Day 1: Limited out on hatchery silver salmon by 10am. Had over a dozen over the transom, including one on the fly rod, casting at slashing coho salmon on top. Hooked it on a pink and white bucktail tricked out with aluminum sea eyes, Fuchsia Haze Flash Fibers, and ultraviolet polar chenille. Big pods of salmon were on the surface chasing bait. The water was calm as glass. We watched fish charge out of the periphery, flare up and refuse the fly multiple times before the first take. We bled the fish out and put them in a brand new Yeti Cooler, took them home and grilled them.
Day 2: Pre-dawn on Clallam Bay, the boats are already heading out onto a still dark ocean. The lights on the boats look like stars in the night sky. A parade of vehicles on the road heading west, loggers heading in to the Olympic rain forest. We’re out on the water by the time the sun peaks over Vancouver Island. Rods bent to the water, another day with dozens of fish to the boat. Ranier talls mixed with salmon blood and herring scales. Bottomfishing with gear and fly rods brings lingcod, cabezon and china rockfish to the boat.
Day 3: The night before – some kind of paranormal activity at the rental house. I wake screaming in the night. Phantom breathing, cold drafts, malfeasant smells (like a rotten tooth) on the air. Julian wonders if we should just call the insane asylum now and tell them we’re coming and to stock up on Fireball Whiskey. Nobody sleeps well. I ask the proprietor in the morning to tell me exactly how many people had been murdered in that house and get a strange look.
The Flying Dutchman at the tiller in the morning – the small kicker motor does most of the driving for us as we sleep troll…
More to come later in the week. It’s good to be back on the Pacific Coast.
-MS
Wish I could’ve joined you guys this week. Workin’ away in the shop. Next year?
You had me until the Rainier tall boys.