As we talked about last week, the day started really early, getting up before dawn, warming up with your first coffee, getting in the water and launching the boat.
The crisp fall air in their faces with big smiles of anticipation of landing the royals of the fish family, the King Salmon. This last weekend marked the end of the “bubble” fishery season, anglers last opportunity to land an ocean caught King.
33 inch 18 pound beauty at about 9:30AM.
By the looks of the boat launch and the trailers in the parking lot, large numbers of anglers did not miss this opportunity. The boats again began their migration back to the marina like clockwork just before noon. Boat after boat loading up and pulling out with one last stop…the cleaning station.
You practically needed to ‘take a number’ to get a space at the cleaning table by noon. Ice chests lined up, and when anglers open the lids, many had multiple Kings, large Kings.
They were catching Kings early in the day, some mid-morning and others just before the wind pushed the anglers back to the marina. Although most refuse to reveal exactly where their ‘spot’ was, it was clear that it didn’t really matter from the mouth of the Winchuck to the Chetco estuary anglers were landing Kings.
Again, the boats clustered and bobbed on the surface just off the mouth of the Chetco, slowly moving from place to place dragging their rigs waiting for the feast to invite themselves to dinner.
These giant fish rewarded anglers all day long, and few came back without smiles on their faces. The pictures don’t lie.
From here on out begins the parade of boats in the estuary, all with the same hopes. Good Luck, and Fish On.
