BP booked the boat exclusively again today for another day away from the slope and to stack a few more pounds in the freezer for the winter. The weather front hanging over the gulf had stirred the ocean up with 35kt of wind and 10′ swells prior to today’s trip. We watched the weather closely to see if a big enough window would open so we could go fishing. The winds died down just enough for us to sneak out of the bay and try for some halibut. We were anticipating the weather to kick back up, so we went to a spot sure to find a few fish. The wind kicked up to 20kt by 1:30pm, but we were able to pick up our last 3 fish while the anchor skipped across the ocean floor. We got out just in time with a limit of 26 halibut. We made way to Puget Bay to try a few drifts for some ling cod. We were marking fish all over the sounder but were only able to land one keeper ling. They didn’t seem to be interested in our jigs. We figured it was time to bag the ling cod fishing and give silver salmon a shot.
We rounded the corner into the salmon grounds, and were surprised to see some very large and steep 7′-8′ rollers coming in. At times locating the school of salmon can be tough in bad weather because the salmon tend to scatter. Today was an exception to that theory. The worse the weather got the better the fishing became. We couldn’t keep the salmon off the hooks, it was probably the best bite of the season. As we netted salmon number 66, we had 10′ waves smashing against the swim step. The guys all had a ball, but the sick ones may beg to differ. At the dock BP’s total catch weighed over 500lbs of just fillets…not a bad yield!
Good job guys, thanks Mike and James for bringing another fun group of guys out fishing. FISH ON!!!
