So finally saw an opportunity to get the boat wet again so my good buddy and customer has been anxious to get his 4 year old out fishing again after our last successful day on Lake WA so decided to try something new and head up north of the 520 bridge to chase some coho!
HUGE shout out to rseas for his informative report posted- plus we talked in person so I could get a few more tips to hopefully help make this another memorable trip for the little guy!

Decided to meet at 6 am before daylight just in case it was busy at the launch plus I have only put the boat in here once before so wanted some extra time to get the boat wet- sure enough, almost missed the launch in the dark but soon we were loaded up and heading across just as it was getting light!

Had the fish finder on and as we were approaching the flotilla of boats already prying the water near the Kirkland waterfront, noticed some huge marks in 120 feet of water at 100 feet down; so we thought let's start here and see what happens and when we see an opening will move into shallower water. From Randy's great intel the night before I had tied up some small green hootchies with a twinkle skirt and had some salted and cured herring strips (via Fish Dawg from last outing together!) so set the first rod out 30' behind the boat and 100 feet down. Second set up with Irish cream coyote spoon with hootchie skirt (green of course) and hooked dipped in herring super gel and also 30 feet back and this one at 75 feet down as we saw some suspended in that area as well.

We started our north troll at 1.8 to 2.0 mph and didn't take long for the hootchie rig to get hit and popped of the clip and it was fish on! Handed the rod to the little guy and he worked it in like a pro and just as dad netted it, I noticed some spots and a black gum line so told him to keep it in the water. Showed them what a chinook looked like as I removed the hooks and let it slip back into the water to live another day!
Well at least the skunk was off the boat so set things back down and 5 minutes later WHAM!! This one took off running and again Christian fought it like a champ and said "it's kicking my butt!" Haha this kid is already getting the fish lingo down! Got her close and saw it was a sockeye that was actually still pretty chrome! So this time showed them what a sockeye looked like even though we caught our share last time out on the south end.

Now let me stop right here and put in my 2 cents worth. I have notice that I have a much better survival rate for these fish when after unhooking them, I grab by the tail and torpedo them back into the water instead of trying to revive in the warmer surface water. I know it goes against the rule about not taking them out of the water but really have not have one belly up when I do this. Just thought I would throw that in in case anyone saw me take it out of the net for a second!

Back to fishing: Moved the other rod down to 100 feet and stayed in the 120 to 140 water depth as that seemed to be where we were getting bit but wanted something we could keep! Got a hit on the spoon but half way in got off- this happened again and realized I had pinched the barbs on this one as was going to use in the salt. So traded it in for another green hootchie and soon it got whacked! This one really put up a fight and even broke the surface so realized we finally had a possible keeper on hook! Got her in and yep, a nice little 3-4 lb coho so high fives all around and then back to work. Next up we hooked a HUGE 6-7lb fire truck male hooked nosed sockeye that still had some spunk and swam off quickly after shooting back into the water.

Next up was a cutthroat and then finally the fish of the day! This guy made 2 or 3 real good runs and put on a show in the air plus couldn't decide which side of the boat he wanted to get netted but finally succumbed! So we called it a day around 11:30 with a total count of:

2 silvers- kept
1 cutthroat- kept
3 chinook- released
2 sockeye- released

So all in all not a bad day on the water and again huge thanks for Randy and his report; and may I add that wafisherman20 (Paul) also had a hand in making my decision today as I was just going to take them to Lake Sammamish but he told me it can be hit and miss this time of year so thanks to Paul too. Just goes to show what a great resource this website can be for those who use it and share their reports of success or not so successful days too!

See you on the water

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