Spent a week in the San Juan Islands starting in Anacortes for some crabbing. The crabbing was good and the crab were big. We caught 16 over two days using old trout fillets. Excellent bait.
We spent Tuesday - Friday salmon fishing near Eagle point for pinks and kings. Tuesday, we had a two hour window to fish and only caught two cohos, both wild. The larger one at about 8 pounds. Flasher and cut plug herring soaked in green fire brine were used. Wednesday, we had to wait for the fog to lift and got out close to lunch time. Within 20 minutes, we had 2 pinks in the boat. One pushing 5 pounds (Pink squid and green flasher). Our next fish was hooked at 60 feet and I assumed it was a king. My daughter got it right to the boat, we coud see the flasher, then all of a sudden from under the boat came a huge sea lion!! Grabbed the fish, stuck his head out of the water for bragging rights, the hooks popped out and at least we got our gear back. We caught two more small kings (released) and lost a very nice fish after an impressive run. All the kings were on cut plug herring and green flash.
Thursday it was very foggy and rained most of the day so we shopped in Friday Harbor waiting for the fog to lift. We taveled to Lopez Island to crab in Hunter bay. After we dropped the crab pots, we headed to Thatcher Pass to fish. At the east end of thatcher Pass, we watched a dozen or more dolphins feeding so we dropped our lines. One deep for kings and one shallow for pinks. An hour into the troll, the pink squid and red flash got a hit. After four or more impressive runs, we netted a 20 pound king!! The weather was starting to turn and we picked up our crab pots and had 3 keepers, then headed back to Friday Harbor.
Friday we headed to Sidney BC to fish for ling cod and rock cod. After checking into Customs, our wives went shopping and we headed out on our quest. We caught 2 rock cod on our first drops, released them both thinking we can find larger ones. Well........for the next hour and a half, not even a bite! Once my wife texted me to come and pick them up for lunch, the bite was on! Within, 10 minutes, we caught 4 cod and kept two nice rock fish. It was a great trip, No lings big enough to keep, though. Headed back to Spokane, Saturday.

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