After hearing tale of some awesome fishing in the Juans since the Chinook opener on July 1st, I was more than eager to jump on an open seat to go. I tagged along with a member of another site for an Independence Day fishing adventure for the books! Met at Squalicom Harbor at 5:00am and were off and on our way shortly thereafter, unfortunately, my partner left his license in the truck..... he realised about half way acorss the bay (3-4 miles) and we had to turn back!!! After picking the license up, we made our way to Obstruction pass where we fished for about 2 hours. We saw only 2 fish caught for maybe 20-30 boats the entire time we were there. We decided to pull gear and head across the way to Tide Point and join the cluster F that was ensuing over there.... maybe 100 boats! We saw several people picking up fish and suddenly WHAM downrigger goes off and burries down deep, crab it, few head shakes and a nice run then DARN it come unbuttoned... Frusterated, but not discouraged I put my rig back down. About 10 minutes later, on the same pass, I hook up again on my rod. This one sticks!! A hot fish, it nearly spools me as it makes an astounding run of more than 100 yards. We finally catch up to and and get it aboard, our first fish of the day a nice healthy 20 pound hen. After fishing a few more passes, we decided to head back to Obstruction and try again. Within 10 minutes of getthing there its fishon again, and after a crazy battle with the fish going under the boat and around both outboards we miraculously net an identical 20# fish. What a superb day on the water, 2/3 for kings and off the water by 2pm. All fish were caught right near the bottom in 90-130 feet of water. We tried bait early on, but hardware was the proven winner (and kept the doggies at bay).

Good luck out there.

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