Had a later start than I would have liked, but we were on the water and fishing by 8. High tide was at 1010 so we ran up to Des Moines from Redondo and trolled back with the incoming tide. We were marking fish from 30’ down to 100’ in anywhere from 200’-400’ of water. We used a variety of tackle from coho killers and hootchies to brad’s cut plugs and king fisher light spoons, nothing was hitting though. We followed the tide down to Dumas Bay and turned around. We had a couple of shakers, but no takers yet. After 3 hours, I finally had a drive by. I was a little nervous that maybe my hook wasn’t sharp enough, so I pulled my gear, sharpened the hook and turned around to hit the same spot that I had the drive by. On the next pass, I finally had a hit that stuck. The fish head shook like crazy and started to take a bit of line. I got the fish under control, but I could tell that this one had a little size to it. After a brief 5 minute fight, I had a 26", 6 pound hatchery hen silver to the boat (had lots of sea lice to boot). We made a few more passes around the area that I had a drive by and a hook up. I got one more drive by that didn't stick but it was getting close to 1200 and we had to get off the water to watch the hawks. I talked to the fish checker and there were 27 boats checked in with 24 fish. So, it sounded like our 1 fish was par for the course today. Fish checker also said that all other fish were in the 3-5 pound range, with my fish being the second biggest of the day and the biggest fish of the day being checked in was 12 pounds. It sounds like most fish are smaller, with some of the bigger boys just starting to show up.
The fish came on a clear/UV 11” flasher with a white lightning coho killer/purple haze needlefish/000 gold blade “Kingspin” at 55’ on the downrigger in about 200’ of water.

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