Fresh Catch

Growing up, my father outfitted his kids - 4 girls and 1 boy - with our own fishing rods and tackle boxes. We would go fishing with him all the time. As a kid on the east coast, we would fish for perch, large mouth bass and get the occasional sunfish.  With a red and white bobber at the end of the line, it was easy to know if you had a fish when the bobber would go under the water! Easy and fun, right?

classic bobber, perfect for fishing with kids!

Deep sea fishing is completely a different ball game - you need a mack daddy rod, with line to hold heavy fish, plus a leader at the end so that the fish doesn't bite the line, and patience. And no, you can't use a bobber.

Here's what I've learned in the last two weeks (my 'in English' description):
To catch salmon, you need a deep sea fishing rod with strong line and a braided/steel leader line (which connects your lure/spoon), with a flasher, a spoon (the spoon has the hook and bait), and a weight (commercial fishermen use 50lb lead ball weights, we used a small 10oz ball (meep-meep!). You can find wild salmon at about 40+ feet below, so you need to either have a weighted line, or get a deep sea diver (a fancy red paper-airplane looking thing that dives down many feet). You have to have patience, which I have none of when checking the line :)  There are two types of salmon - wild and farmed coho. There is a small fin above the tail on one (wild) and not the other as its been cut off (farmed), if you keep the wrong one, you can be fined when in Washington!

To catch a tuna, you need a deep sea fishing rod, with strong line and a braided/steel leader and a hoochie lure or bomber.  Yes, there is a lure called a hoochie and no, it's not someone you may know - lol! Tuna doesn't swim as deep as salmon, so you don't need the weight! You can just send the line out and hope they bite.

Have we caught anything? Not yet. I'm open for pointers, thoughts, etc if you have any ideas.

Neah Bay, the northern most tip of the Olympic Peninsula in WA state, home to the Makah Indian Reservation, was good to us. The local fishermen gave us 2 - 10lb wild king salmon. Aaron and I promptly watched a YouTube video on his iPad on how to filet a salmon and then got busy filleting. Yum!

Sushi!