I didn’t think that I was going to get to go fishing. Although I had a ticket to the derby I knew that Saturday was a no fishing day and based on some other obligations I thought that Sunday was also. Come 8:00 Sunday morning I find out I am free. I considered heading to Everett for a late launch and fishing the Everett Coho Derby but with the Sunday weigh-in at 2:00 I didn’t think that I would have more than an hour or two to fish. I needed a new plan.

I decide to head for the launch at Oak Harbor and explore the northern end of Marine Area 8-2. After launching I motor over to the trench off of the southern end of Poinell Point. On arrival I find a tide rip forming and numerous suspended fish on the meter. I was positive that they were returning coho so the dance begins. As I start to get the gear ready my jaw falls off. I realize that the herring strips that on a just in case basis I had prepared at 2:00 earlier that morning were still sitting in the refrigerator. Minor set-back, I guess that I was fishing spoons. Knowing that these fish were probably off the bite and that I would have to piss them off to get them to bite I tie on a 3.5” chartreuse with flame orange spot spoon and run it 32” behind a green haze 11” flasher. The fish were suspended at about 45-60’ in 120’ of water so I ran the gear down to 50’ and poured a cup of coffee.

One sip into my much needed cup of coffee the clip pops and there is something headed south at 100 miles an hour. I grab the rod, set the hook, wind up the downrigger up and settle in to a 15-20 minute classic man verses fish battle. The fish would make long runs, sometimes jumping as he went. Then while on a short line it would swim circles around the boat or with a burst of renewed survival instinct shoot under the boat, jumping on the opposite side. It was a 15-20 minute fight that ultimately ended in a serious 4 letter exclamation. After what seemed like forever I thought that the fish was finally ready to net. I lift his head and as I am sliding the net under the fish, the fish explodes and I watch the spoon twist and pull out of the fish’s mouth. The fish was a huge hooked nose buck coho and I should have been paying more attention to the fight than on how I was going to get it all the way to Everett for the weigh-in. By the time that I stopped shaking, had drank my now cold coffee and was back to fishing the meter marks were gone so it was time to move on.

I decided to try Baby Island at the entrance to Holmes Harbor to Greenbank area some 12 miles to the south of my current location. On arrival at Baby Island much to my disappointment I did not see any coho on the meter but did see a few fish on schools of bait along the bottom in 120’ of water. Figuring that I was looking at a classic blackmouth scenario I put a 4” Cookies n Cream spoon 32” (lol, I didn’t want to target blackmouth with a 42” leader) behind an 11” flasher and got to business. Gear down with ball running along the bottom during the next hour or so I hooked and released 4 nice blackmouth. With my fishing window coming to a close I head north back to Oak Harbor stopping briefly at Snakelum Point to hook and again release 1 more blackmouth.

The day was a good one and when Marine Area 8-2 opens for to chinook retention November 1st the fishing should be incredible. For the day I hooked 6 fish and hundreds of jellyfish. 5 of the fish were chinook to about 12 pounds and the 6th fish was a coho that was gigantic but I won’t say how big I thought it was…

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