2018 Salmon for Soldiers fishing event

The Salmon for Soldiers fishing event is a can’t miss event on the fishing calendar for me. As boat owners we are so blessed, why not take this opportunity to give back to the service men and women who have put it all on the line?

As they say at SFS: Thank you for your service and welcome home!

My fishing buddy Ash (who himself retired from a long career in the Army) and I decided to pre-fish the Salmon for Soldiers event to get a few kinks worked out of our coho program. We had spent most of our time on the water chasing Chinook, so we wanted to make sure we could put our best foot forward and get the veterans who would be fishing with us the day of the event into fish.

I first heard about the SFS event and organization on The Outdoor Line on 710 ESPN and signed up as a volunteer boat soon after. The way the event is structured is that boat owners can sign up to be a volunteer boat and get matched to veterans who signed up to go out fishing.

I listed my boat as being able to take 2 veterans, as more than 4 adults on my boat can feel a little crowded.

Our pre-fish efforts did not go as we hoped, we ended the day with only one undersized blackmouth and zero coho, leaving us a bit anxious for getting our vets into fish the day of the fishing event.

We heard about fish being caught though and we had a bit of optimism about our chances and making a few tweaks. The brief class taught by Nick Kester the night before the event didn’t hurt either!

One of the awesome things about the SFS event is how everyone is there with one singular purpose and that is to honor our veterans by providing them an unforgettable experience on the water. And one of the ways that manifests is through the use of marine radios. Fellow SFS boaters calling out their catches and depth was definitely helpful in keeping us on the fish.

We met up with our vets at the meeting area and discovered that they knew each other and were hoping to be taken out on a smaller boat.

The boats at the SFS event ranged in size from my little 20 ft jet boat to live aboard yachts taking out 10+ people.

Our group of four hit it off immediately, one was active duty, living on base on Fort Lewis and the other was retired from the military. It was such a joy to get to know them a little bit and “give back” as one fishing trip in no way settles the score.

The beginning of the event was something you almost have to experience to really appreciate. The procession of boats all lit up, proceeding through the no wake zone under cover of darkness, and all flying the American flag was an awesome sight to take in.

As we made our way through the port of Everett, falling into loose formation with the rest of the fleet, we were filled with excitement and anticipation for the day, being part of a worthy cause and also just getting to go spend a day on the water fishing.

Fishing is one of my favorite passions. It started for me long ago as a kid chasing the trout and bass of our many freshwater lakes. As I’ve grown older and my means have increased, my love affair with fishing has only increased, but also so has the awareness that “fishing within a context” is the absolute best form of enjoyment.

What do I mean by “fishing within a context”? I love bringing home fish for my wife to prepare in a myriad of tasty forms for our family, or maintaining lifelong best friendships through extended fishing adventures.

Spending time with my teenage son or my daughter while fishing together is great not just because of the time spent fishing, but because of the time spent together and the relationship I’m striving to build with them.

I feel deeply sorry for anyone who has put fishing over that context of the most important relationships in their life, because it’s that context that makes fishing that much better. I promise to provide future posts on the topic of “How to take your kids fishing in a way they won’t hate it” 🙂

And what could be a better context than fishing to give back to the men and women who are serving or have served in our armed forces?

As we exited the no wake zone, it started to get real interesting for my shallow vee jet boat as 100+ boats opened up their throttles and turned the water at the entrance to the port of Everett into a washing machine style of turbulence.

I tried to stay right behind one of the larger boats as we made our way west towards the fishing grounds, still completely dark out and dependent on the collective lights of the proverbial fleet to illuminate my course.

As we approached the Mukilteo ferry docks, the first light began, signaling the impending dawn of the new day. The light also broke through our collective fog of appreciation for just being on the water and apart of such a great event. Time to get some lines in the water!

Our strategy for teaching two people who had never operated downriggers before, and to man them effectively enough to hook some salmon, was for Ash to focus on the teaching, while he operated the starboard downrigger.

And for me to operate the port side downrigger next to the kicker motor and for one of our guests to operate the diver / 8″ flasher / Ace high fly jr combo out the back.

I remarked to Ash the night before that I would put money that the back rod would be the first to hook a fish. I have so much confidence in that diver or banana weight back rod with a pink ace high fly jr in certain conditions!

Just as we settled into our troll, the back rod began to buck and one of our guests picked up the rod and proceeded to fight the chrome bright coho salmon to the boat. Shortly thereafter we had our first fish in the net. Ash and I exchanged a look towards one another with equal parts relief and excitement as we were happy to have our first nice fish on the boat with less than 10 minutes into the fishing.

What happened next over the following several hours can only be referred to as joyous chaos as we hooked fish after fish doing zig zags and doughnuts south of the ferry docks.

Each fish was fought via taking turns by the vets who joined our company to get out on the water, but later referred to our trip as the best fishing experience of their lives.

While I’ve been on many epic fishing trips, it was tough to argue with that label. By the time we headed back in, we had gone 5 for 8 on a mix of hatchery and wild coho. In comparing notes with other captains we discovered that we faired pretty well comparatively.

A boat with many more lines in the water had come back with 6, but I’m not sure if any other boat did better than 2.5 fish / vet. So how did we do it? (Outside of divine luck of course!). You can also refer to my guide on Puget Sound Salmon Fishing for more insights, tips and techniques for Coho

Fish where the fish were – After we hooked our first fish near the ferry docks, we started trolling our way south to the shipwreck as that was the hot location the day prior and it’s also where most of the fleet had headed to.

But as we were making our way south, we kept hearing our SFS fellow fleet members calling out fish caught near the ferry docks over the marine radio. Thank you to all who called out your fish and helped us and others stay on the school of coho that was clearly congregating in that ferry docks area.

We promptly turned around and headed beck to the docks and proceeded to hook 7 of the 8 fish we had on over the next few hours. Speaking with others who didn’t do so well I learned their troubles may have largely been a factor of focusing on areas where the boats were, but not necessarily where the fish were.

Trolling technique – I must confess, I’m a point A to B troller. I pride myself in keeping the boat straight and heading in a straight line to my objective, the end of my troll.

Except the objective is not to get to point B, it’s to hook fish! Think about it this way: What part of your flasher provides more fish attraction? The big 11 inch side or the thin front?

If your preferred A to B troll is such an awesome troll, then why not present the “flashy side” of your flasher to the fish you expected to encounter while traveling from point A to B?

This can only be accomplished by a zig zag path through your troll. Thanks again to Nick Kester for pointing this out during the evening class before the SFS event. We applied it and got most of our bites zig zagging around the fishing grounds.

Good offerings in the water constantly – Most of our fish were hooked on a typical 11″ flasher setup with an offering (hoochie or spoon) behind that.

The leader length of the spoon was about 42″ and the hoochie about 30″.

It’s important for the hoochie leader to be short enough such that the rotating of the flasher imparts enough action to the hoochie.

The spoon doesn’t need action from the flasher as it has it’s own wobble and wiggle as it’s trolled through the water. We were using a Silver horde Kingfisher Cookies n’ cream 3.0 as our primary spoon and a purple haze hoochie to hook most of our fish.

In summary, I’m grateful we got into so many fish and were able to provide such a cool experience.

I’m grateful for the service of my good friend Ash, the vets who shared our company for a few hours and all those serving or have served in our armed forces.

You can bet that the next Salmon for Soldiers fishing event date is already marked on my calendar for 2019.