All, sorry for the delay in my report but I didn't take my camera and just got the photos from a friend today. In brief, after my son's wedding was over (I'll post photos on that soon), and the relatives were sent home, I went out to Neah Bay for another few days of fishing. A colleague of mine and a friend of his met me at the boat and we got launched a lines were in the water by about noon.
For the past several years, I was golden at Neah Bay in August. Limits for everyone on the boat, every time - 15 days in a row over the past 2 years. This was the year to get some humility. On Thurs we went out to all the places that have produced well over the past 4 years - Table Top, Limp Spot, Umatilla Reef. While we got some bites it was never red hot. In the past years, if I didn't get a bite every 8 mins, I'd move and find a place where I did. So I moved several times and we wound up picking up 3 fish (hatchery coho). We released about 15 wilds, so the fishing was good but not GREAT like I'm used to. One of our fish was latched onto by a sealion but I was not to be beaten by him. I had one guy back the boat up, had my friend keep tension on the line, yelled and barked at the sea lion and eventually we got the big boy to let go. I had to net fast as he was not a happy camper and he came right up to the boat. The sea lion was a huge one - well over 1000 lbs, probably close to 1500. Here's the fish with the teeth marks.
and here's the face of an angry sea lion.
So for Friday (8/7), I decided we would still try the std. places but if I didn't get the action I wanted, we would run all the way out to Blue Dot (25miles W of Tatoosh Island). Again the bite was slow so we took the 1.5 hours to run against the swells out to Blue Dot. When I've been out there in August it's usually been spectacular. Last time I was a Blue Dot, I couldn't get the line clipped to the downrigger before I had a fish on. This year - it was a desert out there. Hardly any fish. However, we were visited by Dall porpoises
(FD porpoises for Jim, Pat and Patty). The porpoises were amazing. There was probably 10 of them and although we were just trolling slowly, they buzzed the boat and played all around us. These things are fast! They were zipping under the boat at 15-20kts.
We were also visited by a little bird that shouldn't have been 25 miles offshore. This poor guy landed on the boat as I think we were the only thing that he could use as a rest spot. He hung around for over an hour and we gave him some food and water.
After we got tired of only catching 2 keepable salmon, we ran in to Cape Alava for bottom fishing. The current and wind were nil, the water was flat. It took me 20 mins or so but I found a nice school of black rod cod. We loaded up on 30 fish (limit 10 per person per day) in 30 minutes. All the cod were in the 4lb range. Here's the catch for Thurs. Not great salmon fishing but a good day nonetheless.
Here's an image of Ralph and David (the native guys who clean fish) doing their job. These guys are fast! The cleaned the 30 cod and 2 salmon in about 10-15 minutes.
Saturday clearly demanded a different plan. The fish were not in the places I was used to finding them and the reports were that a good coho bit could be found in the straits and at the end of the straits just north of Tatoosh. Since we drank a lot of wine on Friday night so we didn't get moving quite as early on Sat. Around 7AM, we ran out to about 400-500' of water and trolled as the current carried us west to Tatoosh. Saturday was the way fishing should be out there. Bites every few minutes. All total we caught about 40-45 salmon of which 6 were hatchery coho, 2 were pinks, 30+ were wild coho and a few were kings. Here's one of the nicer coho.
Here's the image of the 8 salmon we caught.
Finally, just for Jim, while we were out on Sat. we were visited by a group of about 15 dolphins. Here's a picture of one of the FD dolhpins. They were cool. Some of them came all the way out of the water breaching like whales. I haven't seen any dolphins like this in the Pacific NW before. They were definitely not as large as whales but were much larger than Dall porpoises or the typical harbor porpoises we normally see.
For the past several years, I was golden at Neah Bay in August. Limits for everyone on the boat, every time - 15 days in a row over the past 2 years. This was the year to get some humility. On Thurs we went out to all the places that have produced well over the past 4 years - Table Top, Limp Spot, Umatilla Reef. While we got some bites it was never red hot. In the past years, if I didn't get a bite every 8 mins, I'd move and find a place where I did. So I moved several times and we wound up picking up 3 fish (hatchery coho). We released about 15 wilds, so the fishing was good but not GREAT like I'm used to. One of our fish was latched onto by a sealion but I was not to be beaten by him. I had one guy back the boat up, had my friend keep tension on the line, yelled and barked at the sea lion and eventually we got the big boy to let go. I had to net fast as he was not a happy camper and he came right up to the boat. The sea lion was a huge one - well over 1000 lbs, probably close to 1500. Here's the fish with the teeth marks.
and here's the face of an angry sea lion.
So for Friday (8/7), I decided we would still try the std. places but if I didn't get the action I wanted, we would run all the way out to Blue Dot (25miles W of Tatoosh Island). Again the bite was slow so we took the 1.5 hours to run against the swells out to Blue Dot. When I've been out there in August it's usually been spectacular. Last time I was a Blue Dot, I couldn't get the line clipped to the downrigger before I had a fish on. This year - it was a desert out there. Hardly any fish. However, we were visited by Dall porpoises
(FD porpoises for Jim, Pat and Patty). The porpoises were amazing. There was probably 10 of them and although we were just trolling slowly, they buzzed the boat and played all around us. These things are fast! They were zipping under the boat at 15-20kts.
We were also visited by a little bird that shouldn't have been 25 miles offshore. This poor guy landed on the boat as I think we were the only thing that he could use as a rest spot. He hung around for over an hour and we gave him some food and water.
After we got tired of only catching 2 keepable salmon, we ran in to Cape Alava for bottom fishing. The current and wind were nil, the water was flat. It took me 20 mins or so but I found a nice school of black rod cod. We loaded up on 30 fish (limit 10 per person per day) in 30 minutes. All the cod were in the 4lb range. Here's the catch for Thurs. Not great salmon fishing but a good day nonetheless.
Here's an image of Ralph and David (the native guys who clean fish) doing their job. These guys are fast! The cleaned the 30 cod and 2 salmon in about 10-15 minutes.
Saturday clearly demanded a different plan. The fish were not in the places I was used to finding them and the reports were that a good coho bit could be found in the straits and at the end of the straits just north of Tatoosh. Since we drank a lot of wine on Friday night so we didn't get moving quite as early on Sat. Around 7AM, we ran out to about 400-500' of water and trolled as the current carried us west to Tatoosh. Saturday was the way fishing should be out there. Bites every few minutes. All total we caught about 40-45 salmon of which 6 were hatchery coho, 2 were pinks, 30+ were wild coho and a few were kings. Here's one of the nicer coho.
Here's the image of the 8 salmon we caught.
Finally, just for Jim, while we were out on Sat. we were visited by a group of about 15 dolphins. Here's a picture of one of the FD dolhpins. They were cool. Some of them came all the way out of the water breaching like whales. I haven't seen any dolphins like this in the Pacific NW before. They were definitely not as large as whales but were much larger than Dall porpoises or the typical harbor porpoises we normally see.