Commercial Trolling - Day 3

The best parts of fishing, and many other endeavors, are the unexpected moments: the rainbow off in the distance, the occasional humpback whale cruising by, the calming of the ocean after a crappy bouncy day.

King salmon are voracious eaters.  This photo shows a herring that I took out of a salmon stomach.  Next to it is a "hoochie," which salmon like to bite on.  The hook is just visible to the bottom left of the hoochie.  I'm not sure how much correlation there is to a herring and a hoochie, but the hoochies work!  By the way, forget this photo or I'll have to come after you.  Fishermen don't like to give information away like gear that works or locations that have fish!  Then you'll catch more than us!

Herring and needlefish are two of a king or coho salmon's favorite foods.  In this posed picture, the herring is on top and the needlefish are below.

Out of the 5 different types of salmon, kings and cohos eat other fish and will bite a hook.  Humpies, or pink salmon, will also - but they're not worth much at the fish dock so trollers "shake: them - which means unhook them back to the ocean.  Chum, or dog salmon - along with sockeye, rarely bite on hooks because their main food is zooplankton.  That's why they are targeted using nets.