08/17/2009

Tides: Low tide is at 5:00 a.m. and high tide is at 12:00 noon and a second low tide at 5:00 p.m.

Crew for the day: Jimmy, Tim and Paul.

Starting Time: 6:30 a.m.

What We Caught

We hooked 9 fish and got 3 in the net, 1 Chinook, 1 hatchery Coho and 1 wild Coho (released), all in the 8lbs range. The fish we lost appeared to be pretty small, probably jack Coho, with maybe a jack Chinook in the mix.

Where We Fished

We wound up starting a bit earlier than I planned, mainly because I could not sleep. We got into Hammond before 6:00 and were fishing at buoy #29 shortly after that. The incoming tide was not very strong and made things pretty rough for the first hour. We started at buoy #27 and fished it for 2 hours. We got our Chinook on the third pass about 1 hour into it. We lost another fish about 10 minutes after boating the Chinook (probably a jack). We shot out to buoy #12 about 9:00 and had a hatchery in the boat in about 20 minutes. The cross current was fierce, making the fishing very difficult.

How We Fished

We fished 3 rods, 1-10 1/2ft, 1-8ft and 1-7ft. I just bought the 10-1/2ft rod thinking it would give me the spread that would be the difference. What happened was that crappy, $30 ugly stick boat pole hooked 8 of the 9 fish. Go figure! We fished 23 to 29 pulls, with most of the action at 23 pulls.

What We Saw and Learned

Even though we got fish, this was a tough day. We will fish buoy #10 at 7:30 tomorrow and see if we can get a limit going.