A Puget Sound Fisherman

For the past 48 years, Arthur Tachell has been working at the Point Defiance Marina in Tacoma, Washington starting when he was 16 years old. Throughout his time working and fishing around Puget Sound, Tachell has seen many things such as generations of family coming and going, staff rotations, the marina burning down, as well as management and regulation changes. While Tachell won’t be leaving fishing as a hobby, he will be saying goodbye to working at the Marina at the end of this year when he retires.

Arthur Tachell, also known as Art, is seen wheeling his boat into the elevator located at the marina. Since all of the boats at the Point Defiance Marina are dry docked, in order to aid in raising and lowering boats into the water and back up, the marina has an elevator that allows for quick and easy transportation.

The sun rises upon Point Defiance Marina and Puget Sound on June 27, 2022. Tachell wakes up at 3:30 a.m. every morning to be able to be in his boat leaving the marina by 5:00 a.m.

Tachell uses a method called jigging to catch salmon. Jigging is the act of actively moving the fishing rod so the bait is seen as a real prey to salmon underwater.

Tachell (right) hands over a trolling weight to his friend Steve Yuasa who forgot his. Part of what comes with working at the marina for so long and fishing every day is that Tachell really gets to know the fishing community of Tacoma. He waves and starts conversations with everyone he passes by while out on the water as well as on land. Not only does Tachell say hello and talk to people on the water, but him, Yuasa and a bunch of their other friends will go up to Seattle to the International District to see each other and catch up.

Tachell looks through his lures deciding which one to use. He prefers to use artificial bait and lures over live bait as live bait tends to attract unwanted species such as dogfish.

Tachell’s favorite part about fishing is trying to figure out how he can get better. Whether that be moving to a different area, switching fishing techniques, switching bait or all of the above. While he also enjoys the peacefulness he enjoys the game and strategy of fishing.

A 26 inch. Coho salmon is caught by Tachell on Aug. 1, 2022 in Puget Sound’s Area 13. Puget Sound is separated into “areas” that have their own regulations depending on the time of year. Regulations include being able to fish in that, how many fish you are allowed to catch as well as size limits.

Tachell reels in a chinook salmon in Puget Sound on Aug. 1, 2022 during his morning outing. Tachell often switches between trolling and jigging methods to fish depending on the time of year and what he observes other fishermen doing on that particular day.

Tachell reels in a chinook salmon in Puget Sound during his morning outing. Tachell often switches between trolling and jigging methods to fish depending on the time of year and what he observes other fishermen doing on that particular day. Photo by Clare Grant.

Tachell measures a coho salmon that he caught to see if it checks off the boxes to be able to be kept. In Tacoma, there are many regulations that recreational fisherman have to follow to be able to keep their salmon. The current minimum length to keep salmon is 22 inches and max two a day. This helps keep the salmon population intact and helps protect the smaller salmon to allow them to grow and repopulate as their population is dwindling.

Many seagulls and other birds fight over the fish remnants that gets tossed over from filleting.

Tachell filets one of his salmon that he caught at one of the many stations built in the marina alongside Jon Edick, another local fisherman who has been fishing with Art for many decades. These stations allow fishermen to clean, gut and filet their fish as many may not be able to do it at home. Fileting fish is the removal of the fish from the bones to prepare it to be eaten.