The fog was thick – and so were the fish!

JoAnn and I launched from the Edmonds sling at 6:15 along with a half dozen other boats. My plan had been to run over to Possession and fish the tide change, but the fog lay that plan to rest. I didn’t want to run 3.5 miles in thick fog, even with GPS. So instead, we motored out to around 450 feet deep area and began trolling south. HT was 8:20am today. Winds were light and the water was very comfortable. I love end of summer coho fishing in Puget Sound!

We ran two rigs – both magnum green flashers and one with a magnum green glow hoochie, the other with a magnum pearl glow hoochie. Both had herring strips brined in Nate’s Bait herring brine, chartreuse color, plus a couple scents I added of my own (secret, sorry!)

The first rod was set at 57 feet on the downrigger and we were trolling around 3.3 mph. Before I could even get to the second rod the first rod doubled over and it was “fish on!”. I battled in a very nice 9 lb. hooknose silver and just like that the skunk was out of the boat. This was on the green hoochie. Re-baited, dropped the gear down, and BAMM before I could get to the second rod we again had “fish on!”. This one JoAnn reeled in, a nice 5 pound hen.

Now, this is pretty cool I must say, but I did want to get some underwater footage, so the third time I lowered the other rod first with GoPro in tow, down to 48 feet deep. BAMM! Fish on! Ridiculously easy fishing out there today. Coho number 3 in the cooler, another 5 pound hen. OK, so we’ve been fishing all of 40 minutes and have three coho in the cooler. Obviously gonna be a 5 star day if this keeps up. I decided to go out of coho mode and into humpy mode. Out come the white flashers and pink hoochies, and troll speed is dropped to 1.6-1.8. It doesn’t take too long before we have our first pink salmon. Action continues until 9am when a loll occurs. We are one fish shy of a pink limit, and one fish shy of a coho limit. I’m beginning to think maybe we should go in and be happy with a half dozen fish in the cooler and have a full day ahead to putz around. “No” JoAnn says, lets stay out until 10:30. Well, OK, twist my arm.

The fog remains thick and the ferry fog horn has been our constant companion all morning. I have my GPS so I know we are south of the ferry route, but even so, it’s kind of eerie. Plus, boats are coming in and out of the fog all around us. I have no idea how others are doing. I assume other anglers must be having similar action, but when we pass by one boat he seemed pretty surprised that we had six in the boat. Not shortly after, another hot bit develops at 10am. First, the 50 foot deep rod goes off. This is a big fish, and it isn’t a pink. I battle him to the surface and we have a huge hooknose silver. He actually comes rather docile to the net and we have our biggest fish of the day, weighing 11.3 pounds. Caught on very small size 1 hooks with a small pink hoochie and a blade in front. Just as were getting this fish secured the other rigger rod EXPLODES and line goes peeling off. Another silver, which JoAnn catches and is safely released. Rods down and again – BAMM – another at 57 feet deep. This time it’s a pink and our day is done at 10:40am.

Four coho and four humpies. Unreal! Interesting to me, my prior trips targeting humpies were pretty dismal to say the least. I have no idea why it was different this time. JoAnn says it must be the herring soak. I did have them soaking for three days. I don’t know…

Location - we stayed in an area just south of the ferry route, in 350-600 feet deep water, and trolled a roughly quarter mile circular location. I have marked the hotspot.

I did not imagine the action would be so fast and furious. I hope you get a chance to hit the salt for some of these chrome coho and remaining humpies that are still around.

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