Took 2 buddies out in the Lowe today. I met them both in college back in the fall of 1986. Been life-long friends ever since...thru good times and bad.
I'm the jerk that got them both into fly fishing and bird hunting.
We did tons of days and trips together back in the 80s & 90s, but then kids happened.
We would still do 2 or 3 trips per year together, but the last couple years have been tough. The dude taking the selfie (or is it an usie?) had a heart attack in Sept of 2024 and then a brain infection August of 2025. Yeah, that damn near got him.
We launched from Manchester. Upon arrival I gazed out at all the crab pots and remembered the whole weird Sunday & Monday crabbing thing. Ugh....great. Tons of pots where I wanted to fish, but we found some nice open water.
We started slow, but then had a decent couple of hours where we all landed a few cutts. Nothing huge. I think this handsome guy of 14" was our biggest of the day.
Then the wind died and it got slow. Good time for a nice boat lunch & beers. It was good to catch up.
We caught a couple more dinks and the guy in back briefly hooked a salmon. I saw his rod on the take and the 10 second fight, but we never saw the fish. Definitely a salmon. Or a MA10 record cutt.
Just as we started to head back to the takeout, I heard what I thought was a boat slapping a wave, but my buddy pointed out and said "Orca!!" I had heard the big male Jack (T137A) take a big breath. He was riding shotgun with Flapjack (T36) her whole family. They got everyone's attention...both in the boats and on land. Pretty cool with the city in the background. Just summer in Seattle.
By then, it was time to head back. We got the last open spot at the dock, I grabbed the truck and got out of there surprisingly quick which was good since selfie guy had a plane to catch.
I dropped off one guy in Tacoma and the other at Sea-Tac, all with the Lowe in tow. He got to his terminal 5 minutes before they started boarding.
Some days it works out.
It was my 3rd consecutive day fishing. It was a good day.
