Took my old Arima out for a quick trip up Saratoga Passage in search of blackmouth. The water was as flat as glass all day and the sun came out mid-morning. What a beautiful day!

As I left Everett and headed out the river, there were a bunch of buoys that looked like nets in the river along the edges. I think somebody must be netting chums. There was also a commercial crab opener, and there were a bazillion crab pots most of the places I wanted to troll. It even looked like they were all over the delta, which is supposed to be recreational only...

I'm still trying to get a handle on jigging for salmon, so after taking a pass on Hat Island and catching a couple of shakers on a Fish Flash and Coyote spoon, I headed to Sandy Pt and broke out the jigging rod. I got a couple of small and one nice rockfish on a candlefish jig, as well as a bunch of flounders. No salmon... Loads of bait in the area.

I then went back to trolling with a Hot Spot flasher and the Coyote. Trolled from Sandy Pt up past Langley, dodging the crab pots. Only caught a couple of shakers there.

I then ran up to East Pt and trolled towards Baby Island, switching to a 4" green splatter Silver Horde to combat the shakers. There was a lot of weeds and bait in the water. About 11:30 I got a good hit and put a 5.5 pounder into the boat. On a hotter day, it probably would have went back, but it was pretty close to quitting time anyways, so it went home with me.

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