Another great weekend on the water with my Dad,Cowboy and my friend Tom who jumped on board with short notice after a last minute cancelation. Friday morning was a steady Salmon bite all morning in Westport. In for lunch and a nap and back out in the evening fishing the ferry lanes for with more Salmon and Lakers in the mix.
Saturday morning winds gave my Dad a chance to sleep in and rest up for an early start on Sun. The wind finally laid down around 3 and we decided to try the Bouquet Delta for an evening troll. Lots of lakers but no Salmon.
Sunday morning was lines down at 430 am. The Fish were ripping the lines out our hands before we could put them in the releases! A few boats joined in around 6 and by 8 the fleet was all around us. We wandered off to get away from the traffic and it seemed like the Salmon were following us. The bite slowed as the morning and derby wound down. 11:15 and no Salmon over 5lbs. Time to start packing it in. The boards are in. The divers are in. I was storing rods in the cabin when the drag on the corner rigger screams and big silver leaps behind the boat! My dad hollers big MONEY FiSH! Rick grabs the rod and after some very tense moments,I slip the net under a beautiful 27in 7+lb slab of silver. I'm thinking 3 riggers to get in the boat and we have 20 min to get to Essex. We got it. Then I look down in the net and realize,it's a STEELHEAD! I have been asking the Rotary Folks for 20 years to include Steelhead and Browns in the derby. But hey that's fishing.....
By far our best lure all weekend is one my Wife named the Cathy-Jean. I have included a pic of the lure and some special blades that Fathead made for me a few years ago. This combo took the Steelhead and countless Salmon. Good luck to everyone in the LCI. I'll be selling 599 lobsters all weekend at the store.
Sorry but Photobucket would not load the pics. I'll try again later
Capt Thorny
