The Outdoor Line Forum

Went out Saturday to Eastern Bank...started the day off dropping the shrimp pot to let it soak...headed to the NW corner of the bank to start my troll. The woofers were too much on the cut-plug herring so we switched up to all hardware. I could not believe how much bait was out there, all over the water columns. We worked the bottom, worked the top, worked deep, worked shallow, worked the edges, and just about tried some left over fireworks...it was a tough go of it to trigger a bite. Finally around noon we got into a nice bite. We went 1 for 3 in about 20 minutes...but the bite was short lived. My cousin Vern was the lucky hand, he landed his first nookie on a cut-plug herring, with no hardware. ( Awesome!!!) We quit around 1pm and headed to pull the shrimp pot. After a 6hr soak we had 125! Zipped over to the entrance to Deception Pass, dropped our crab pots while we cleaned our shrimp and salmon, and got 6 keepers in 30 minutes. We headed back to camp where our families awaited a nice seafood dinner. We cooked everything over an open camp fire, and the bacon wrapped shrimp was incredible!!! (sorry not the best photo)

That's a great trip and what a feed!\
To your question, yes.
I believe that your gear can easily become lost in a vast cloud of shrimp, candlefish or herring.
It's good to hear that there's bait out there! It should hold a few chinook in the neighborhood!

I just have to comment that Eastern Bank North is closed (A7 South) to all Salmon fishing, and Eastern Bank South is closed to retention of chinook
From the Rule book - (CHINOOK Release Area) East of a true north/south line through the #2 Buoy immediately east of Ediz Hook starting July 1st.
Southern Rosario Strait/Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca Closure: Waters of Area 7 from Rosario Strait South including the eastern portion of the Strait of Juan de Fuca July 1-Sept. 30: CLOSED to fishing for SALMON.

The northern part of Eastern Bank is located in Area 7, and not located in the closure zone. If you get out your GPS or chart, and plot the line on the map, you will see the small area that is actually open. If I am wrong, then there was about 75 other fisherman wrong as well, including some well known local guides. I called WDFW prior to fishing as well because I had questions on dropping a shrimp pot in A6 and harvesting salmon in A7 in this specific area. WDFW said I was fine as long as my catch card was completed correctly. If you ever have questions on interpretation to the boundary lines you can call WDFW at 360.902.2700 they are always there to help and answer questions.
Here is the link to their site http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/contact/