8 salmon boat limit, plus another dozen released or lost.

[Okanagan]

One of my grandsons from Pennsylvania got to salmon fish with me and the salmon guru cousins yesterday.  We kept a boat limit of 8 salmon, plus released several wild fish and small ones, and lost a string of 7 in a row,



Most of the pics are on a grandson's phone but I took a scenic at the end.  Grandson caught two fish on his own, both of them bigger than what I landed, and he was pumped.  He'd caught some sockeye with me and trout, but nothing like these strong kings in the mid teens for weight.

I hooked and played out my best fish of the year and lost him at the boat.  He made the longest sustained run I've had a salmon make since a big king in Alaska years ago.  He took off in one direction and ran out several hundred feet of 16 lb. line against the protesting drag.  We got a good look at him when he was played out and I was leading him to the net.  The hook popped out of his open mouth and flew back over my head.  He was so tuckered out he just stayed there just out of reach of our net, back and dorsal out of the water while he recovered for 20 seconds or so, and then slowly swam off.  We could see that he was a legal clipped-fin fish, at least 17 pounds. 



Near the boat launch at Freshwater Bay west of Port Angeles, WA, with Bachelor Rock out on the horizon.

[Hawks Feather]

Sounds like a great day fishing and now for that difficult work - eating them. 😉

[Okanagan]

Burp.  Leftovers from supper, makes fabulous salmon sandwiches tomorrow.



The color did not come out right in this pic.  The cooked center portion is a rich salmon color cooked meat rather than the washed out almost white in the photo. 

[FinsnFur]

It still looks delicious. And that body of water looks even more amazing. I'm so used to looking at the muddy Mississippi River. 

[Okanagan]

It still looks delicious. And that body of water looks even more amazing. I'm so used to looking at the muddy Mississippi River. 

The water was extra clear yesterday, so that we could see our jig down to about 20 feet and those silver sided salmon sure were pretty fighting around the boat, flashing visibly from way deep, or swimming just under the surface out a ways as they fought coming to the net.  Wish you could fish with us, especially a day like yesterday when we fished the kelp beds close in to the cliffs along that stretch of coast.