“Slam” Juan Island Salmon Opener!!! 5

After having to listen -year after year- of my friends stories of the tremendous chinook fishing in the San Juans during the first days of the chinook season… I finally said “enough! I’m in!

  Jay Field of the Anacortes Salmon Derby and now “Dash One” Charters invited my son and I to raft up to his boat and spend the night aboard our boat “Big Red” and follow him out for the opener. How could I refuse???

We launched at Washington Park in Anacortes and on my walk back down to the boat this little fella couldn’t have cared less!

Cruising around the corner to Skyline, Rosario Strait was flat calm and our little cruise was over before I wanted it to be.

For those that have not been, Skyline, for lack of a better description is a “marina/community" with a full service marine facility surrounded by condos and privately owned homes… Pretty tough living!  

Jay greeted us at his slip and treated us to dinner at his Pizzeria “The Village” in downtown “A town”. It was off-the-charts great and next time I’m in town, my son Matthew demands that we go back… It won’t be hard to talk me into that! After dinner, we headed back down to Skyline, rigged the downrigger rods for cut plugs and bunked down for the night.

It’s never fun to rise to a 0355 alarm but watching July’s first sunrise over Mount Baker was well worth it. 

Matt was still sleeping as I followed Jay Fields boat “Dash One” out to his favorite ebb tide spot. I saw how Jay was setting up and as I had not fished this spot before, I was not about to get in my host’s way! It only took a glance at the Humminbird to tell me that we were in for one heck of a morning. Tightly packed balls of bait –the “fright formation”- indicating they were getting chewed upon, as well as large chinook arches filled the screen.

  No sooner did I get both Cannons deployed and took a sip of coffee….BOOM!!!

The starboard ‘rigger was alive and released as soon as I grabbed the rod!
“Wake up Matt! Fish on!!!”
“I’m comin’ Dad!”
I can’t count the number of times my father woke me up to play a big king and it’s more than wonderful for me to be able to return the favor to my son.

This king was a hot one and Matt does a great job on him in the early morning light. 

Matt is all smiles (and still barely awake) as he hoists his first chinook of the San Juan opener! 

After a quick photo shoot, we got the gear back down and… you guessed it… Fish on again!!! The second king hit the rigger so hard I thought I had hit bottom! Again we were in to a hot fish and I had to twist the boat a couple times as he staged his fight under the bow!

Number two in the boat and a limit of 19 and 22lbs by 0557hrs!

After rinsing the net, Matthew looked at his watch:
“Dad, it’s not even six o’clock and we’re done already!”

Jay Field cruises by in the "Dash One" to jab me with the “Beginner’s luck” call!

Jay would whack a 20 soon after I snapped the above picture and filled out his limit with a 25 pounder. He was back at the dock before 9am!

The 2009 San Juan salmon season is underway and ON FIRE!
Both of our fish were of hatchery origin and you cannot help but be optimistic about the remainder of the Area 7 season as well as our “inside” fisheries.
For me the key to San Juan success was easy:
Follow Jay Field to the fish!