Seeking chinook among dogfish: rough water fishing at Possession Point

I had missed last week’s three-day chinook opener because of a gout attack. However, my foot finally got better, and WDFW allowed one more day in Area 9 after counting up all the fish that were reported caught. I hadn’t planned to go, but my coworker Todd and I made an impromptu decision the day before to try it. We met at 4:30 a.m. and launched at first light. Despite being mid summer, it was a gray Puget Sound day, unseasonably cold, with a low cloud cover. The closer we got to Possession Point, the rougher the sea got. To make things worse, a light rain started to fall. Fortunately, neither the rain nor the rough seas persisted. We crossed over the bar to the far west side, and there were already probably 100 boats there. Although the seas had gotten a little calmer, it was still rough enough that fishing was a little challenging. We decided to fish the west side because it would be an ebb tide all morning with an easterly current, and the small fish that salmon like to eat would be carried to the lee side of the bar before descending to deeper water.

Todd is very new to downrigger fishing. He had gone with me once two years ago when I still had my manual downriggers, but not since then. So new, in fact, that he actually brought a banana aboard… All fishermen know that bananas are bad luck. What a noob! Throughout the day I had to train him on how to do everything, but he was highly motivated and learned quickly. We decided to get the port side downrigger going first, just to have gear in the water, and then work on the starboard side afterwards. However, before we could even get the second downrigger set up, we already got a fish on. It turned out to be a wild chinook we couldn’t keep. Within minutes, we got two more wild coho. We barely had time to set up the net, and in the chaos we neglected to get the GoPros going. We were comically inept at identifying each fish, yet we were under the gun to get them back in the water as soon as possible while carefully studying the fish card. I was confused by the fact that so many were wild coho, when I was expecting pinks. Clearly the pinks aren’t in yet. I was embarrassed that I wasn’t faster at this for as long as I’ve been fishing. Studying the video later, I realized that in my haste I had accidentally thrown back a coho with a clearly missing adipose fin that was legal to keep.

Most of the morning would be a crazy series of reeling in fish, identifying fish, avoiding near misses with other boats, and resetting the downriggers. In the midst of all this, I saw a distant puff of water vapor, followed by another. Could there by a whale at Possession Point? A little while later a turmoil of harbor porpoises, clearly identifiable, came swimming right through the middle of the turmoil of fishing boats. Somehow while reeling something in, I lost my new $25 blinky red racer flasher, and whatever lure was the end of it. The result was a tangled mess. We switched to the backup rod, but it was very sticky because it had a knot in the line and there was too much line on it, causing the knot to rub against the housing on every turn. I kept trying to sit down to untangle my line or make a new one, but I kept getting distracted. Finally, I managed to get it sorted out and returned it to service.

By this time it was afternoon and things had slowed down. Todd insisted on fishing hoochies with herring, against my recommendation. As a result, he got five of the biggest dogfish I’d ever seen, while I only got one with my spoon. He found it exciting to reel them in, but to most fisherman they just waste your time. We eventually decided to start trolling towards home, stopping at a place at the northeastern part of the bar called the “Horseshoe”. We only saw one other boat there, although logically it should have been the perfect time to fish there since the tide had turned. Suddenly we got another series of bites, including finally a keeper hatchery chinook. It was quite small for a chinook, and barely met the 22″ length requirement. Nevertheless, we took it home. It had been an exhausting but very fun and unusual day.