Ventured out on my boats maiden salmon voyage for 2015 this week. We didn’t make it on the water until 1000 and based on the reports of the boats coming in, I did not expect much action. I ended up pleasantly surprised and managed a 2 man limit of kings and coho.
The best fishing occurred in 85-95 FOW. I ran all FF combos and caught the first coho as we finished deploying the second line- a 300 copper- and went to place it in the rod tree. The second fish hit the probe downrigger rod as we netted the first. Another coho. We already had 2 more fish than a couple of boats we talked to while launching. As we finished deploying our last line, the 300 copper fired again with a 12 pound king that had the fly deep in its throat. Next was the wire dipsy out 120 LOC with another king, followed by 2 cohos on the 150 and 200 copper. Trolled east to 135 and as we were marking tons of bait and big hooks suspended from 20 feet down to 60 feet with the occasional school of big hooks on the bottom in 85/90 FOW, we circled back and dropped the down rigger from 40 to 60 fow and headed back west on the trail from our east troll, and doubled up on 2 more kings on the downrigger and 300 copper.
We never got those lines back in the water as we doubled again on the 200 copper and wire dipsy out 120 LOC to finish off the day.
At the dock, lots of guys had been out deep without much to show for it and seemed surprised that we caught fish that shallow. The water down 40 was 47 degrees and down 60 was 42 where we were fishing and a lot of bait pods and big arches were in the area. Don’t be afraid to fish away from the crowds and do your own thing, it might just pay off. It certainly did for us!
