Fishing Along Orca Whales on Puget Sound

A crisp air nips on the tips of my ears as my boat creeps slowly through Puget Sound.  It is still dark.  I can only just make out the bluffs on Whidbey Island, and the Olympic Mountains beyond, purple in the morning glow. I look up from the wheel.  Ten feet in front of the bow two porpoises spring from the flat pink sea, then do it again, and one final time.  Suddenly my fishing buddy hollers out “FISH ON!” I realize the porpoises are salmon fishing too, and are telling us, “this is the spot.”

         I step back from the wheel to my buddy’s calls, and watch as he fights a respectable coho salmon, maybe eight or ten pounds, finally bringing him into the boat.  My rod pops off the downrigger, and brings in a pinky (another species of salmon, there are five total), and just like that, we are in the fish.  I say a quiet “thank you” to the dolphins breaching at sun break, and drop my line again.

         Seeing Seattle from the Sound is an entirely different thing, somehow it takes you back to a much older Pacific Northwest.  The skyscrapers and Space Needle are mere dots on the horizon, dwarfed by Mount Rainier and the Olympic Mountains. There are no I-5 traffic jams out here on the water.  Go any way your heart chooses.  It’s easy to see why sailors say the ocean is the last free place on earth.

         The next fish we hook is a wild Chinook salmon.  These fish are untouchable, protected due to their low numbers.  We see the small fin on its back near the tail—if it were a hatchery fish this would be clipped off.  We set him free without bringing him into the boat.

         King salmon, also know as chinook, are the largest and most sought after salmon species. They grow up to 100 lbs in some places.  Coho, or silvers, are another respected salmon, and are the fastest salmon around.  There is also sockeye, which are crimson red when spawning, and dog salmon, which have frightful teeth. Pink salmon are the final species. Every two years they spawn by the millions, flooding Seattleite’s freezers with smoked fish.  

         We fish until noon and already have our limit, both coho for the grill, and pinkies for the smoker.  But we aren’t headed back to Shilshole Marina yet.  I see on Orca Network’s Facebook page that orcas have been spotted near Bremerton, half an hour south from here.  We turn our hats around and head into the wind, in search of killer whales.  

          In front of a massive battleship in the Bremerton Naval Yard, a seven-foot tall black fin cuts through the water.  We followed our source. Now here we are, the only boat around watching a free Shamu show.  The male is with two females. They surface every thirty seconds for a loud breath, and dive again.  These are transient killer whales from California, traveling up the coast.  Different ‘cultures’ of orca eat different things, and these are the mammal eaters.  They dine only on red meat, mostly from seals and sea lions. 

         

         We hang out with these giants for 30 minutes or so, watching as they patrol up and down the shipyard.  Sea lions hauled out on buoys watch anxiously as they pass.  The orcas surface again, and then sound a final time. We grin and chuckle at our luck, and start heading home.

         Do you want to go fishing on Puget Sound? Try out these great charters!  
http://www.allstarfishing.com/
http://www.possessionpointfishing.com/
http://www.salmonguide.com/
http://www.seattlesalmoncharters.com/

Additional Washington Fishing Links
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/
http://www.wafish.com/