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Sunday was a nightmare. Let me tell you about our 4 fish skunk. But really, it is far, far worse than even that outrageous comment.
Sunday actually started at Picnic Point in Lynnwood. I was there at 7. Actually I was there at 6:30. It's not posted at the gate, nor is it on the internet, that the dumb gate doesn't open till 7. In any case, it turns out that I wasted about 2 hours with no hope of catching anything. When the sun came up enough that I could see into the water, I realized that I'd been fishing 6 feet deep in 4 feet of water. 2 guys throwing buzz bombs and 4 fly fishermen didn't catch anything either. Not a good start to anyone's morning.
So I got ahold of my father out on the penninsula and hopped on the ferry heading for Port Angeles. Finally got there, launched from Ediz Hook, and on the water about 1pm. Went out about a half mile or mile from the hook and dropped a flasher with 12 ounces off one side, downrigger to about 50 feet off other side. Headed northwest. Conditions are amazing. Warm and sunny, almost no wind, smooth water - looks like it's going to be a wonderful, wonderful day.
After a while noticed the downrigger was tripped. Reeled up - line broke below flasher. Not surprising. Lost a lot of gear last time, as my father doesn't fish much so everything is 5 to 25 years old, including line. That was a leader that was probably 20 years old. Whatever.
A while longer, notice downrigger tripped again. Herring gone. Ok, carry on.
A while longer, notice downrigger tripped again. Herring bitten in half. Lesson learned - hold the stupid rod so you know what's going on. I held the downrigger pole as much as I could the rest of the day.
At this point, 90-120 minutes into trolling, 3 hits, no fish, flasher with weight down 20-25 feet no action, all action around 50 feet down. In my view it's been a great trip so far, even without fish on board. Still warm, still calm. We're up even with the smokestacks at the west end of the hook, and another mile or two farther north. We see a bunch of boats out a ways farther and head that way. Turns out there's a yellow buoy out there, maybe 5 miles or so off shore. It had maybe a dozen boats in the neighborhood.
Now this story takes a turn not just for the worst, but for the horrifying.
Suddenly there's a hit shallow, and we reel up a huge, beautiful silver .... that's not a hatchery fish. Line between hooks in it's gills, it's bleeding like a stuck pig, but the stupid fish checker was at the launch, so what do we do? Send it on it's way to die. Discretion? What's that? GREAT THINKING WDFW. Picture 1 is of this poor martyr to the stupidity of forced catch and release, fountaining blood with every pump of it's gills. What a waste. I am sick to my stomach even now. It floats on it's side for a bit, then swims slowly away.
People around us are catching fish. Downrigger trips (pole in hand!) and we reel up another gorgeous fish, again not hatchery, this one released with minimal damage as both hooks in gill plates / mouth. These aren't dumb little 3 pounders, these are huge beautiful silvers maybe 7-8 pounds. At some point we pull the downrigger up to about 20-30 feet. Probably before catching that one.
While releasing the second silver from the downrigger, we left the other pole sitting in the water. We reel it up and something has hit and ripped all the flesh off the herring, leaving only skeleton. 6 strikes.
We catch another, AGAIN a huge beautiful NOT HATCHERY fish. As usual, hooked on one side, wrapped, hooked on other. Only this one on ... let's say his forehead, and under his chin. Pulled open a half inch wound on top, another half inch wound under (start of belly) between gill plates. Is the penetration on the bottom through into the body cavity? Don't know. Disgusted, dont even check. At least we can pretend that we aren't just about to RELEASE A SECOND TO DIE, even though obviously it's body cavity wall isn't close to as thick as the size of the hook we're using. I dont mind catch and release. If you read my reports, you know I'm happy to release 100+ perch in a single day's fishing back into Lake WA. I released 50+ perch as recently as saturday 2 days ago. If setting the hook didn't give me tendonitis in my elbow, I would quite happily sit out in Lake WA in 15 feet of water and catch and release 300 or 400 or 500 perch. I'd bring 3 or 4 tubs of 24 nightcrawlers. I *like* catching. Keeping at best an afterthought, at least in a lake. I dont even mind forced catch and release. But forced catch and release where there is no discretion to keep a badly damaged fish, where you know full well it's just going to swim off and die and be wasted? I'm not the crying sort. What this causes in me is rage. I want to cause bodily harm to the pinhead bureaucrat who created this asinine situation. Second picture is the second martyr to government incompetence. It was clearly not well, but it seemed more lively than the first. Then again it hadn't lost half it's blood. Its death from infection through the penetration of it's body cavity would take much longer.
So we've now caught 3 fish on 7 strikes, killed two indirectly, and have no fish to take home. Can this day get worse? OH YES IT CAN.
Next hit is on weighted pole. I knew there was a hit, or something was going on, as the rhythm of the flasher stopped. I reel it up to see that the knot between the flasher and the weight pulled out somehow, a first as despite repeated broken lines this year we've had no knot failures, so I look back, AND THE FISH IS JUMPING OUT OF THE WATER DRAGGING THE FLASHER. We circle back but of course it's gone. As with the last one, I pretend that it got loose somehow and isn't going to just drag the flasher till exhaustion and die.
What's the count now? 8 strikes, 3 fish to boat, 1 fish released ok and 3 indirectly killed.
While we are re-rigging the weighted pole (that was the last of the old gear, now it's just old line on the poles and all new gear that I have purchased and brought along), we leave the downrigger down. So we let the weighted pole down and pull up the downrigger to check it - shaker. First one we've seen this year, or in several years actually. 20 years ago we'd catch equal numbers of shakers and keepers. As we're contemplating maybe keeping a 12-14 inch salmon, it falls off the hook and swims away.
9 strikes, 4 fish to boat, 2 released ok, 3 indirectly killed, 1 due to equipment failure and 2 due to imbeciles in state government.
At this point it's ... maybe 6:30-7pm range. We get no more hits. Troll 2 more circles out through the area, eventually troll back in toward the smokestack, then pull up our gear and head home. Overall, despite the day being warm, the water being calm and smooth, and us having 9 hits and landing 4 salmon in an afternoon of fishing, this is far and away my worst day of fishing ever. I was sickened and disgusted, and I still am writing this post the next day.
The fish checker was gone. Should have kept the 2 that we left to die.
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from whorde.
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