It was an outstanding two days fishing Eagle Point Friday and Saturday! (8/31 & 9/1/18) Friday morning three of us came from Jones Island and were the first boat out there (which was definitely a bit too early). The seas were rough at the point but still fishable. The bite came on at 6:45 am and was red hot for an hour and a half. Three chinook and two coho in the boat before 8 am.

The action lurched to a halt but we decided to keep chasing after our last silver. The bite turned back on a couple hours later and it was nothing but kings, even trolling white hoochies with short leaders at 4 mph! Persistence did pay off however as we were finally able to throw our last coho in the box. Three full limits before noon!

Saturday was a surprising change-up. Four of us ran out of La Conner and were out there promptly at 6:45 am poised and ready for the bite. And... nothing. We trolled most of the morning without a single strike. Our gear covered a lot of territory between Salmon Bank and Eagle Point. No nets were waving around and we only had vague rumors of some folks with one in the box. By this time the water was calm and the sun was beating down in full force. A pack of least 80 boats was scouring the area.

Half our food gone and several tall tales later, we finally saw an angler scrambling for a slammed pole. A quick course change altered our path in the hope there might be a few more at the same spot. That led to an immediate chinook hook-up (chinook-up?) and we finally got the smell of skunk off the boat. We worked the area hard and managed to scrape up a couple more. One king left to go but the bait and fish had moved on. We decided to troll back towards the aptly named Salmon Bank and then call it a day. Halfway there we discovered our fourth and final chinook lingering in shallower water. Did I forget to mention that in between kings a coho jumped into the ice box?

With our limit of kings chilling in the cooler we switched out to coho rigs and dialed up the troll speed. We got on top of a school and reeled in a large silver. This was a sloppy bloody affair that ended with a coho on ice and a hook threaded through my right index finger. For any of you wondering if a pinched barb hook has superior holding power versus a native barbless, I have the answer for you. After that fiasco got sorted out we sent the gear back down. We circled around through the sweet spot and had a fierce take down. Cruising along at 4 mph and with the cable down only 45 feet it had to be a coho, but it was fighting hard like a king. The leader broke on an especially determined tug and that was that. (note to self: check the leader after catching each fish) We decided to call it a day and head back to La Conner. Stopped at Deception Pass to snap a photo. Our last run to Eagle for the year.

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