Some Research and Development Today

I was successful on the Duwamish River today. The salmon we're really biting. I landed a 12 lb. Chinook! Normally I would release a Chinook but this one was hooked badly and was part of an incredible story.

I was drifting a corky and yarn as bait. A corky is a small plastic ball that looks like a salmon egg. These are attached to the line near the hook, and a short piece of yarn is added to attract the fish. A weight is added to the setup so that it bounces down the bottom of the river as it "drifts". My drift set up snagged an existing piece of fishing line that was lost in the river by a previous fisherman. Well, as I retrieved this snag, somehow, either this fish was on the line before, or hit the setup on the snagged line. Ironically it had the same pink corky and yarn as well. You can see the out of focus photo below of the snag on my swivel.

I carefully played the fish into the shore and with some assistance from neighboring fisherman, I got it to the net. It was a hatchery Chinook around 13 or so lbs. and was 32" long.

Unfortunately a little later I snagged a lure on a log in the river, and while trying to free it, an extremely inconsiderate boater came flying through the river driving way too fast and snagged my line on his boat and snapped off the top of my favorite pole! The guy never even looked up at our yells of warning. The bank of fishermen stood and looked in disbelief!

I managed to catch a 3 lb. pink salmon on my second setup. I released 3 other pinks that were foul hooked (not in the mouth). Despite having my rod broken, it was quite an eventful day on the river. More adventures to come I hope!