Sorry about the late report, busy, busy, busy… Sunday morning I had planned to fish Baker Lake but as luck has it plans change. After getting up and attending to a few chores I decided to go fishing. The problem was where? It was too late so Baker Lake was out. Then if I took the time to haul the boat out of the garage and get everything ready it would be late morning before I was floating somewhere. With the warm weather and resultant water-players I figured that the lakes were out so I decided to hit the local beaches for humpies. Plan in place I headed for Deception Pass State Park.

I arrived at the park and headed for the south end of West Beach with about an hour or so of the ebb tide remaining. There were maybe 10 or 12 fisherman scattered across the entire run of West Beach. My plan was to work from south to north into the low slack tide. Right off the bat I hooked a fish and ultimately my braid to top shot parted. It was fun while it lasted though. I had foul hooked a large chinook and the fish put on a great show for the beach goers’. The crazy fish just swam up and down the beach in shallow water until the top shot and I parted company. It was like surf fishing for roosters in Baja, there was a watery rooster tail as my line cut through the skinny water in front of the growing crowd. Show over I had to head back to my rig for leader to set up a new top shot.

Oh man, no leader in the truck so I retied using just the braid and headed back to the beach. I was now up at the top of West Beach with a hand full of fellow fishermen and a fisherwoman. The guys closest to the point were doing well and frequently hooking smaller humpies. I was getting bit every couple casts and connecting with about 50% of the interested fish. I landed and released 4 or 5 smaller fish before the tide went slack shutting the bite off. In my usually proven to be wrong opinion, West Beach fishes best on the outgoing tide. Especially when there is a large tide swing and Sunday was a prime example. Solid fishing right up until the slack tide then the switch was flipped offffffff…

I was using a small pink Rotator (although the chinook hit a white and green Rotator) and a black # 1 barbless octopus hook. Although I had a few hits on the long cast; most of the hits were closer to the beach with a few fish hitting within a couple feet of the shore. When beach fishing for salmon my technique varies a little but generally I make the cast, reel up the slack, slowly lift the rod tip while reeling in a few feet of line then sharply drop the tip through a few cycles. At that point I will slowly reel the Rotator, jig or curly tail in and then make another cast. I differ from the pack on hook sets. I will usually reel through a hit or bite and not swing or strike until I feel solid pressure from the fish. The octopus style hooks are similar to circle hooks and you need them to roll into the hook set.

Fishing was over but I hung out at the beach and enjoyed the happenings for a good chunk of the afternoon. I stayed in part to play “just in case lifeguard” (I lifeguarded all the way through HS and swim like a fish) and keep an eye on a few families worth of unsupervised small kids playing at water’s edge. I don’t think that everybody is aware of the potential danger when playing in our local salt water; especially in and around the Deception Pass beaches. With the flood tide just starting there was a strong uphill current. The kids would go out in the water on inflatable mattresses or toys and immediately drift away from the shore. I have to say that although nobody actually fell off their inflatable there were occasionally some panicked kids. Ultimately all was good but I felt better giving up an afternoon just in case.

I do have a question. There were a number of people fishing West Beach and retaining humpies. As I read the WDFW regulations I do not believe that West Beach is open for pinks or coho until August 16th. I think that it is ok to fish the area because it is open for Chinook but I have to admit that I am squishy on the subject. Any thoughts?

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