Pink Year

Don’t Be Grumpy, Catch a Humpy

In a crowd quite loud, by the beach I stand,
Fishing for pinks, rod in my hand.
Amidst the chaos, I cast with delight,
We jostle, and tussle, and some start to fight.

I cast again and again, then I hear a scream,
Someone's hooked a kid, or so it would seem.
Wafts of vape mix with cheap cologne smells
As I patiently hunt for pinks in the swells.

Finally a strike, the line comes tight!
I strip set and hook, the person on my right.
Hand over hand, I strip ‘em in fast,
Oh what a day, I’m having a blast!

A male, I think, from his nose and his hunch,
Already pink though it’s barely past lunch.
As I ready my net he gives a big shake,
Ditches my fly, and leaves in a wake.

I’m not dismayed, for right down the beach,
Is a rather large hen, well within reach.
I cast to her quickly, and dance the fly in,
But it’s met with refusal, she’s keyed in on gin.

The crowd starts to thin, hookups become fewer,
Soon I’m alone on what looks like a sewer.
Wrappers and cans, and bottles that clink,
Are all that remain, from that swarm of pink.

I go six for seven, what a great day!
I’m grateful to @Stonedfish for showing the way.
Four bucks, two hens, but all were unclipped,
So I’ll go home with nothing but smiles from this trip.

MVP. MVP. MVP!!
 
Wanting something to do other than deal with the struggling Chinook lockjaw so far on the Columbia, for me anyhow I had a change of pace yesterday and went up and fished Puget Sound for pink salmon .When I 1st left the house it was full intentions to go fish the Puyallup but once I got there every place I looked had a Flosser's Fiesta 💩 show going on. 1 guy on a trail down said to me they were just getting there so that told me there had to be good fishing still in the Sound. I kept the 1st male so I had at least 1 fish to bring home then I released the next 4 males, and lost a few. Then I got a hen so my wife had eggs. ( yep she's from Ukraine and eats them 🤮) It was a blast. Its been at least 30 years since I've fished for humpies.
Everyone was twitching jigs, Buzz Bombs. or fly fishing . Jigs out-fished the Buzz Bombs by a long shot. The beach I fished I could see probably had 35 or so people with plenty of elbow room. Don't know if the other fly fishers were targeting the pinks or SRC's. They were kinda grouped together a bit further down the beach from me and didn't seam to be catching anything. My thoughts were they were targeting the SRC's that were rolling all over the place the whole time. Going to go up for another shot maybe Friday or Saturday. The highlight of the day was 1 of the fish I lost was a big ole' Chinook that took my Poltergeist pattern and had the 11 1/2 ft. 7wt. 2 hander bent to the handle for about 20 mins. before it broke me off. Had to sit down for a cup of coffee after that one LOL
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Looked all over for coho but pinks bite anything and any depth. Gave in kept 4. Pilot whales and a hump back close to the boat was a site. Got a filet mat cabelas $20. That is slick, holds fish like a magnet
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The Nets were going in, in everett last night. Went over schools coming in. Crazy site seeing tails sticking out.
 
Every year

I wouldn’t say it was impossible to see a pilot whale in Puget Sound, but it’s extremely unlikely that it’s actually what you saw. There were tons of harbor porpoise around where I was on Sunday, but they don’t look much like pilot whales.
 
This rain will suck some pinks and humpies upstream, which should provide some excellent river angling opportunities.
SF
 
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