I knew heading into this summer that it would feature more work than fishing. To compensate I was looking for an end of summer trip for my son and myself. I was searching for something more than camping at a high country trout lake.

The answer came in a conversation with a friend who lives in the Seattle area. He was telling me about the pink salmon run in the Puget Sound. These fish only return every other year. The 2009 return was predicted to be one of the largest in recent memory. A typical run in the Sound would be between 1-2 million fish. The salmon abundance survey predicted more than 5 million would return this year. If ever we wanted to fish this run 2009 would be the year.

The safest bet on timing was late August, so we set aside the dates.

Pinks are the most abundant salmon in the North Pacific. They feed on plankton and small shrimp, and achieve weights between 3 to 6 pounds. Anglers pursuing king and silver salmon look down on pinks.

But if you are taking a young boy fishing, quantity takes precedence over size. We wanted action and 5 million pinks filled the bill.

I have driven to Seattle a number of times and it generally consumes two 8-hour driving days with an over night stay some where on the road. I looked into the Amtrak option and came up with the rest of our adventure, a train ride up and back.

The train hours were inconvenient, a 2 a.m. start from the Chico station that put us in Tacoma at 7 p.m. The return trip started at 10:30 a.m. in Tacoma and put us back in Chico at 3 a.m. The price was right in our budget, $210 round trip for the two of us, less than the cost of fuel if we drove.

My brother lives near Tacoma and we were invited to fish Saturday and Sunday on a 21-foot boat with his neighbor. The plan for the first two days was to fish Commencement Bay near the mouth of the Puyallup River. The pinks were already in the Puyallup with more to moving down the Sound.

Saturday morning, as we approached Browns Point at the entrance to Commencement Bay, we had our first fish hit a pink trolling fly in the first 15 minutes. I thought that this was a good omen for the trip. But for the next couple hours there was no action. We headed north up the shore looking for signs of salmon. We ended up drift fishing with the breeze coming out of the north, parallel to the beach.

Pink salmon give themselves away by occasionally jumping and rolling on the surface. We spent the day chasing salmon we would spot. The technique was to get up wind of the fish and hope they were still around to cast to as we drifted through their location. We had a lot of salmon follow our flies and soft plastic to the boat with out biting.

For the two days on the boat we only landed a couple of salmon per day, along with a few small flounder.

This was a poor percentage of a reputed 5 million fish.

We still had another day of fishing scheduled with Gary Butrim, the friend who suggested the trip originally. He had fished the previous week at Bush Point on Whidbey Island and caught a lot of fish. We spent the evening at his home getting ready and left for Whidbey Island at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.

We took the ferry over to the island in a misty rain. Some of my best fishing days have been in the rain, a good sign. We drove 15 minutes to the west side of the island. This put us on the main channel connecting the Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean, the traveling lane for fish headed into the Sound. We were on the beach at the crack of dawn along with dozens of other anglers. High tide was 9:30 a.m. and we hoped for the fish to come in with the tide.

We waded into the water and cast as far out as possible. I was drop-shotting with pink flies and Gary was throwing a Buzz Bomb in hot pink. Pink salmon will hit “anything pink.” Two and a half hours into the day we did not even have a bite. The fish were just not close in. We saw an occasional salmon roll well beyond casting range, but no action on the beach.

My son, Colin, had turned his interest to food and playing in the sand. I was beginning to ponder a trip with few fish to take home.

Then, close to 10 a.m., the fish gods smiled on us. Far up the beach we saw an angler with a fish on. Then, progressively closer, more and more fish were hooked up as a school of pinks came down the shore. You had to get your lure out well over 50 yards to reach the fish. I switched to a 2.5 ounce Buzz Bomb and was able to reach them.

Once I got onto the pull/pause of the Buzz Bomb retrieve, every third cast produced a fish. Colin was not able to cast far enough to reach the fish, so Gary and I took turns handing our rods off to him.

Pink salmon are hard-pulling fish and a hoot to catch. The regs call for single barbless hooks, so if you give them any slack they are off. Colin lost more fish than he landed, but it did not matter because there was always more fish to fight.

The action was continuous until we called it a day with limits of salmon for the three of us. We spent the afternoon filleting salmon and putting them on ice for the train ride home.

The drama of the trip could not have been better scripted. We had two days of fair to poor fishing followed by the final day catching all the fish we had room to take home.

It was a six-day trip, two travel days and four days in Washington state. When I was in grammar school my family took a train trip one summer. I have never forgotten that trip and hope that Colin remembers this one. I will.

Denis Peirce writes a weekly fishing column for The Union and is host of “The KNCO Fishing & Outdoor Report,” which airs 6-7 p.m. Fridays and 5-6 a.m. Saturdays on 830-AM radio. Contact him via e-mail at dpeirce@theunion.com.