Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service
I almost gave this day a 5, but I will get to that in a moment. I launched from Snohomish about 8:30-9. I didn't want to get there too early and have the launch be a zoo. Turned out it was a great move on my part. Only a few people in line to put in when I got there, but both over flow lots were already almost full. I put the Hobie in, and pedaled down below the HWY 9 bridge. I know not many fish are pushing through right now, but I really didn't want to pedal for an hour or more upstream. Found my spot and began tossing a Elgin Fishing God's Tooth Spoon in pink. 1/2 ounce dropper weight and 5 feet of leader. Cast and retrieve almost like you are twitching a jig. Just short little pulls while reeling ( I show the technique in the video below).
There was not much action at all going on around me, I saw 1 fish landed in the first 2 hours and virtually no fish rolling. Got my first fish on and landed a nice hen. Next fish was a smaller buck. Both fish landed in about a 30 minute time span. Ove the next few hours I got 2 more fish on that I lost on the way in, and had about 3 more strikes that didn't get hooked, or were hooked just briefly.
I really wanted that last fish, but looked at my watch and decided to be thankful for the two fish I did land because between all of the boats that huddled around me after seeing me land 2 fish quickly, and all of the people on the bank only 2 fish total landed by all of the others out there.
The tide was coming in as I made my may back, and just before I got to the HWY 9 bridge I saw a few fish surface. I decided to stop pedaling and just drift back with the current, tossing the God's Tooth as I go. Just after I got under the HWY 9 bridge, I got a fish on!. This fish had some weight to it, and would not budge. Not matter what I did, I could not get the fish to come up, and it began pulling me around, down the river, then back up. After a bit, I decided that I would start pedaling to keep up with the fish and try to steer it better as it was starting to pull me to other boats. The whole fight with the fish lasted 24 minutes according to the go-pro. When I finally got it to the net, I saw that it was an approximately 10lb give or take native chinook. It was just started to take on that pretty gold tint before it really starts to turn. I kept the fish in the net in the water, quickly unhooked it and revived it for a minute or so before it gave me a hard tail flip and swam away. This is why I almost gave this a 5 star rating. I wasn't expecting that, was just hoping for my last pink to finish off my limit. This turned out to be much better, even though it would have been mighty tasty on the BBQ :)
This might be my last trip out there until the Coho start to show. Pretty sure I did see 1 surface about 10 feet from me. Of course I saw that and will probably get the itch to try again just to make sure the run is really falling off :)
Video shows the fish I landed, 1 that got off, and the Chinook. I edited the Chinook fight down a lot as the go-pro actually split it into 3 clips, and I didn't want to watch myself get pulled around for 24 minutes :)
Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service