My bird dog ' OTTO ' and I decided to use the Edmonds Sling Sunday, which opens at 7:00 AM during winter hours.

I picked-up a dozen frozen herring on the dock and headed to Possession around 7:30 AM. I looked around for a short time, attempting to
find some bait or a herring 'ball.' There was no bait to be found, I dropped my gear in at Area 3 (Second Horseshoe Hole), in 85 to
90 feet of water. I began fishing with my usual green Hot Spot flasher/squid combo with a herring strip.

I trolled at about 2.5 mph along the bottom for about an hour, changing the strip and color three times with no action.

I decided to switch to one of my Coyote Spoon's (this one was green and white with a small chrome spinner above the hook), tying it
about 42 inches behind the Hot Spot. Within five minutes I had a nice fish on but eventually lost it ..... Got the ' Cobwebs ' out.

Then another, but it was under 24 inches and went back to grow-up. Finally, I hooked into a line-burner that gave me some thrills, reminding me
WHY I like to fish : - )

Unfortunately, that fish broke my leader, halfway between the flasher and lure. My fault, I had ' felt ' a couple " nicks " in that same leader
the night before and decided it would be ok .... bad decision. ALWAYS change your leaders, EVERY fishing trip.

Interestingly, ALL these fish were caught on or close to 9:00 AM ? As my fishing buddies know, I have ALWAYS caught more saltwater fish at
or around 9:00 AM then any other time of the day or night. Regardless, of the tide or time of year ......

So, I still did not have a fish on the boat and time was ticking by .... I continued trolling with the Coyote spoon and moved out west where all the
charters were ... still nothing.

It was about one hour before the tide, so I decided to return to the ' Horseshoe ' and use a plugcut herring with no dodger (Meat Fishing.)
In less than five minutes after I got it out and at depth ... BAM !! Line was singin ' and goin ' straight down !! It was definitely a keeper and a
fighter :-)

Finally, after about 10 minutes I saw my blackmouth and I also saw TWO sea lions with their eyes on MY salmon.

Somehow, I managed to get my net on my fish and on the boat. What happened next was amazing ....

One of those SOB Sea Lions came right up on my swim platform and the side of my outboard (they are real BIG out-of-water), and snarled/growled
at me - he wanted my fish no matter what !? I actually spit in his face (I just did - why I don't know), and he rolled-off the back of my boat and into the water.
Then he ' raced ' around my boat twice, slapping his tail on the water - he obviously wanted my salmon for lunch !! Amazing, there wer three guys
on a boat close and watching the whole thing, they were laughing so hard I don't think they could talk : - ) It wasn't funny at the time !!

I headed back to Edmonds and after I had bled my blackmouth it weighed 10 pounds. The fish ' checker ' said mine was the first one in and it was
around noon? I read the ' counts ' later and there were ONLY two legal fish checked at Edmonds on Sunday (one was mine.) That is not exactly good
fishing.

There was very little tide change Sunday, but I think at Possession almost any tide is good because the water ' sweeps ' across Possession, Skagit
Head and Useless Bay.

Maybe this weekend will prove to be better fishing ... I will NOT be using plastic squid for obvious reasons. I will have my ' club ' handy for
' other ' reasons .....

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