Chip Hanauer, The Boat Guy: Edmonds Coho Derby
The Boat Guy heads out to catch some coho salmon.
September 5, 2014
When it comes to fishermen, aesthetics are not a big deal. What counts is the ability of the boat to help them find, catch, and clean fish, as efficiently as possible. No fancy, decorated cabins here, no gleaming, highly varnished wood accents needed. If it doesn’t help get fish in the box, who needs it?
Boat owner Jim Fahey, Chip Hanauer The Boat Guy, and Tony Floor all show off the first coho caught.
One morning we got up early, “before the farmers do,” to catch Coho salmon in Puget Sound with Jim Fahey. Fishing with Jim, I found a few things to be true.
1. Jim knows how to catch fish! He would do it every day, if he could (I actually think he does, but he doesn’t admit to it).
2. His 25 foot Parker is one heck of a fishing machine. Everything is organized so that Jim can put his hands on whatever he needs in mere seconds, to help him land more salmon. And with 2 Yamaha 150s, it gets to the fishing grounds fast.
It can be a bit cold up here in the Northwest and the cabin of the Parker is warm and comfortable, but not necessarily set up to party or entertain. On the dash, Jim has all the electronics he needs to find the fish that will soon be on his smoker.
Jim's Parker has everything he needs to catch coho in easy reach.
Not only is the Parker set up to land the fish, but it is a perfect place to clean and prepare the fish before the next one comes aboard. In just minutes, each fish is cleaned and on ice. Then Jim is quickly back on the prowl, searching for a friend to accompany the salmon he’s just put in the ice box.
The Parker also has a great sound system. That morning, Jim had forgotten to turn it on—and he says he can't catch fish without Jimmy Buffett. He quickly remedied the situation and within minutes, he was yelling, “fish on!” I’m not kidding! It really happened that way. See for yourself in this video, which is introduced by a talking coho...
