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Report is for Saturday and Sunday, July 12th and 13th. Went fishing and crabbing both days.

Saturday: Got on the water at about 0500 and went to drop pots. Haven't had much luck lately at my normal depths (80'-130') so I put a little extra lead line on the pots and dropped to about 180'. While I was waiting for the pots to fill up I headed down to QMH in hopes of a chinook or two. Got the rod in the water at about 0600 and started to troll with the outgoing tide. It was a constant battle with jellyfish salad in the water, but checking and cleaning the gear consistently paid off. I was fishing at 143' (probably 135'ish after blowback) on the wire in about 145' of water. About 30 minutes into my troll I was hooked up with a little cookie cutter chinook. After a brief fight (wanted to get it in quickly to avoid all the furbags) and an interesting one handed net job, I had one in the box. Measured just over 25". Not the biggest fish, but one in the box. After all the commotion, I got my rod back in the water as soon as I could and circled back through the area. Less than 10 minutes later I was hooked up again, and this one had some weight behind it. It ran on me a few times, making the reel absolutely scream. Little did I know that it was fighting so hard because it was probably out running a seal. All of the sudden, light got super tight, held for a minute and then went limp. Ended up breaking my leader off. Trolled from QMH back to the crab pots without a hit, but marked a bunch of fish and bait. When I pulled the pots, I got 3 BIG keeper dungies and a bunch of females. Putting the pots deeper was much better fishing than the shallower pots I found. When I got home and cleaned the boat, fish and crab... Just barely enough time to take a shower and head out to the M's game (we won!).

Sunday: Got on the water a little later this time, 0900, after such a long day on Saturday. Did the same routine, dropped pots and then put the lines in the water. Had action consistently all day, but not the kind that we had wanted. Sand dabs galore! I must have gotten 7 or so dabs in the first couple of hours, which was weird because we were trolling higher in the water column than I would have expected them. About mid way through the day I was able to hook up again with a fish, but it felt a little small, probably shaker. Ended up getting it too the boat without much of a fight and got eyes on it. It was a small fish, but hatchery and keepable (just over 23"). No more action for the rest of the day on fish so it was time to check the pots and head in. We ended up with 5 (again, BIG 7"+) dungies and 1 red rock. Unfortunately, we were only able to recover 3 of our 4 pots. I'm not sure what happened to the last one as there was plenty of line on it (250' of line in 180' of water). Could have been the current I guess but my pots are HEAVILY weighted and none of the other pots moved an inch. I'm hoping that some kelp or something caught the line and was just dragging the buoy under. Going to try and go back on Monday to see if it magically appears.

Not a bad weekend on the water though. Ended up with 2 fish and some crab. Both fish hit the same flasher/lure combo. Wish I could say what the lure is, but it is homemade and I am not quite sure how to describe it. I am going to make a thread on the forums and post a picture of it for those that are interested. Area 11 is starting to heat up. Hopefully the coming weeks will have many fish and clean waters (sick of jellyfish and seaweed fouling up my lines).

salmonbarry

7/14/2014 6:38:00 PM

Hey Gregg! Welcome back! Was hoping some of that crap had cleared out of there but was thinking the next time I hit it may just mooch or jig around the clay banks to avoid the mess~ Could be one of those pots was taken as I heard that it is one of the things the fish and game have been running into a lot when checking out folks.. too many pots in the boat, illegally kept crabs and unidentified pots in the boat too. Anyway, great report and let's hook up soon and wet a line!

Fish Dawg

7/15/2014 7:29:00 AM

Thanks for the report...looks like tight to bottom is the way to go in MA11. I also appreciated your Kokanee 101 blog!

Good luck and tight lines out there!

Kaptain King

7/15/2014 8:20:00 AM

Thanks for the AWESOME report. Great information, great pictures, and great fish! It has really been hit and miss out there and the tides really haven't helped, especially out of a kayak. I have been doing pretty good on the crabbing over by Foss waterway but man there are a lot of people out there this year. It sure seems like a lot more people to me. I am surprised that I haven't been checked by WDFW yet this year. I have noticed A LOT of pots in the water on Monday morning...Either the tribe is crabbing or there are a ton of people who forgot to take their pots out of the water. Either way, there is a lot of pressure on those crabs this year.

gfakkema

7/15/2014 2:59:00 PM

Good news, went out yesterday (monday, july 14th) and was able to recover the pot. Must have been kelp or something dragging the buoy down because it was in the exact spot marked on my GPS. As a bonus, we fished for an hour and were able to get a cookie nookie (wild/released).

Barry- We definitely need to hook up sometime. We keep saying that we will, but it we never do. Let's make it happen!

Fish Dawg- I always fish the bottom. It's really hard for me to get out of "blackmouth mode". No problem on the Koke 101 article. Keep your eyes peeled, because I am going to make one for fishing chinook in the sound pretty soon here.

Kaptain King- The tides really did make it a little difficult. I don't really go into commencement at all, but I can only imagine that Foss is busy. I tend to stay away from the crowds and usually go a lot deeper than the fleet. There really has been tons of pressure this year though. I too am surprised that I have not seen WDFW at all this year yet. Last year I must have been stopped at least 5 or 6 times. My guess is that they tend to come out more during pink years when there are a lot of people that don't know what they are doing.

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