Bayside Marine Salmon Derby 2011: Blackmouth On The Bite! 1

For the second year in a row, I've had the opportunity to fish the Marine Area 8 & 9 opener to "scout" or pre-fish the opening event of the Northwest Salmon Derby Series, the Bayside Marine Derby.

Usually,  there are a few "easy" fish available on opening day and you get a good read on the location and feeding habits of our local feeder chinook. No such luck this year!

Long-time Everett Herald Outdoor Writer Wayne Kruse manages a smile as Jay Field releases yet another undersize or "shaker" chinook and we did not find a keeper on the opener.

After spending his last ten-plus summers in southeast Alaska chartering for big, bruising chinook, it's hard to get Robbo Endsley fired up about blackmouth fishing but since we did the radio show live from Bayside Marine, he decided to stay and fish day one of this event.

Photographic evidence that Robbo actually caught a blackmouth in Area 9. Flat calm water greeted us as we experienced a pretty good afternoon bite on Possession Bar!

Our day one catch totales 28.3 pounds but none of our fish would qualify for the top ten largest fish in this event. We were in the running for team total so going in to day two, that was our focus.

The two "Daves" left to right Buckley and Pitcher with their 12 and 13 pound jumbos entered in day one was a very strong showing and when they added another keeper Sunday was good enough to win the $1100 Team event!

Gunning for the win, Jay Field hooked up on a dandy fish on Sunday morning. We had our fingers and toes crossed as Jay expertly played the fish while the NMTA's Tony Floor mans the net.

With the fish in the net, we saw what we dreaded… an adipose fin! it was a wild chinook we estimated to be 17 or 18 pounds. We let it go and it would be the last fish we would land in the derby.

After the scale closed at noon on Sunday, the crowd gathers for the annual feed and Jeff Lalone of Bayside Marine addresses the faithful prior to awarding the prizes.

Derby winner Glen Helton is all smiles as he accepts the $2000 cash grand prize! Bayside Marine owners Jeff Lalone and Dan Hatch hand over the "big fake check"!

Team Overkill takes the $1100 team pot with a total catch of 31.1 pounds over the two day event. Bayside's Jeff and Dan dole out the dough to Dave Buckley and Dave Pitcher.

Here's the final leaderboard down to the top 20 fish entered. For complete results, click on to Bayside Marine's website 

Winter chinook season is just getting cranked up! Don't forget your warm clothes, crab geat and watch the weather.

When the holiday hams and turkeys have got you stuffed… you can always mix in a little seafood!  

Tom Nelson
The Outdoor Line
710 ESPN Seattle
www.theoutdoorline.com