August 15, 2023: The return of the pink salmon always seems to sneak up on me and I was a little late to the party again... As you can see, the beach below the Coleman Pool at Lincoln Park was packed for 10 am on a Tuesday. But this time I brought a good luck charm to help my humble buzz bomb look more appealing than the other 50 jigging through the water.
In fact, the kid was such good luck that we only fished for an hour before I had my two pink salmon. Now it was my turn to watch as he continued to work on his seawall. Once he felt the wall was sufficient to protect a fisherman from the incoming tide, we headed home to process the fish.
The smaller male went onto the grill whole (decent but still a smidge less awesome than the more popular salmonoids). The big one was sliced up for my first attempt at salmon jerky on the dehydrator. My kids were not impressed but I tested it out on less finicky kiddos and it received strong reviews.
August 23rd, 2023: Same location but this time I'm coming early with a certainty that the bite will be so good, I'll have another one hour day and book it home in time to be a responsible father. Turns out 5:45 am on a Wednesday was still not early enough to get one of the premium positions and I ended up getting pinned against one of the big concrete pillars.
The subpar location turned into a surprising win as nobody was catching a fish for the first hour but I grabbed 4 lost buzz bombs off my concrete neighbor.
I did eventually catch my two fish but the drama for the day was provided by a younger gentleman who had never caught a salmon before and was so committed that he waded out in chest deep water to fish from on high. To the shock of everyone present, he did hook into a fish and even managed to keep it on the line after he jumped off and sunk to his shoulders.
His second attempt got even more intense as over the next hour the pillars were submerged and the water had risen to his shins. He hooked another fish but this time he couldn't touch bottom and dunked himself. He came up sputtering and with no tension on the line, the fish was gone... Even in August, that water is in the upper 50's and he was shaking so hard that on my way out I had to fill out his catch card for the first fish and tie up his next lure (that is extreme dedication, he still wasn't ready to go home).
August 26th, 2023: The secret to no crowds was 7 pm after everyone else has caught their fish or worn out their arms. The downside was I only saw one fish get caught before darkness. Two other fish flopped off on dry land when folks stop dragging them up the pebbles a little too soon... This was a shockingly common occurrence on all three of my trips and taught me not to stop dragging the fish up until I'm in the parking lot!
September 14th, 2023: Youtube was promising me some very effective jig fishing on the lower Duwamish so I put in just upstream of the South Park Bridge. There were a few pinks jumping but I could see a net just downstream of the bridge and figured why fish above the net that might be catching my six salmon. The flaw in my logic was that the nets continued for 3.5 miles, spaced less than 100 yards apart, all the way to the boundary of the Duwamish fishery at Harbor Island.
Since it is such an industrial area, the nets were often tied off on barges or other vessels, each making an L along the banks. It was interesting to watch how the fish were recovered but also pretty discouraging to try jigging in the fishiest spots and risk snagging on a submerged gill net. I actually didn't hook into a fish until I was just in front of my boat launch, 7 miles later.
Maybe not the best place to go when the nets are in but an awesome paddle if you are into industrial tourism or just enjoy feeling very small. If I get to try again in a couple years, I'll either check the river to confirm its a non-net day or paddle upriver from my launch and just pretend the nets are not downstream. Its surprising given the intense net effort but salmon still find a way through.
