Not exactly sure how to rate this trip! Targeted Pinks, but didn't catch one! My wife, Boni and I headed to my favorite fishing hole... Fort Casey. Caught the 5:30 AM ferry out of Mukilteo and on the beach by 7:00. This is my fourth attempt to land the ubiquitous Pink Salmon. Have read it is "red hot", but no "love" for me! Tried Fort Casey two weeks ago... nada! Fished off the shore at Mukilteo twice, had one Pink on, on Tuesday, but it spit the hook on it's second jump. So maybe Fort Casey will offer up a Pink today? I began by casting my "go to", pink Rotator with a pink and white hoochie... Boni, still learning the intricacies of casting, was using a pink & pearl Dick Nite under a float. Tide was high about 8:45... about 8:15, I had a solid hit, then nothing. I immediately cast back to the same spot and in less than 5 seconds, was into a serious fish... this was no Pink! Several bulldog runs and great aerial displays... finally beached a chrome bright, native Coho buck... weighed in at the truck later, dressed, at 6# 2oz on my digital scale. I had not anticipated the possibility of catching Cohos this early! About 9:30, Boni's float went down and line peeled off her reel... was so proud of her, with a bit of coaching she finally beached another chrome bright, native Coho hen... weighed in later, dressed, at 4# 8oz. Continued to fish with no other action, so we sat down to eat our lunch, figuring to leave the beach after eating... with one eye on the water, I saw a fish jump close in... Boni said, "ten minutes more!"... the surf was really pounding now, a strong south wind had picked up and to make matters worse, the tide was low enough that the rafts of Bull Kelp made long distance casting impossible. I picked a slot between rafts of Kelp and cast out, no more than 30' and began my retrieve... I watched my Rotator all the way to the beach... and when I was just about to lift it out of the water to try another cast, suddenly a dark shadow emerged from the breaking wave in front of me, the water exploded... no more than a foot deep, and my Rotator headed for Port Townsend in the mouth of yet another magnificent Coho. Several strong runs, a couple of breath-taking leaps out of the water, and I was finally able to beach another chrome bright native Coho buck... weighed in later, dressed, at 5# 5oz. All three Coho were stuffed with small herring. The sexual organs (eggs ans testes) were undeveloped, so these are early fish, and if their size is any indication, we may find the Coho of September and October to be real bruisers!
We left the beach about 12:30 with three great salmon. I saw three others caught down the beach, guys fishing herring under a float. Didn't go down to check, but would guess they were Coho as well.
Another magnificent day on the beach at Fort Casey. Will be back for more!

---