Got up at 2:30 this morning and out the door before 4am to hit pre-sunrise at the Samish river mouth. I was stunned to see a lot full of early-birds wanting to hit morning bite. I can't actually ever remember the Samish river being so packed for anything!

Getting down to our spot I was also stunned to see how many people were there. It was as shoulder-to-shoulder combat fishing as you can get. The bite was really on today. I saw fish constantly being caught until the tide was too high to fish.

I had three hookups, one broke my line, the other two spit the hook. All were takers rather than bumps that I snagged. In spite of personally getting skunked it would have been a 5-star day rating if not for all the people. One particularly vocal local curmudgeon kept insisting any photos needed the release of everybody at the river, so I just promised to not show faces. He gave me the bird in a few shots I took (see photo), but I think his bark was worse than his bite and was just pulling my chain.

Anyhow, great day but too many people. I can only imagine how the weekend will be.