Neah Bay Halibut 2005

M

Mason C. Bailey

New member
Just curious if I will see any other C-Dory's at Neah Bay for the Halibut opener, May 10th, 2005? McNaughty and crew will arrive on Sunday to get set up hopefully with moorage at Big Salmon Resort. We are on the waiting list, since they booked up very early this year. We are actually staying at Curley's Resort in Sekui and will drive back and forth to Neah Bay if we get moorage there. If not, we will motor out to the ocean from Sekui every day. Last year's trip was great and we are looking forward to this year.

Mason on the McNaughty
 
Mason,

What kind of run is it from Seiku? How about from Neah Bay? Is this an ocean fishery or in the Straits? I was considering the Halibut Derby in Port Angeles about the same time.

Cheers,

Dan
 
Dan,

The run from Sekui to Neah Bay is about 12-14 miles by water, not a problem with good weather. The AM is usually calm, making the trip out ok, on the way back, even if the weather is acting up, you are riding the swell and wind back to Sekui (usually). From Neah Bay to Swiftsure (were most people fish) is about 19-20 miles. If the weather is perfect, I prefer to get out to spots called Blue Dot or 72 square, up to 60 miles off shore. You can also fish inside (not in the ocean) close to Neah Bay. You can look up good spots on the Salmon University Web site. The nice thing about Neah Bay is that you will very likely bring home your limits of rock fish, black sea bass and lings as well as Halibut. I haven't checked the tide flow yet but it can be as big of a factor at times as the weather.

We expect to get moorage at Big Salmon, since we will be arriving on Sunday and the crowds probably will not show up until Monday evening. It is supposedly based on a first come, first served basis for the waiting list. You can see a few pictures of last years catch in the McNaughty photos on page 11.

Mason
 
McNaughty III is back from Neah Bay and it was another great trip! We left home (Bothell) on Sunday morning, 5/8/05. We had the boats in the water at Neah Bay by 2 PM, after first checking into our rooms at Sekui. Cruised outside of Tatosh Island and brought back our dinner, 3 Lings and a bunch of cod. We fished out in the ocean Monday to Thursday. Tuesday we went to the west end of Swiftsure, caught and released 7-8 small halibut before finally keeping two halibut in mid twenty pound range. Fished off of Slant rocks on Wednesday and caught our largest halibut (but still only about 30 pounds) and then loaded up again on Lings and other cod species. Thursday we easily made it out to 72 square, ~40 miles off shore. Once there we quickly landed our 4 Lings and two Halibut in a little over an hour. No size to the halibut, only 20-30 pounds each but all the Lings at 72 square were in the 20-25 pound range. We relaxed the last day (Friday) back at Sekui, fished the morning for a few black Sea bass, etc. and then cleaned up the boat and came back home on Saturday. Great trip, my partner and I came home with ~130 pounds of nice fish filets, plus ate fish everynight!

Mason Craig Bailey on the McNaughty
 
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