Whew! I finally had the opportunity to get my boat wet. Decision in place about 10:00 Saturday night, our gang and Tony (bassplayer17) were planning to meet at 4:30 Sunday morning for the drive to the Fort Casey State Park launch. Our plan was to fish through the tide change at Mid Channel Bank and then go exploring from there. After being up late to get the boat ready and rig the salmon gear the alarm goes off at 3 to do chores, make coffee, roust the gang and get the boat hooked up behind the truck. Feet on the floor and oh oh, no coffee… I shake off the lack of caffeine and push forward. The morning went smoothly until I went to wake up the little one, he was sick and running a fever. Slight plan change and I think that Karen was grateful to not have to get up. As scheduled met Tony at 4:30 and we are off to Fort Casey, well almost. About the time we drove over Deception Pass Bridge I suddenly realize that I forgot the net so we turn around, drive back home, get the net and we are back to the plan. The hour delay was not too bad and we got to the ramp just before the big push of other fisherman arrived, fisherman that had their coffee, nets and a fully functional memory.

With the flat water the run to the NW corner of mid Mid Channel Bank was a quick one and we were gear down by 6:30 or so. The plan was to drag the gear right along the bottom pulling 11” flashers and Coyote spoons. Typically for my boat the go to spoon is the 3.5 cookies and cream. Cookies and cream on one side and a red racer on the other we started the hunt in about 90’ of water running at about 1,000 rpm, my boat’s sweet spot for Chinook and about 3.2-3.5 mph. I don’t want to go over all the…, OK I don’t remember the gory details but overall we had some sort of action going on the whole day. We caught (mostly released, planned or otherwise) humpies, a small halibut (not flounder, sole or sand dab) a very nice coho that weighed in at around 8.5 pounds, an approximately 33” lingcod and lost 5 nice Chinook. We also had what I believe was a Minke whale following directly behind the boat for a while, it was odd in that it seemed to be watching or even studying us.

Although it could have been because one of my daughters had hidden a banana in the boat (she was testing my banana phobia), I do not know for sure what was up with the lost Chinook. One fish actually broke the forged hook on my spoon and the rest just disappeared after the initial take down and a brief fight. The release clips were tight and drag settings where they should be so who knows what the story was. The ling hit off a meter mark; I had just adjusted the downrigger to align with a healthy meter mark when slam-o the corresponding rod goes off. It was pretty cool and after the fish posed for few pictures it was safely released. The day and fellowship were a blast and I hope to get out again soon

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