I feel for those guys out there. The die hard with the biggest cajones (or the biggest boat)will win it all. At the time of this post, 31 knot peak southerly wind reading taken from the Edmonds-Kingston ferry as it crosses the sound.
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/maciver/Ferry/Ferryjs/mainframe1.htm

Sky-guy -
In a word -UGLY!
Hope everyone uses caution and stays safe.

A quick look at the river gauges show all the north Sound rivers on sharp rises and clearly going out. Going to change the coho picture big time with much earlier than normal river fisheries. Hope for those wanting to fish the "chuck" that there are substantial numbers of Puget Sound coho in the pipeline as most of those in the Sound this past week will be scooting for the rivers with this storm.


Tight lines
S malma

Thanks for the informative link, SG. I was going to throw the boat in today, but I changed my mind after seeing the wind speeds.

No doubt! I was up at 5:00 and ready to head to Edmonds. Talked to my buddy and decided we should take a quick look at the wind/weather report since we were taking several newby people out. Long story short we bagged the trip. Hope those who braved the weather got into them.

Same story here. I had the boat ready last night, derby ticket in hand. Checked the wind at 4AM this morning and decided that I wasn't prepared to spend 5 or 6 hours bouncing around in 25 mph -4 ft chop. I expect anyone that caught something will be in the running for some kind of prize. Looking forward to the results.

When we headed for southwest Whidbey at 6:30, I was surprised that it wasn't that choppy. When we headed back for Edmonds at 8:30 without fish in my 19' open bow (with the canvas left on the front) I thought we might have made a big mistake going out at all. The chop was up to 4' in places and it took over an hour to make it back. When we went out again, it was absolutely beautiful by about 11:15 and we put three fish in the boat. The biggest weighed 13 lbs in the boat and 10 lbs 10 oz cleaned on the scale (photo below) but didn't make the top 10. The winners ranged from 11 lbs to 13 something cleaned and there were a lot of fish caught and brought in. I guess my 14 lber uncleaned from yesterday might have put me in the money. Kudos to the derby folks!

Thx for the report td. Nice slab-o-chrome, too.

I checked the ferry website a couple of times this afternoon and saw that things had calmed down, but was knee deep in home maintenance BS by then.

Maybe man-yan-na, a.

Went out at 6 and the wind was starting to roll. By 6:30 we decied to fish kingston as it awas light enought to head over and I have found some really nice fish there lately.

C&R'd two kings (I haven't hooked a king in almost two weeks)- 10 and 12 lbs. Then hooked up with an awesome silver, tail walk, several 200 ft runs, this thing went bonkers.

While it comes to the boat 3 times. 1 run is probably 200 ft right on top, jumoing tailwalking, etc. 2nd is the same but onlt 50 ft or so. This fish feels like it is starting to give up and he is now swimming to towards the boat. Netter is out, he reaches over as I gently back up. Head of the fish is about 1 foot from net and coming....
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He decides to make one last attempt, netter is out of the way and the fish rolled over and shook....
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Thats where the slow motion starts.
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My pro-troll flasher that the chip fell out of on the first day may not have been worth the money.

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The fish pulls one last time when something gives way, I watch the fish gently swim away with my hooks (both) still in its jaw. When I inspect the flasher and leader to find what went wrong,
I find that the built in SWIVEL HAS EXPLODED. The other side and the barrel are gone.

Now, I know fish stories. And I know fishermen, But I can tell you with all seriousness, this fish went 18 plus. This fish was an absolute hog.


After that heartbreak, I check in the weight station to see the winning fish was 13 and change.


I guess the lession here is that I will be changing out all my flasher swivels before next weekend. I would recommend that all of you do the same. That or don't buy crappy Pro-Troll flashers.

CLASSIC!...........did you get a glimpse of the critical fin?

If I had a nickle for every story about my 18 pounder that got away......

just kidding C&B, that is harsh, sorry to hear that, and especially on Derby day no less!

I only use silver horde Flashers, they have great components, no problems yet.

What was the fish caught on, how deep etc?

I'll be out in the AM, west side of Possession and north of there, 16 foot Arima.

Sol on the Duc,

We don't look for fins on Puget Sound.


C&B,

I know just how you feel. Good story, I could picture it happening in slow motion like you said.

That's fishin.

As you can tell I don't fish local waters much. It's good to hear about, fin, no fin, no matter. I got our new boat out for a couple hours of trolling off Jefferson head this afternoon and my wife corked this beautyful 10 native hooknose. We almost lost it to a seal right beside the boat. Luckily I was fast with the net.



It was no derby winner, but it might get me out locally more often. Next weekend.....Sekiu. I'll post a report.

Anybody know who won first place and the size of the fish?

Here is the info on the winners.

http://psasnoking.com/

Too funny....I caught a 13'er yesterday but had no derby ticket. I figured the money fish would have been in the high teens.

These weights are cleaned weights. The winner was probably really a 16 or 17 pounder. 13#3 oz cleaned was the winner

Sol: There is no such thing as a "critical fin" in areas 9 and 10.

Sky: Big Herring (what else on derby day?) deep.