Two Midchannel Mornings: Kicking off the Puget Sound Selective Season! 3

Was I was fired up about the Puget Sound chinook season? Let’s just say that I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep the night before…
 The 2009 opener was the third edition of our Marine Area 9 & 10 selective chinook opportunity and the first two openers featured epic chinook action! Flush with radioactive-hot reports from Sekiu and Port Angeles, expectations were high and we were not disappointed.

  Three years is not a lot of time to establish a tradition, but my old University of Washington roomie and former NFL All Pro Smartass Kevin Gogan and I have fished each of these openers together.

There was no keeping him out of the Stabi-Craft for the 2009 edition.

“Gog’s” can be a bit of a handful (and earful) in the boat but with my other friends Walt Hylback and Phil Michelsen we were hopeful we could keep him in check… “We” were wrong.

  More correctly, I was wrong as my friends quickly jumped aboard Gogan’s “Rip Nelly” bandwagon. Seriously, I was having flashbacks to his Sports Illustrated cover shot with some poor dude’s leg in Kevin’s mouth…  Once we arrived at Midchannel I was genuinely hoping that the chinook would shut these guys up! It took a bit of grinding to hook up with the first king of the 09 opener but once we got on them, the action was solid!

Kevin Gogan plays the first fish of the day in the early morning mist as Phil Michelsen looks on in jealousy!

First king of the Area 9 2009 selective chinook opener is a dandy 22 pounder and the pause in the “Skipper abuse” was music to my scorched ears… 

“Big Phil” didn’t have long to wait as chinook number two came quickly upon the heels of the first one!

Phil’s fish was just under 19lbs and everyone is all smiles as the fog has lifted and the bite is ON!!!  

Walt was the last guy on board to hook up but his fish more than made up for tardiness by sheer fight. You can’t help but smile when line is melting from your spool!

Another chunky chinook hits the deck with my new candidate for “Spoon of the Year” in his grill!

Gogan saves the best for last with this 25 pounder that rounded out our morning.

Back at the Bayside Marine cleaning dock, the crew is all smiles with another successful opener in the books!  

Day two got off to a bit of a faster start for us as this king inhaled a Gold Star Coho Killer behind a Jims Breakaway Flasher. Note the flasher with the pin “pulled” at the top of this photo allowing the flasher to slide to the rod tip!  

Back at the 10th Street ramp in Everett, both of our day two fish are checked and scale-sampled as Gogan mulls barbecued salmon recipes.  

Cleaning these chinook on "Big Red's" rigging table unveiled a feast of candlefish in their stomachs. These guys were absolutely stuffed with salmon candy and actively feeding chinook are top-notch on the dinner table as well!  

It’s no wonder that the Coho Killer is such an effective spoon when you compare it to candlefish found in our chinooks stomachs! 

Standing in “Big Red”, Kevin and I show off our day two results. 

The 2009 Puget Sound selective chinook season is off and running. First day counts from the WDFW Fish Checkers at the Everett ramp tallied 61 chinook for 150 boats which is more fish than they saw the entire first week of the 2008 season.

My advice: don’t wait! Get out there now and get in on the most productive chinook season we have! If you’re heading out on Saturday mornings don’t forget to tune us in on 710 ESPN Seattle. We are here to keep you pointed in the right direction! Good Luck!