Fan Mail From Some Flounder?

Here’s a momentary break from the UK travel log. (Don’t worry many more exiting adventures to come.) We’ve primarily done freshwater fishing, but decided to give saltwater fishing a try this weekend. We took the ferry from Seattle to Bremerton on the west side of Puget Sound. It was a pleasant cruise and much more relaxing than driving around the sound.


We went to Illahee State Park. As kids many years ago, we used to go there when visiting Grandma’s house not too far away. There is a fishing pier available, and so it seemed like a good place to try. Annette and I went along with The Princess, her boyfriend, and his dad. We had a very good time and spent nine hours on the pier. Time really flies when you’re having fun.


The main goal was flounders; primarily Rock Sole and Sand Dabs in this area. Other fisherman asked what we we’re using for bait. They looked at us rather funny when we said, “Bacon!” (Hey, what species doesn’t like bacon?!) It worked quite well for us as everyone got their limit of two each, while most of the other fishermen didn’t seem to get much of anything.


We caught many more creatures other than flounders. Crabs like bacon too and so half the time we were pulling up crabs on our lines. (Accompanied, of course, by the usual jokes about who’s got crabs.) Unfortunately, crab season doesn’t start for a few more weeks. As a group, we hooked three dogfish (small sharks). Two broke away, but one was landed and immediately released.


I threw one cast and when the bacon hit the top of the water; a seagull swooped down and grabbed it. I reeled in the seagull and with a massive group effort we got it untangled. The bird flew off and squawked something about giving up bacon.

Sun Stars like bacon as well and we pulled in a few. Barbless hooks are required and so it was very easy to free all the unwanted creatures. It’s hard to tell in the following picture, but this was a mass of wiggling tube feet.


We managed to catch a couple of Cabezons. They are not the prettiest fish, but they taste really good and have a distinct oyster flavor. We had a running joke all day and referred to them as Italian fish called “Calzones”. Note the really sharp and serrated spikes. The roe is poisonous and so is best avoided.


Tonight’s fish fry was very good.