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What a difference a day makes. First, I have to give a big shout out to WL.com member “Berchu” who posted a comment on bbordeau’s Area 9 report of 9-30. His comment gave me enough motivation to decide to go out with JoAnn for one last try at salt water coho. Glad we did!
We hit the Edmonds sling at 6:35, opps, winter hours started today, opened at 7am. Got underway with a plan and as we left the marina heard a bounce and splash, looked back to see the cover to my manual Scotty was gone including the counter, into Puget Sound it went. Not a good start to the day.
OK, so my plan based on Berchu’s report was to start trolling north of Edmonds to Shipwreck, get there around tide change (LT 12:50) and head back with the afternoon wind at our tail. Initially we had a bit of an AM breeze and some chop that made things challenging, but it also gave me further keys to unlocking the coho. I had my 8 hp motor running full out and barely making 3mph into the waves, so I made an adjustment and ran 45 degrees to the waves/tide, back and forth to Shipwreck. I think this was part of the reason we had such good success today.
Running two rods, deep rod was 90-110 ft on the DR with a 14 pound can I melted last night. Shallow rod was 90 ft with a ten pound can. Both rods ran smaller flashers, one red, one green. Hoochies of varying colors (yellow glow shallow, green glow deep, and smaller sized) and herring strips cured with Nate’s Herring Cure. I kept the speed about 3pmh, up to about 3.6 at times, depending on wind and tide run.
Our first and biggest fish hit at 8:30am, 90 ft deep and JoAnn did a great job bringing the pig in. I’m guessing in the 12 pound range. You can tell me if I’m way off from the pictures. I would say we were in about 600 ft of water.
From the fish we had steady action all morning. Here’s the breakdown:
8:45 – lost one at 90 ft, red flasher
9:48 – 96 ft, caught on red flasher
10:30 – 96 ft – spooled! (more about this later) on a red flasher
10:56 – 86 ft – lost a fish on a green flasher
11:30 – 110 ft – caught on a red flasher
11:50 – 90 ft – lost on a green flasher
12:58 – 110 ft caught on a red flasher, limits!
OK, the spooled fish. I have never had this happen before and will be curious as to your thoughts. We had a routine bite, and I picked up the rod, feeling a average size fish. Suddenly, I feel total resistance, like the gear is snagged on the bottom – but it’s not, we are in 450 ft of water. I tighten the drag. I apply pressure with my thumb. I get a friction burn on my thumb. I watch the line go to the Dacron backing and break off. During the “run” I feel no head shake, nothing, just a steady “pull”. Now, my guess is my fish got intercepted by a seal or whale, something. Cause that was unlike any fish run I have ever experienced, including big kings. What do you think?
In conclusion, based on Berchu’s simple comment he made to another person’s poor fishing report, I was able to go out with JoAnn and get a limit of big, bright, October coho on the salt, when many people came home skunked. I’m not saying this to brag, rather, to me it shows what an amazing resource the people that post reports and comments on this site are. I just took the information provided, formulated a plan, and acted on it. With good results. And so I give everything I can share so that hopefully some of you get a chance to grab a few more of these beautiful fish before the run is done. The big pigs are in now and here’s your chance, so go get them!
Note - on the Vista picture, the upper right corner flag is the location of Shipwreck. You can see in the upper left corner the Lat/Long coordinates, although if you are fishing off shipwreck and due south a mile or so you'll be in the right area. We hit most fish in the 400-650 ft depth.
JoAnn declined my offers to take pictures of her and her fish, LOL.
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