Headed for Possession Pt. after a weekend fighting a nasty cold... needed some fresh air and some fun Coho fishing. Caught the 6:00 AM ferry out of Mukilteo and on the beach by 6:45. Surprised to see lots of fishermen (& many women) already fishing. Watched a beautiful sunrise, air temp at outset was 61 degrees. Mostly cloudy, but not much wind at the beginning. High tide had been at 4:30 AM, so we were fishing the outgoing all morning... not optimum! Owner of the bait company, Dan, said that only ten were caught on Monday, all in the morning... so the morning held my best hope. Fishing herring under a float... saw eight fish landed in the first two hours (total of 16 people fishing from the beach by 8:00). Then an extended lull in the activity. Caught three shakers, two 12" and one 15" before 10:00, plus a half dozen stag-horn sculpins. Missed several take-downs of the float, pulling in bare hooks... memo to self: "wait on the hook-set!". About 10:30 my float disappeared under the surface, and this time I waited (seemed like an eternity) before slowing reeling in the slack... feeling some resistance, I set the hook and... Wham! fish on... put on an awesome aerial display, jumping out of the water at least three times... then slack line... reeling as fast as I could, I soon saw the fish heading straight for the beach... then an explosion of water nearly at my feet as the fish took to the air only five feet from me... then veered to my left and headed out to sea again... running my line through a mass of floating eel grass which pulled the hooks. Great fun and lots of adrenalin... a beautiful bright Coho that will live to fight another day. The afternoon was very slow, as the tide changed and was now headed in (second high at 4:50) saw only one fish caught in the early afternoon... wind from the south now gusting at 20 mph and spitting rain... some serious rain falling as the afternoon progressed, surf was high and powerful. I was waiting for the tide change before giving up. Now only four fishermen left, as the rain had driven the rest for cover. At 5:15, just after high tide, my float again disappeared under the surface... waiting... reeling... resistance... set the hook and explosion on the surface... a couple of long runs, several jumps and I beached a beautiful hatchery hen of 6# 2oz on my digital scale after bleeding and de-gilling.
Fishing Possession Pt. is NEVER dull! Lots of wildlife to view... saw Harbor Seals, SeaLions, a pod of dolphins far off shore. Several seabirds were hooked, diving for herring under floats, and the strangest of all, the Harbor Seal that couldn't resist a herring under a float and was pulled nearly to shore by the fisherman bent on getting his float back (don't know what # test he had on, but he nearly dragged that seal up on shore before the line broke and the seal swam off with the float trailing behind him!). Saw the seal several times in the afternoon, dragging a florescent yellow and red float behind him!
Fishing off the beach at Possession Pt. bait company is a ton of fun! If you don't have $80,000+ to invest in a boat, trailer, motors, downriggers, sonar not to mention upkeep, moorage , etc... if you just want a very fun outing with a better that even chance of catching a beautiful salt-water Coho, then try this fishery. The Cooper family who owns the place are extremely helpful, will set you up if you don't know the technique. Cost $3.00 per bucket of bait (as nice as the Coopers are they don't seem to be able to count very well, as the sign says $3.00 per 6 herring, but I always end up with 9 or 10 in my bucket). The beach can get somewhat crowded, but never "combat fishing!"... have been in those situations before! Everyone works together, and there is genuine joy when fish are landed... the locals have had a treasure here for years, about time a few others get to enjoy it too! Fishing there should hold up into October, but you can call any time to see what the action is, at (360) 579-4704. PTL!

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