Just back from Ukee.
The fishing was ridiculous. I fished Friday through Monday, then got blown off the grounds by the monsoon rain and storm that hit Tuesday. Every day was on fire. It didn't matter what you tied on. I came loaded for bear with six dozen blue label herring. The herring worked just fine but so did everything else.
I picked up fish 120 feet down, to just under the boat. Prime time was 50 - 60 feet. I had so many doubles I thought I was commercial trolling. I kept wanting to put on handicaps to slow things down--you know, dull my hooks, rub gasoline under my arm pits, tie on pieces of gear that had never ever caught a fish. But nothing seemed to work--they just kept on coming, grabbing anything I tied on. Even my dog started yawning it got so good.
I was hoping for a forty as I waded though the mid 20's. No soap, but I did get a few low to mid thirty's that cleaned my clock. I also ran into a solid jag of coho off Turtle Head that just kept coming, one after another. When it gets that good you just want to stop beating up on them....don't you?
A big thanks to 'Nog for steering me in the right direction. Only a really cool dude would take you into the hallowed grounds of a commie troller's wheelhouse and break out a chart--Matt, I owe you big time!
The one bummer of the trip: I camped on a small island outside of Ukee. Came back to camp one night after a killer day on the water and found that some low-life piece of pond scum swiped my anchor. He got the bouy, the rode, and my stinking Bruce anchor that's kept me alive for 20 years. The peckerhead got me hook, line and sinker!
I went near berserk on that one--that's like putting superglue in the folds of someone's parachute. Or like robbing a lobster pot in Nova Scotia. And it wasn't just some flunky thinking he'd found an abandoned piece of gear. I actually had a note written on the buoy, you know, a short and sweet little note saying who owned it and what boat it belonged to and wont you please lease it alone and unmolested blah blah blah. I should have written keep your goddamned hands off, mofo, or I'll give an ear to ear red canoe.
Anyway, Ukee is close to my heart and always will be, anchor thief notwithstanding. But it seems a bit unpredictable. Last year I got all my fish up on the beach in the kelp. This year, I couldn't buy a fish in the surf; they all seemed to be on the outside. But what a bonus that the weather held and I got to out out there and enjoy all that bounty.
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