The third time was the charm in my quest to catch a blackmouth with my jigging pole, though it was an interesting day...

I launched at Shilshole and started with one of my favorite trolls from the mouth of the Locks South to West Point. I caught a couple of shakers on a Hot Spot and Coyote rig. I came across a couple of areas with lots of bait, so I stopped and broke out the jigs. I caught a couple of flounders and more shakers there with the jigging pole.

I moved over to Jeff Head and took one trolling pass there. There was some bait and a lot of logs, sticks and debris in the pocket by the yellow house. Didn't get any hits there, so off to Point No Point! There were nets in the water all along from Apple Tree to Pilot Point. That may explain why nothing was going on at Jeff Head.

There were about 10 boats and six seals at Pt No Pt. Folks were getting fish fairly regularly, and I got a couple of 18 to 21 inchers to the boat without incident. Weird point of the day... I'm jigging in about 100 feet with my favorite Pt Wilson dart and I get a really good hit. The fish is shaking its head and going nuts. I get it about 10 feet off the bottom, and it sounds, then sits on the bottom. I'm wondering what I an going to do if it's a halibut. I've only got 20 pound proline and a section of 10 pound mono on the end. Finally I start to work the fish up, and then it comes up fast. Wow. This must be a good salmon! Suddenly a medium small seal pops up next to the boat with my jig sticking in its neck! There was no fish head attached, so I don't think I had a fish then got sealed. It must have been looking at my jig or something and got in the way. I broke the line right at the knot, but I sure would have liked to have gotten my jig back... Oh well. Th!
e wind came up from the West, so time to head in.

When I got back to Shilshole, it was a bit windy, but I thought I'd give it the "hail mary" try at Meadows Point with a different jig. The wind was blowing me along at almost 2 knots, with a 45 degree line angle, so I didn't hold out much hope... My jig hadn't even gotten to the bottom when I got a good strike, set the hook and knew I had a salmon on! Nice fight on my limber rod with no-stretch line! The fish only went 23 inches, but was very fat and weighed 6 pounds! That was fun!

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