This was a 4 day boat camping trip out in the great San Juan Islands, with some fishing, shrimping and family visits mixed in. Shrimping was tough as I did not have the correct cat food (and they really do want that with the pellets), but I managed a few and was able to retrieve my pot before it was completely submerged (think the current was running too hard as there was plenty of line, an extra buoy and weight did not help). It was about 1' under water by the time we got it, so that disaster was avoided!
Now to the fishing on the 5th, we had anchored out in front of Pearl Island as the in-laws have a cabin there, so my plan was to fish battleship rock, then roll around to open bay. Last minute tip from a buddy (who was blanked at open bay the day before) suggested Rocky bay. That was excellent advice, good to always be open to last minute changes.
As we initially scouted the bay it was pretty barren and there was just one other boat cruising the shoreline and one way out in the channel. Once we got to the south of the little island I noticed a flat spot in the water and it was loaded with bait and salmon. Depth was about 140-150' with the most action so I dropped down (165' on the ball) a purple haze dodger with a smaller OG in green and blue. It was about an hour or so before low slack and there was a nice eddy holding the fish. It only took a few passes and it was FISH ON! A nice little battle and a couple runs, but we missed it on the first netting try, it did not like that and proceeded to thrash around just barely missed getting wrapped in the down rigger line. Luckily it was hooked well and the wife successfully netted on the next try! A nice 26" hatchery Chinook, my first king in this boat by myself and the first salmon in two years.
We tried to replicate the success the next day, but the wind and chop made it un-fishable, tried around Cypress (eagle cliff and tide point), lots of bait and marks but no more fish for us. One of the two other boats did catch on at eagle cliff though. All in all a great trip and I did not even have to open the engine compartment and do any repair (1978 Glasply can be fussy at times)!

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