THE ART OF controlled depth fishing with a downrigger is both simple and complicated.
Link together the downrigger cable with a cannonball, add your flasher or dodger, rig the rod, attach the line to the downrigger clip, reel in the slack on your line until a bow is evident and troll to your heart’s content.
Last week I took a day off to go king fishing in Marine Area 7 (San Juan Islands) with Port Townsend resident Max Raymond and Chad Paul of Anacortes.
Paul works as a fish counter and test angler for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Some days he spends long days interviewing anglers as they come off the water at Anacortes’ Washington Park for some of the numbers included in the department’s Puget Sound creel reports.
Other days he rides aboard commercial seiners, supervising the crew’s fishing practices.
The best days come when he gets to indulge his passion and fish.
Paul has the boat, a 20-foot 2003 Thunder Jet, and he readied it at the Washington Park launch while Raymond and I hit up a bakery for donuts.
We were on the water by sunrise, and headed for Eagle Point on the southern edge of San Juan Island soon after.
Paul, privy to ample amounts of fishing gossip, had heard this spot had been productive.
The gossip proved true. We passed some tribal boats setting their nets further offshore and came upon 20 or 30 recreational boats already on the troll.
Paul got us ready to go while Raymond and I tried to entice some pinks while casting with pink buzz bombs.
With the downriggers set, Raymond noticed the first upward twitch on the rod and was soon reeling in a 15-pound chinook caught using a green squid lure.
I was next to see the rod tip bending, and brought aboard what at first glance looked like a large pink.
It turned out it was a legal 24-inch chinook, and we were two-thirds of the way to our king limit in less than an hour of fishing.
And there we would stay.
The rod lines tangled together soon after, which took a chunk of time to fix.
Then an overly excited angler failed to keep his thumb on the rod’s spool of line as the downrigger was reeled to a new depth, unwittingly creating a mess of a tangled line and putting the boat off the bite.
Yes, I made a mistake at an inopportune moment; the fish finder was full of blips amidst an armada of other trolling boats.
Paul made me feel better about my blunder, telling me his dad and some friends had made the exact same mistake on their first trips on the boat.
Now I know to keep my thumb on the spool to slow its speed as the line is reeled in by the downrigger.
Using the downrigger provides ample time for conversation, and one topic was whether fishing this method is sporting.
Some traditionalists feel this way takes the fun out of it, but I’d argue that anything that helps put fish in the boat legally is worthwhile.
I couldn’t imagine having to cast and reel all day down to the depths for a halibut, let alone trying to bring it back up without the help of the winch.
Downriggers also help with setting and retrieving crab and prawn pots, saving the strain for countless harvesters.
Our day wrapped with a stop in the channel between Decatur Island and James Island State Park.
The water was flat and a gorgeous emerald color and the fish finder was full of blips, but all we managed to bring up was eel grass.
Groundfish talk
Makah tribal groundfish biologist Joe Peterson is the guest speaker for today’s meeting of the North Olympic Peninsula Chapter of the Puget Sound Anglers.
The event will be held at 6:30 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave., in Sequim.
Peterson’s role involves harvest management, stock assessments and helping to set groundfish policy through the Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the International Halibut Commission.
The council has advocated for recreational fishermen to use rockfish descending devices when fishing for deep-water species such as halibut.
This is a good start to reducing rockfish mortality, but doesn’t address bycatch.
Peterson has been researching ways to limit unintended hookups with rockfish while still providing opportunities to catch more prized bottomfish species such as halibut or ling cod.
He will discuss the ongoing research concerning the use of the Cibud traditional hook, a hook based on historical Makah fishing practices that was designed specifically to catch halibut.
A raffle, refreshments, fishing reports and a $50 membership drawing (must be present to win) also are planned.
For more information, visit www.psanopc.org or www.facebook.com/psanopc.
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Outdoors columnist Michael Carman appears here Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5152 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
