Sideoff,

I have never really looked at creel counts as an effective means of telling if fish are in the area or not. Couple reason for this... Just because 100 anglers caught 44 fish doesn't mean the fish are in. Could have been coincidence. On the contrary, 600 anglers with 18 fish doesn't mean fish aren't there either. They might be in the vicinity and just not triggered to hit or they came in and moved on... (One of the reason why the mouth of the PEW is closed until August.) This is why PD is so hit and miss. With the majority of returning being "westsiders," they could have easliy cut the corner at Dalco and headed east or they may still be in that area. Heck of one the better spots to fish for returning Kings is Gig Harbor or QM Harbor. So they are there.. just gotta find them. I think folks are just too pent up fishing PD- it's the lore! Yes, too many boats put returning fish down and off. But that's not to say a great bite could happen at anytime either... It is a double edge sword.

I forgot to mention some additional information in my previous post about why I fish deep (on the bottom) for Kings. With all the current hype about catching these monster hogs, folks are forgetting that blackmouth are still available. There are plenty of nice 3 year fish to be caught in the 7-10# range. So, with that, might as well target two types of fish (resident and returners) in the same stroke. Who knows, might nail that 40#'r !