July 12, 2019

The coho fishing in the sound has been nothing short of spectacular! Lots of silver bullets in the 6 to 10 lb range. Glow white hootchies and and small spoons have been the ticket for coho. We have been using irish cream ( glow white and green) skinny gs. The coho love them and so do the springs. Chinook fishing has been solid in various locations around the sound. First light is always good for a decent bite and then of course the tide changes. Little Beale, Kirby, Flemming, Brady’s Beach and the Wall have all produced fish. Keeha Bay and Pachena have been solid for those wanting to brave the waters around Cape Beale. Keeha and Pachena have been good for jiggers. 90 gram Macdeeps and buzz bombs bounced off the bottom in 60 feet of water have been very productive and OMG!, may I add, what a fun way to hook up with a spring. If you haven’t yet tried it take the time to do so. You’ll have so much fun.

I took the boys off shore for halibut on Tuesday as the forecast predicted a good southeast blow on Wednesday. We settled on a hump 12 miles off, anchored up in 205 feet, and put down spreader bars and salmon bellies. In mere minutes the dog fish became thick as belly after belly was picked off. I switched to a whole salmon head and that kept the dog fish at bay. Within the hour the rod arched toward the water and line peeled off for a good 30 seconds or more. Hali on! 30 minutes later we had very fat 125 cm flatty on board! It was a great fish.

We soon ran out of heads as we kept feeding the dog fish. We switched up to a hali jig and in short order picked another hali. As long as you kept the jig moving the dog fish couldn’t get their mouths around it. I don’t really think any particular jig would be that much better than anything else. We used a needle fish imitation and a lead piped jig with a large hoochy skirt. Both were effective.

Wednesday morning we trolled for springs. It was howling southeast. We started the day at Little Beale and trolled green flashers with skinny gs. The irish cream skinny g fished at 40 feet got hit numerous times.We managed one teenager spring and lost two more. Things died pretty quickly so we made a move over to Kirby Point knowing it would be in the lee of the southeasterly. Here we fished shallow in tight to the shore. We continued to fish irish cream skinny gs but this time at 30 feet on the down rigger. This proved effective as we boated 3 more springs and 6 coho ( I took two for myself). Despite the heavy down pour of rain it was an excellent day!

Thursday we returned to Kirby early in the morning hoping for a repeat of yesterday’s action.

We fished the early morning bite but things were very quiet. We pulled up the gear and headed over to Austin and Cree. It was lights out over there for coho. Double header after double header. We fished a bon chovy skinny g at 50 feet and an irish cream skinny g at 60 feet.

Neither one outfished the other but we did pick up 20 lb spring on the irish cream.

After limiting out on coho and continuing to hook up double headers, we thought we would move again and try some spots for ling cod and a couple more springs.

We headed through the fog to Seabird Rocks (likely my fav spot around the Sound!). The springs have been scarce here this year. There just hasn’t been the bait as per usual. We were hoping to pick up a nice ling or two and play with some black rock fish and I was hoping to see if some springs had finally shown up. I parked the boat amidst the kelp in 30 feet of water and we dropped macdeeps to the bottom and reeled up three times. On my first pull my rod doubled over and I felt some serious head shakes. I gave the rod to Curtis and as he reeled in to keep the line tight, an angry silver bar flashed just beneath the surface. Glassy seas, no engine noise, a G Loomis 10.6 rod and a big spring on. Doesn’t get any better than that!. The fish headed to the kelp faster than a Kourdashian to a shoe sale. I managed to manipulate the boat to keep her in the deeper water. It was an epic fight for the next 20 minutes. Runs, jumps and direction changes. Curtis did a super job playing the fish and eventually I managed to slip her into the net. If the day had ended there it would have been all good. We continued jigging and Reza hooked a gorgeous 18lb ling cod. It was a beautiful green / blue on the belly. The sun was out, the seas were flat and life was good!

The boys leave Friday morning and Friday afternoon the Underhill brothers come in as my guests. They too have been fishing with me for 6 years. I’ll update you all on our fishing success Monday afternoon.

In the mean time please stop in and see us if you are in the area. Aussie John can update you on lodging and moorage space. Joe has some fishing dates available for charter. The store is going strong and is stocked with all the gear that each of us use everyday on the water. salt ice, drink ice, gas, diesel, bait and tackle are always available so please stop in and say hi.

Have a great weekend all…

Coach…(aka Jonathan)