Got back yesterday morning with 2 friends from fishing Sekui Saturday for salmon and halibut, and offshore in Canadian waters for Halibut on Sunday and Monday (28 or 29 miles out since the Canadian Online license has a closure for the Canadian part of Swiftsure.)
Long story short: mediocre
Sekui: despite the optimistic Olson's online report, and gleaming reports when I called them, when we got there everyone but Olson's said it was slow overall. Saturday between sunrise and sunset non-stop we only boated a half dozen salmon or so, all 8 pounds or smaller and mostly pinks. We tried in front of Sekui, Slip Point, Pillar Point and the section just East of slip point (can't remember the name right now), as well as out in the shipping lanes. No Kings hooked except 1 native one we release which was our 8-pound fish. All the rest were 2-4 pounds, silvers and pinks. Regardless of species, and whether it was cloudy or when it cleared up, we seemed to do the best on cop car colored lures of just about any type... we tried Coho Killers, Coyotes in 2 sizes, and a ProTroll Sting King (like an Apex.) We also caught a couple on a purple haze UV Sonic Edge. Also, I did hook one very, very impressive likely halibut/possibly skate? at Pillar Point in 170 feet of water that must have been simply put, huge. After 30 minutes of putting a ton of pressure on that fish, the most I'd gained (and in turn lost again repeatedly) was 8 or at most 10 feet of spider wire... and then after 30 minutes my leader broke. :-(
Side Note: I also talked with Mike at Ted's Sport Center in Lynnwood today and he too had heard numerous reports of it slowing down at Sekui this past week so I guess I wasn't alone there...
Sunday we towed the boat up to Neah Bay not realizing it was closed on Sunday's and Monday's to salmon and we apparently were not alone in that... found a couple that had been staying and fishing up there a month straight that was just pulling out of the water from their final day of salmon fishing... said it had really slowed down after the rain there too, but that they'd finally found the fish. They were on the seaward side of the whistler buoy off of Tatoosh / Duncan Rock. Got ready to go, and then heard at Big Salmon that the salmon were closed that day and the next. So change of plans: got our Canadian Halibut online licenses and went looking for halibut as the motor was running relatively ok, and I've been wanting for years to finally get into some really good halibut fishing. We motored out but although we had the GPS coordinates we found we were severely hampered in figuring out how to fish the hole because my Garmin 178C had no bottom contour data, only the GPS top down map and depth sound capabilities... I'd ordered the G2 chip for it last Monday on eBay overnight delivery and by Friday when I'd left it still hadn't arrived - and Big Salmon was sold out of the maps. ARGH. So we wasted probably half our time plus on both days (Sunday and Monday) motoring around in very, very rough water trying to figure out the lay of the hole. Between Sunday and Monday we did manage 1 Pacific Cod and 7 halibut -but 6 were VERY, VERY small (2 to 6 pounds) and the last one was 20 or 30 pounds. I landed that one and for a fish it's size put up a big and fiesty fight from the time it was hooked right up to the boat - sure didn't expect that.
But the water was very rough, in fact it was probably 14 foot swells with a tight period plus 6 foot chop and 25 mph winds on Monday afternoon. Took 5 hours to get out there and a good 3 to get in, pushing it on the way back with the wind at our tail. Good fun but I would NOT go back out there in those types of seas again, that's for sure. But the boat did well and the motor held up; with some engine cleaner in there it's been slowly getting a bit better.
Now for the VERY interesting news though (saved the best for last): about 20 to 22 miles out, both days, we started pinging a LOT! LOT! LOT! of what I am assuming were Chinook! The fish were all in 110 to 140 feet of water and the numbers were VERY impressive. Also saw a number of silvers jump - in fact we almost got one while coming in right in the back of the boat Sunday, and another that almost hit the bow rail coming back Saturday evening. It was very funny. But if I were targeting Chinook, I know the first place I'd try! If any of you are headed out there, PM me and I'll dig up some GPS coordinates for where we spotted the schooling action going on.
We also ran into a large batch of krill right at the surface just NE of Pillar point, and the stomachs of one of the fish (the only one we checked) from the Canadian offshore spot was FULL of them as well.
Hope the info helps someone headed out that way!
Long story short: mediocre
Sekui: despite the optimistic Olson's online report, and gleaming reports when I called them, when we got there everyone but Olson's said it was slow overall. Saturday between sunrise and sunset non-stop we only boated a half dozen salmon or so, all 8 pounds or smaller and mostly pinks. We tried in front of Sekui, Slip Point, Pillar Point and the section just East of slip point (can't remember the name right now), as well as out in the shipping lanes. No Kings hooked except 1 native one we release which was our 8-pound fish. All the rest were 2-4 pounds, silvers and pinks. Regardless of species, and whether it was cloudy or when it cleared up, we seemed to do the best on cop car colored lures of just about any type... we tried Coho Killers, Coyotes in 2 sizes, and a ProTroll Sting King (like an Apex.) We also caught a couple on a purple haze UV Sonic Edge. Also, I did hook one very, very impressive likely halibut/possibly skate? at Pillar Point in 170 feet of water that must have been simply put, huge. After 30 minutes of putting a ton of pressure on that fish, the most I'd gained (and in turn lost again repeatedly) was 8 or at most 10 feet of spider wire... and then after 30 minutes my leader broke. :-(
Side Note: I also talked with Mike at Ted's Sport Center in Lynnwood today and he too had heard numerous reports of it slowing down at Sekui this past week so I guess I wasn't alone there...
Sunday we towed the boat up to Neah Bay not realizing it was closed on Sunday's and Monday's to salmon and we apparently were not alone in that... found a couple that had been staying and fishing up there a month straight that was just pulling out of the water from their final day of salmon fishing... said it had really slowed down after the rain there too, but that they'd finally found the fish. They were on the seaward side of the whistler buoy off of Tatoosh / Duncan Rock. Got ready to go, and then heard at Big Salmon that the salmon were closed that day and the next. So change of plans: got our Canadian Halibut online licenses and went looking for halibut as the motor was running relatively ok, and I've been wanting for years to finally get into some really good halibut fishing. We motored out but although we had the GPS coordinates we found we were severely hampered in figuring out how to fish the hole because my Garmin 178C had no bottom contour data, only the GPS top down map and depth sound capabilities... I'd ordered the G2 chip for it last Monday on eBay overnight delivery and by Friday when I'd left it still hadn't arrived - and Big Salmon was sold out of the maps. ARGH. So we wasted probably half our time plus on both days (Sunday and Monday) motoring around in very, very rough water trying to figure out the lay of the hole. Between Sunday and Monday we did manage 1 Pacific Cod and 7 halibut -but 6 were VERY, VERY small (2 to 6 pounds) and the last one was 20 or 30 pounds. I landed that one and for a fish it's size put up a big and fiesty fight from the time it was hooked right up to the boat - sure didn't expect that.
But the water was very rough, in fact it was probably 14 foot swells with a tight period plus 6 foot chop and 25 mph winds on Monday afternoon. Took 5 hours to get out there and a good 3 to get in, pushing it on the way back with the wind at our tail. Good fun but I would NOT go back out there in those types of seas again, that's for sure. But the boat did well and the motor held up; with some engine cleaner in there it's been slowly getting a bit better.Now for the VERY interesting news though (saved the best for last): about 20 to 22 miles out, both days, we started pinging a LOT! LOT! LOT! of what I am assuming were Chinook! The fish were all in 110 to 140 feet of water and the numbers were VERY impressive. Also saw a number of silvers jump - in fact we almost got one while coming in right in the back of the boat Sunday, and another that almost hit the bow rail coming back Saturday evening. It was very funny. But if I were targeting Chinook, I know the first place I'd try! If any of you are headed out there, PM me and I'll dig up some GPS coordinates for where we spotted the schooling action going on.
We also ran into a large batch of krill right at the surface just NE of Pillar point, and the stomachs of one of the fish (the only one we checked) from the Canadian offshore spot was FULL of them as well.
Hope the info helps someone headed out that way!
