We bet on the Farm and the Bank broke us.

My wife and I decided to once again give the Discovery Bay Salmon Derby a try . Unlike last year we decided to use our bigger boat instead of our open 16. We moored at the Boat Haven in Port Townsend and for the most part we had a great time.

Friday, after a tough day getting the last minute boat items taken care of and hauling and launching the old tub we decided to find our pillows and cash it in early. All was well that night until a couple of dock bums decided to vandalize our boat. My wife woke me and said there was someone on the back deck of the boat. So up I jumped up and peered out the rear hatch. Sure enough, there were two in our cooler tossing food all over the deck. I stepped out and walked within a foot of those two buggers and let out a big roar. They both jumped out of the cooler and leaped over the transom and into the water. One of them jumped back onto the swim step and peered his little head over the rail as if to say, “You scared the crap out of me”, After about three times getting up and scaring them away I got smart and put the cooler on the flybridge. The next morning I looked into the cooler and all our food was gone. The chicken, the hamburger, the cheese, all gone. Those two sea otters sure made a mess of things and I had to get the hose out and give the old back deck a wash before heading out.

As we left the dock I gave Swede a call to see how he was doing. He was already on the “Bank” trying to locate fish. He mentioned that the water was a bit rough and he was not marking any bait. Knowing that, I decided to go south and fish and area called the “Farm” near Oak Bay. One down-rigger was towing a green double glow Pro Trol flasher with a double glow Coho Killer. The other was towing a green flasher with a juiced green splatter back squid. We worked the flats along with about 10 other boats All the chatter on the radio was bad. Everyone complained about the lack of bait and the lack of fish. We ended that day with ZIPPO for our efforts. Throughout the day Swede, along with another boat full of friends fishing Diamond Point, and I shared info on how it was going. None of us were having any luck until the last call to Swede. As I was talking with him he had a “take down” and the fight was on. He called shortly after that and said they had caught a 13 ponder. He was the only one out of all of us to catch that day. In total, I believe only 30 fish were checked in that day with the largest being 18.8 pounds.

The Second day I decided to fish the “Bank” along with what seemed to be 200 other boats. Local charters like NW Fishing. Com were all on the “Bank” that morning. All of us just out for a boat ride. After fishing for about 6 hours and not seeing one net or hearing of any fish being caught I decided to give the “Farm” another try. It turned out to be “ditto” from the day before. Swede decided to run to Eastern Bank and gave that a try. He too, found the fishing tough throughout the day. He called and said they were headed back to John Wayne Marina to pick up gear and head home. The fishing was so bad they decided not to stay and fish Monday. Sometime later that evening he talked with my wife and he mentioned they picked up three, bang, bang, bang just outside Sequim bay on their way home. I am sure those fish lifted spirits but like us, they were beat and tired.

As for a summation for the derby I would say a few had fish but for the many it was a tough long three days. All in all, the fishing was very poor.

At the recent Sportsmen’s show Mike mentioned that I should post some pictures with my reports so - without any fish pics to show I decided to share pics of our old tub and another freeloader hanging out in the Marina.

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