Wow! The boat got wet two weekends in a row. Although the report rating is a 1, remember the rating is based on the number of fish caught not on the overall experience in which case today would have been a 10. We, Tony (bassplayer17) and I fished Marine Area 11 on Saturday. Earlier in the week I had hatched a plan where, based on the tides we would fish a number of areas I used to get early season migrating fish. Plan in place and after a few wrong turns we were underway. While leaving the Point Defiance boat ramp for no good reason I started messing with the “plan” and headed for Point Dalco instead of heading across the bay to work the Browns Point to Dash Point run during the tail end of ebb. Although a short slot, historically the Browns Point to Dash Point run was my go to for an early season Area 11 chinook.

Plan revision 1 underway rounding Point Dalco and heading towards Camp Sealth I start thinking that my revised plan had holes in it, the meter was BLANK. Not just a little blank but nothing was bleeping across the otherwise white screen. Although I should have stuck with the Camp Sealth plan I didn’t and implemented revision 2. We were headed for one of my other sure fire early season Chinook spots. The troll between Gig Harbor and Point Richmond has always treated me well.

The area was looking very fishy and I was feeeeeling good. The meter was lit up with bait and looked good to go. Gear down we started working the area, trolling north while changing depths to locate the right kind of meter mark. This was where plan two started to fall apart, in working water 60’ to about 240’ there were no meter marks. Lots of bait but as far as catchables go it was a desert down there. We chased bait balls hoping for the stray salmon to no avail. This is where the nature experience began to override the no fish thing.

The sunrise over Vashon Island was absolutely spectacular. Now if that wasn’t enough, a Long-beaked common dolphin adopted my boat and entertained us for a half hour or so. Unless I am way off on my identification our escort was a bit off course. Long-beaked common dolphins are typically encountered within 50 nautical miles of the coast from Baja California to about central California. Their average length is 6-8.5 feet and they can weigh up to 500 lbs. They can be distinguished from harbor porpoise and Dall’s porpoise which are the two species of porpoise commonly encountered in Puget Sound by the shape of their dorsal fin. Both Puget Sound porpoise species have fairly triangular dorsal fins, whereas the long-beaked common dolphin has a more “traditional” falcate shaped dorsal fin. The time our lost aquatic friend shared with us was a gift, raising the trip rating to a 10.

Saying goodbye to our visitor we decided to head for the camp Sealth side Of Clovos Passage and look for fishier waters. Arriving at the drop off just north of the Girl Scout camp we got to business. The area looked really fishy but other than bait balls we still didn’t see any meter marks. We worked the area for an hour or two and with no salmon related action decided to make a pass across Point Dalco. Same results so we headed off to the entrance to Quartermaster to look for lings on the various rockpiles. Oddly (where was my fish butt kick’n mojo?) after an hour or two or two with no luck again we headed over to Browns Point to catch the ebb. We made one pass with no bait or meter marks for our viewing pleasure and decided to call it a day.

In our pursuit of an early Area 11 chinook we ran my usual complement of salmon gear. Flashers followed by spoons or hoochies. I would love to tell you what worked best but our success statistical sample size was limited to… basically nothing worked. We ran the gear 2.4 mph to 3.5 mph everywhere between about 40’ to 200’. As mentioned earlier we worked water 60’ to about 240’ deep looking for any concentration of fish. It was sort of humbling; I had figured that we would hit the water get quick limits of salmon and then look for lings. It never even remotely crossed my mind that we would come up empty.

That said it was an incredible day on the water. Between the fellowship, wildlife and beautiful water conditions the day was a ten in my book.

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