Salmon Fishing

Yesterday I went salmon fishing in Puget Sound for the first time.  I've dropped a line once before but this was the first purposeful trip for fishing. I went with my boss and a couple of other coworkers, one of whom owns a nice little 18 foot bayliner all rigged up for trolling.

We got a bit of a late start, not hitting the water till just after 6 am. We haded out from Shilshole Marina as the sun came up.  It's ben a few years and I was a bit unnerved, at first, sitting all the way back as the boat bounced and skipped cross he water. I was overcome, however, by how gorgeous it was. The water was still, just a few boats out and the sun had just crept up over the horizon.

We zipped down to Elliott Bay, just across from downtown, and started trolling.  Early on we caught a king salmon, but it turned out to  be an inch too short to keep. The guy in  a

boat near us bagged a 22-pounder shortly thereafter.

Bastard.

After a while we gave up on trolling and started jigging and mooching. This fishing terminology means nothing tome but apparently they involve bouncing the lures up and down to try and entice the salmon, like using a stick with a string on it to tease a cat. This yielded us two (2) small flounders, which we tossed back.  They eally were pretty small and, while I'd eat salmon out of the Bay, I would prefer not to eat a botom-feeder from the most industrial and heavily-trafficked part of the Sound (the salmon were passing through on their way to the Duwamish River).

As an aside, I find flounder really freaky.  Like God let Picasso have a field day with one creature or something. 

Tasty. 

But still freaky.

After a several luckless hours, we pulled the lines and took off up the Sound to a spot near Bainbridge Island and started trolling there. I have to say that while I love sailing and just spent last Sunday out on the South Wind, there's something special about skimming across the open water at 35-40 knots, feeling the boat bounce as it skips across waves and wakes, the wind whipping by. 

Good times.

So, we spent some time trolling in a few spots up near Bainbridge but to no avail.  So, around mid-afternoon

we scooted back down to Elliot Bay proper to take one last stab at it. We saw an Eagle circlin and watched an osprey stoop and take a fish. I've seen it before but it always amazes me. I'm glad that we still have wild birds of prey right in and around the city.  One of the things I loved most about th Eastlake office location where I first worked in Seattle was that it was right on Lake

Union.  I'd be seating lunch in the conference room and watching an Eagle catch its lunch in the lake and then land 20 feet from me on a utility pole to eat.

So, with the day running short and the boat's gas tank doing the same we decided to call i a day and head back. One more last ride cross he water and it was over.  I would have liked to have caught more than a flounder and the idea of that fresh a salmon dinner was awfully appaking. Next time, perhaps. The main thing I would change next time is to bring sunscreen.  None of us had any and poke me with a pork 'cause I'm done.