolling depth was best at 15 to 20 ft. Special thanks to my friend Don Ostlund who set us up with the right gear and provided great tips for this fishery. This is an awesome fishery for some great eating fish and I can't wait to get back.

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