Marine Area 9: Fishin' Just Fine!

[Nelly]

Well, it wasn't quite the same as last year and faced with a challenging morning flood it was a real "pick the right spot" drill this morning.

Usually the opener is a no-brainer and Port Townsend's Mid-Channel Bank is the go-to...
But with slack water shortly after daylight, we stayed east, fished closer to home and were not disappointed!

Former Seattle Seahawk Robbie Tobeck didn't take long to hook up with our first fish of the 2014 Puget Sound chinook opener!

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I have to confess that Tobeck was on fire and as soon as I turned my back, he hooked one on my rod and I had to suffer the indignity of Robbie handing me the rod...

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Yours Truly, my wife Kathy and the Cantankerous Cougar with our limit of kings (Thanks to Matt Nelson for the photo!)

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Without question, slathering the spoons with Pro-Cure Shrimp & Krill Super Gel made the day!

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The hot spoon of the day? None other than the venerable Yellowtail!

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It's just getting cranked up gang! When these tides straighten out...It could be really good!!!

[Jeff Nance]

Nice work. Sounds like you had a cougar attack on your boat. How many N8's did you release?

[Odie]

We fished Mid-Channel very slow to say the least. Real foggy and more boats than I have ever seen before in that spot. We did manage 4 hookups for about 8 hours of fishing.

[Nelly]

I heard the tough reports from MCB and I really wonder where the bait went in north MA9!
We did release a nice unclipped chinook and another hatchery fish too.
Good luck out there fellas!

[Smalma]

Am hearing that fishing was much slower for the 9/10 opener than what we have come to expect. From various sources I'm hearing that Port Townsend checks were about 1/2 fish/boat, Everett was 0.4/fish/;boat and Shilshoe about 1/4 fish/boat.

Interesting that the reports were below normal amounts of bait at MCB but good abundances of herring in most of the eastern parts of 9 and most of 10. We had little trouble jigging 3 dozen green label size herring in 10.

The silver lining in the slow opener is that we might be able to retention Chinook a little longer into the season (early/mid August??).

Curt

[MisGuided1]

Nice job Nelly! We made the run to MCB and brought home a pair of 12 lb hatcheries. Also released a beautiful 20ish native. Missed 2 other fish but much slower than last year.

[Nelly]

The theme of this year's chinook fishery is: FIND THE BAIT!

It's a far different season than last year and the key for us is finding and staying with schools of bait and matching the hatch.

That gameplan worked today for Jet Chevrolet's Matt Wicks and Jim Johnson who were joined by Bob Klontz

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I absolutely cannot wait for next week's series of morning low tides! I think it could be a real game changer!

[baddawg]

Fished the opener and released on native and also released a HUGE ling cod that hit a coho killer behind a flasher.
Was able get one fish in the box on Thursday, nice fish that hit a flasher and Ace Hi UV.

Nothing on Saturday....

[Nelly]

After being off the water for a couple days, I couldn't wait to get out on a flat, calm Sound this morning. Fortunately, we didn't have long to wait for a bite!

Jerry Wooley and Bruce Larson of Weldcraft Boats with today's catch. Bruce's was the first 20+ pounder we've put in the boat this season in A9

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The tides look absolutely great the rest of this week! Get out there and get it done!

[Odie]

Was that is Southern area 9 or northern area 9?