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So with my wife out of town for the weekend I had another opportunity for me to hit the water again today but needed to stay closer to home as we had some construction people coming by to fill in the dirt for the foundation for our home project going on, so chose just to fish the sound end solo today. Got to Coulon around 6:30 and headed straight across to the mouth of the Cedar to start my troll north towards the south tip of Mercer.

I noticed the kicker motor was struggling to start and when I went to pump the prime, saw that my gas tank was shrunk up! Forgot to open the vent valve so had run the boat yesterday without it being vented- as soon as I released the pressure it started it up but was smoking and sputtering- started my troll but 5 minutes into it the motor died! Crap! Pulled in my line and with the motor tilted up pulled off the cover to check things out- first thought was fouled plugs so got out my tools and sure enough, both plugs were black as coal and nothing much left of them. Fortunately I had 2 spares in the tool box so put those in and lowered her back down and Whoosh! Started right up and was purring like a kitten!

Disaster averted now it's back to fishing! With a renewed spirit I thought this would be a good time to try out my new toy I had got at Cabela's with my club discount and points- a fish hawk temp gauge thermometer! Hooked it up to the down rigger and deployed it down to the bottom 100 feet. When I brought it back up saw that from the surface to about 40 feet it stayed at 65 degrees but then for every 10 or 20 feet progressively got colder to the point it was 43 degrees on the bottom. So chose to fish the 55 to 75 range today to see if this thing was worth it's weight in gold as this seemed to be the optimum range between 55 and 60 degrees.

Started out with what has been working for me in the past but soon realized that with the change in temps and season, it was time to switch it up a bit. So I went with what worked yesterday but a smaller flasher as all I was targeting today was cutts so set the line back 50 feet back and 55 feet down. Nothing! Now remembering that I was not fishing as deep as yesterday let the line out 100 feet behind the boat and dropped to 65 feet and WHAM!! Fish on!! Got it in but realized it was a chinook and nice sized too!! Probably would have been one I would have measured in the salt to see if I could keep it or not haha but since that is not an option released it back into the wild!

Next up was a smaller cutty but great fighter and was bleeding badly so kept it as well as the next one! Soon saw another boat out by the west side of Mercer (BTW since I was marking tons of fish in this area did not go anywhere else- the old adage " don't leave fish to find fish")
and just as he passed behind me I thought my line may have got caught on his down rigger as it pulled off the clip and was pulling drag. But when I saw him turn out and my line going to shore realized it was a bigger fish! Cool! Soon got it in the net and was a respectable 19"er so bonked this one to make a harvest for the smoker in the near future.

Set my line back down and was heading south as I wanted to get back to the launch by noon so just as I was passing the point of the island the rod buries down and starts screaming! It's either a huge cutthroat or some sort of salmon as this guy runs out to about 200 feet before I can start to get it back towards the boat. As it got close was surprised to see it was another fire truck sockeye probably pushing 7 lbs and full of life as wanted nothing to do with my boat. Finally was able to get into the net and after quickly removing hooks shot it back in and it swam off hopefully to fertilize some female waiting with eggs!

So not a bad day again with totals:
3- cutthroat kept
1- chinook released
1- sockeye released.

and a boat motor that runs !! Now to pick up a couple more spark plugs at Oreilly's! See you on the water!!

gcban

9/25/2017 9:27:10 PM

Thanks for the great report. Nice job, salmonbarry! I was out there for 8 hours on Saturday and it was a total skunk the entire day. Going to hit that same area again tomorrow. Will report back. -G

ps: What was the hot ticket out there for gear/bait and flashers? By the way that Fishhawk temperature tool is amazing. Absolutely love mine.

salmonbarry

9/25/2017 11:13:37 PM

Hey there! So the top producer was a RMT 5.5 green splatter sling blade trailed with an 18" leader to a kokabow green hootchie spinner with pink gulp maggots and scent chamber loaded with garlic/tuna procure scent. I found that the top marks were more of the biters- I was 100 feet back and anywhere from 55 to 75 feet down with 1.8 to 2.0 speed! Good luck and let me know how you do!

cobrar543

9/26/2017 8:31:33 AM

I cant remember bait half the time and he has spare plugs in the boat. LOL. WOW

Ben Eggertsen

9/26/2017 11:25:04 AM

Great report! I have caught some very nice cutts pretty much the same way there with a Dick Nite perch spoon.

The other day I read a report about someone catching and keeping coho in Lake Washington. Are they legal to catch and keep in the lake?

Yeah, I am kind of amazed you had spare spark plugs too!

salmonbarry

9/26/2017 5:03:26 PM

Hi there! Yes just north of the 520 bridge- just opened last weekend! 4 fish limit both native and hatchery retention allowed. Ha Ha! Well had that happen once years ago during a Lake WA cutthroat derby and swore would always have spare plugs for both motors on board from that point on! Still took 4th place but who knows if I had had a motor that ran properly lol!

samduke

9/26/2017 6:57:15 PM

Good report as usual, S B I did a web search at Bass Pro shop for the Fish Hawk, no results. Where did you find yours & how much are those buggers ? Next stop is Sportco, I guess. Tight lines & Thanks !

salmonbarry

9/26/2017 7:04:18 PM

I believe you can only get at Cabelas and since the merger is so soon, they probably don't have everything Cabelas does. I got mine up in Marysville but was the last one. I would check on line or call the Lacey store to see if they have any down there but you can always just order on line too- price is $149 but I am a club member so had a coupon plus $52 in store credit so walked out of there paying only $89! I think it will really pay off in the spring as waters start to warm up again- but also will help this fall as winter as temps drop as well! Good luck out there!

gcban

9/26/2017 9:31:12 PM

Thanks for the intel salmonbarry. Just posted my report from today, should be up soon. Appreciate the help.

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