2026-09-12 Solo Salmon Fishing

I am so unsuccessful at fishing that I have a hard time asking any of my buddies to spend many hours out there not catching anything, so sometimes I just go out by myself.

Here is a map snippet from my Garmin InReach that shows my track for the day's fishing adventure. There are 3 areas marked (1, 2 & 3) that indicate the 3 areas where I fished.

First I ran all the way out to Camaano Point, marked with a "1." I had high hopes for this area. The weather was calm enough that I could fish on the outside of the point, on the way up Clarence Strait towards Ship Island. There were several other boats already there when I arrived.

I fished here for about 3 hours but all I got were a couple of "ShakerKings," which are King salmon that are far smaller than the 28" they have to be in order to keep them. So we just shake them off.

I had been in contact with one of my fishing buddies by text and by phone call. He is a very experienced fisherman having owned and operated both a commercial fishing boat and a charter fishing boat for many years. He advised that I run over to an area known as South Vallenor, which is marked with a "2" on the map. It is on the outside of Gravina Island and is somewhat exposed to the sea conditions in Clarence Strait.

It took me almost an hour to run over there. But once I got there and set the gear I immediately started getting some fish. Over the course of about 3 hours I got 3 nice Silvers in the boat.

Landing a Silver salmon by yourself is no easy task, but when you are alone that is what must be done. You have to stretch one arm WAY up above your head to get the rod and the gear high enough so that with your other arm you can try to get it into the net.

Despite the difficulty, and also despite that fact that the boat was rolling all over the place and it was hard to even stand up, I managed to get all 3 fish in the boat!

I had gotten some ice for the cooler so I was able to dispatch them and bleed them and get them on ice to keep them in good shape until I got back to the slip.

I stopped at one more place, marked with a "3," for about an hour on the way back before finally heading in to the harbor.

3 fish is not a big haul for most fishermen, but for me it is pretty good.

One of the fish looked like it had had a close call with a sea lion or perhaps a seal. It had scars on the other side as well. The fish that looks a little "mottled" looks that way because it was laying right on the crushed ice in the cooler.

Now I have to decide if it is time to put the salmon trolling gear away for the season, or perhaps make one more trip after Silvers.