I got one more before the tide turned back out and the fish traffic dropped considerably. A quick trip "before work" and a full tray of fillets for the smoker + enough eggs to cure up for king/coho fishing. I still haven't mastered smoking pinks but these two performed admirably in a lemony salmon dip and the smoked meat survives much better in the deep freeze.
September 13th, 2021: I only managed to stay away for three days but this time I knew I didn't need to wake up quite so early. As you can see, the tide was way out and the fish were packed in tight. I pulled one pink out from an area just to my compatriot's right after just a couple casts. Then things were pretty slow but the gentleman across the water on the left reeled in four consecutive fish so I slid onto the other side of the snag.
Got two more in quick succession but I was distracted by a very conspicuous, straight line of bubbles coming up along the bank. This being a heavily industrialized area, it was easy to imagine what kind of glowing heavy metals were also leaching out into the river. Luckily the salmon were just arriving within the last 24 hours and hadn't developed any neon tinting. Brined up and dried for an attempt at salmon candy, they were looking very good before I put them in the smoker and made a pretty tasty product that unfortunately looked a little too much like Oak's jerky treats...
September 23rd, 2021: The final Duwamish/pink outing for the season had to take place after some meetings on what was a sunny, beautiful day... sensing that these were not ideal fishing conditions I made it a scouting day. Over the last two years I had gone to the same spot for at least 6 visits so it was time to move upstream and see what else the river had in store.
The nice thing about the Duwamish is there is a lot of access on both banks and its easy to spot the fisherman trails that clue you in to where the bank isn't too steep, too high, or boxed in by trees. I saw a lot of people fishing but no evidence of success for the first two river miles. Then at 2.5 miles I caught up with the fish and they were jumping everywhere, both pinks and coho. One guy was walking out with a stringer of four fish but he appeared to be the only one who figured out what looked appetizing. 
While I joined everyone else in failing to convince a single salmon out of hundreds to bite a lure it was a very pleasant setting for getting skunked. It was in a city park and far enough upriver from the tidal zone that the neighbors were business parks instead of leaky industrial sites plus there were riffles and other fishy looking features. The best part was nobody had waded through and picked over the snags lately and I was able to collect at least $30 in gear (as well as clear out some junk).
