TYEE SALMON IN PUGET SOUND. 



J. H. BOWLES. 



'My piscatorial brothers of the Catalina 

 islands, fresh from battles with the yellow- 

 tail and the tuna, will probably scoff and 

 raise pitying eyebrows at the idea of fish- 

 ing for such small fry as the tyee salmon of 

 Washington. Nevertheless, about the last of 

 May I am well pleased to have my Siwash 

 Indian friend, old Jack, come to me with 

 the information, "Tyee running at Point ; 

 no herring." Translated, this means that 

 the spring run of salmon has reached Point 

 Defiance, and that the herrings have not 

 come, so it will be necessary to take some 

 for bait. I never use bait, but for 5 years 

 the old fellow has been tireless in his 

 efforts to convert me. I drop into a store 

 and buy him a package of tobacco, when 

 he says good-bye in high good humor. 



Point Defiance, about 7 miles from Ta- 

 coma, Washington, is a long arm of land 

 stretching out into Puget sound, which at 

 that place is a beautiful sheet of water 

 about 3 miles wide. It is a most pictur- 

 esque spot, the clay and sand cliffs rising 

 abruptly 200 feet over the water ; and 

 towering skyward from the top are giant 

 cedars and firs, some of them 300 feet high. 

 Around the foot of the cliffs the tide rushes 

 like a mill race, forming whirlpools and 

 back eddies, the latter running close to 

 shore, often for over a mile. Deep down 

 in these eddies and close to the whirlpools 

 the tyee (Siwash for chief) love to lie in 

 wait for their favorite food, the herring; 

 the water being ice cold and 75 to over 

 500 feet deep. 



It was in one of these back eddies that 

 B. and I were to be found one warm after- 

 noon in May, 2 hours before sundown. 

 Our outfit was a cedar skiff, a 7-foot sal- 

 mon rod weighing 11 ounces, a reel holding 

 600 feet of line, a gaff, a short killing club, 

 and 3 or 4 varieties of darting spoons. The 

 darting spoon seems to be a creation of 

 the Pacific Northwest ; at least I have seen 

 nothing exactly like it elsewhere. It is a 

 single thin piece of copper, brass, or silver, 

 about 5 inches long by 2 inches wide, cut 

 in a narrow oval. It has a peculiar series 

 of curves and does not revolve, but zigzags 

 in all directions when drawn through the 

 water. A single hook is riveted into the 

 end and about 3 feet of wire snell are 

 used, with a swivel at each end to prevent 

 the line from kinking. Some anglers use 

 double or even treble hooks. A keel-shaped 

 sinker weighing about 7 ounces is used, 

 which is arranged to slide along the line 

 by 2 screweyes. Its proper position is 

 about 30 feet up the line from the spoon, 



where it is held in place by a wire catch 

 that is set in one end in a line with the 

 screweye. The strike of the fish releases 

 it, when it slides down to the snell and 

 allows a free line for play. 



Thus equipped we rowed slowly along 

 the eddy, just fast enough to keep the 

 spoon energetic at the end of 100 feet of 

 line. We carefully watched the surface 

 of the water in all directions to see if the 

 tyee were rolling, and we rejoiced that the 

 water was unbroken. At certain times 

 these fish all come to the surface to play, 

 rolling their backs and tails lazily on the 

 surface. On such occasions the angler 

 can paddle within a few feet of them, but 

 he might just as well pack up his tackle 

 and go home, for he can not catch anything. 



It was early in the day for tyee, but 

 soon a fierce jerk told us a fight of some 

 sort had begun. I reeled in the line as 

 fast as possible, apparently without even 

 the spoon at the end, but we well knew that 

 was only one of the tricks of the silver 

 salmon. This fact was proved a few sec- 

 onds after the strike, when close to the 

 boat a glistening 12 pounder leaped high 

 out of the water and tried to shake the 

 hook from his mouth. Failing in that, 

 after several attempts, he twisted and 

 turned over in the water so rapidly as to 

 soon tire and allow himself to be brought 

 to gaff. The line was wound 3 or 4 times 

 around his gills, but a few raps with the 

 killing club quieted him and he was then 

 untangled. Very handsome he looked ly- 

 ing in the boat, and he made a swift, gamy 

 fight for 10 minutes, but we were after 

 something different. 



We put out the spoon again and soon a 

 short tug, followed by a spirited fight far 

 below the surface, brought to light a 5 

 pound rock cod. His bright red color and 

 gaping mouth gave him the appearance of 

 being much heated and out of breath from 

 his exertions. 



Still hope was deferred, but undismayed 

 we again lowered the spoon and a few 

 minutes rowing took us over where a sand 

 bar stretched far below the surface. In 

 passing this the spoon seemed to catch on 

 the bottom, an accident which almost in- 

 variably means the loss of spoon, sinker 

 and a portion of line, not to mention a 

 frightful loss of temper. Fortune favored 

 us that time, for a steady strain show< 

 gain of 3 feet of line, which continued 

 until a long dark body appeared in the clear 

 water below. It was one of the big brown 

 cod of Puget sound ; but as soon as he 



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