We're fishing the derby Prez day weekend. We'll be there the day before it starts,and wanna catch a few sea bass. What kind of tackle will make the sea bass halfway fun? What kind of lures? I'm thinking small leadhead jigs will be the ticket.
Thanks.

We went out of Neah bay a couple years ago and had a blast sea bass fishing. We fished in and around the kelp beds. Almost like bass fishing you see on TNN. we used jig heads with 3 inch grubs with a curly tale in pink pearl color. My two buddys did O.K. but they were wandering how I was catching so many...


smelly jelly.


really fun on your trout rod. Reel in as slow as possible and hold on tight or they will rip the rod out of your hands!

Good luck! :p

last time we were there the dart type jigs out fished the plastics 3 to 1

To fish Neah Bay Seabass, the all time #1 lure is a twin tail grub. It is smoke in color and has silver glitter in it. It is roughly 3" long and you use a 2 oz. leadhead jig. This will out fish anything out there. Last year we did it with trout poles. He is right, they will yank the rod out of your hands. We get feeding frenzies going where everyone on the boat will have a fish on at the same time. We filled both wells on my trophy with Seabass. We had to start throwing them back. We have had 6 on at a time. When TommyCod was thinking about buying his latest charter boat, which he runs now. We took it on a test voyage. He only brought the rods with one of these twin tails each on them. He forgot to bring extra. We had 9 people on the boat. Seven were fishers, Tom, and deckhand. His deckhand went to gaff a seabass and knocked my friends fish and his jig off. They ended up losing all but three jigs. I would not let anyone touch my jig. The darts have trebles and hook on the bottom and are lost quickly. The three of us limited the boat out for everyone else. Boy were the ones that lost their jigs ticked. Out of Westport use a red/yellow shrimp fly with three hooks on it. It is made out of red and yellow poly rope strands. The smoked grub used to be available at Snow Creek by Neah Bay. Don't know if it is open now or they even carry them any more. Johns Sporting goods in Everett carries them with the jigs. Get the smaller grub over the larger, you won't be sorry. The hot spots in Neah Bay are around the back of Tatoosh and Duncan Rock. I am going to the Sekiu Balckmouth Derby in Feb and am going out a day early to get Seabass.

Fishinnut,

A word of caution, from your posting it appears that you were possibly in violation of several WDF&G bottom fishing regulations in regard to rockfish. Please check the WDF&G regulations. You will find that the rockfish limit at Seiku is one fish per day. It goes to 3 per day with a species restriction during one period of the year. Only one of those three may be other than Black Rockfish.

The daily possession limit on the coast, in the Neah Bay area is 10 rockfish per day, with two daily limits allowed for possession. There are also new restrictions on the taking of Yelloweye(commonly referred to as red snapper) that bottomfishermen should be aware of.

Rockfish are a very valuable resource and should be treated with respect. Fish taken deeper than 60 feet will usually die from injury to their air bladder due to decompression when brought from depths.

Black Rockfish are frequently found near the surface and can easily be caught and released, offering a great sport fishery on light tackle fishing leadhead jigs.

My personal preference is a six inch black curl tail worm fished on a one ounce leadhead within Puget Sound. White is an excellent color as well, particularly on the coast.

Within the Sound the primary shallow water rockfish is the Copper, which can be found around kelp beds and rocky bottoms in 15-30 feet of water, which also allows for catch and release fishing. Quillback rockfish start showing up at about 45 feet depth.

Please be aware of the regulations, and enjoy those rockfish, they are my favorite saltwater species.

Sincerely,

Doug Wilson

Thank you for your concern, but in the ocean (areas 1-4) you are allowed 10 Seabass a day per person. I keep up on the regs and know a lot of the people who help make the regs, and was not breaking any laws. The fish you are talking about are Yelloweye, canary rockfish and several others, but mainly these two. None of these fish were caught in area 5 (Sekiu). I frequently fish Neah Bay and we send everybody home with fish. As there were 6 of us on the boat. We did not even come close to taking 60 fish. In fact, catch and release is getting easier because you can only eat so many fish. When blackmouthing we sometimes ask people ahead of time if they want fish that night. If we don't feel like cooking, we release the fish without touching it. Frozen salmon is just not the same as fresh. Thanks for pointing this out as someone at Sekiu might think you can take as many fish as you want, not the case. In my book Seabass are just as good as halibut. I don't know if you know this but Seabass are not as slow growing as all off the other rockfish. That is why there are so many of them.

In reply to the original question of bottomfishing in Sekiu, fish along the kelp beds both East and West of the bay using the methods described above. If you plan to launch at Sekiu and motor up to Neah, make sure your boat has the size and fuel to do the trip. There's not much bottom structure around Sekiu for good bottomfish cover so you might consider trailering up to Neah and launching there if you have a smaller boat to be on the safe side.

A note on Canadian Halibut fishing:
This year starting around the 1st of April, you'll be able to buy a Canadian Halibut license online. The Canadian limit is 2 fish versus 1 fish for U.S. waters. We have a May 2nd trip planned with Tommycod and plan to fish on the Canadian side and this new feature will save us a road trip to Blaine to aquire our 1 day permits. I will also be in Sekiu the week of July 7th for some king salmon and Halibut action and I'm looking for some Halibut gps numbers within a 5 mile radius from the bay. If anybody has them plotted, please reply or send me an email.

Another good point brought up. I cannot go and fish Neah Bay by boat and bring more than the Seabass limit of one per person back legally to Sekiu Area 5. I don't quite understand WDFW. Bellingham Chapter of Puget Sound Anglers has been trying for years to get WDFW to let them leave Bellingham by boat and fish Canadian Salmon, and return by boat. They WILL not let them bring any quotas back that do not match the port you are bringing them back to. In other works. If Salmon is closed in the San Juans and open in BC. You cannot bring any Salmon back by boat. However you can do it with Halibut in Neah Bay and bring BC Halibut back. You have to go straight to port without stopping to fish in US waters afterward.

By the way, Ask Tom Young (Tommycod) where to fish for Halibut. Tom knows these waters better than anybody. He will give you some places. He is a great guy. Some of the better fishing waters in Sekiu for Halibut is the mouth of the Hoko River. About 3-4 years ago a guy and his son caught a 215 # halibut there.

Fishinnut,

Glad to know that is the case. I just wanted folks on this discussion group to be aware of the regulations.

You are correct about the Black Rockfish, being faster growing. I would urge bottom fishermen to target these fish over some of the other species for this reason and the fact that there is a greater abundance of them particularly in coastal waters.

Since Blacks stack in the water column it is easy to fish them shallow, which makes for easy catch and release.

Black Rockfish are fattier than some of the other species and do not freeze well, so it is best to only what you need for fresh or frozen for a couple months max.

Its been out of print for years, but fishermen who want to learn more about bottom fishing may be able to find "New Techniques for Catching Bottom Fish" through their local library.

Doug Wilson

Need another opinion. I believe I can launch at Sekiu,bottom fish west of the Sekiu River and return passing thru without fishing east of the Sekiu River with a limit of bottom fish legal at Neah Bay.

Your best answer would come from checking with WDF&G enforcement. My understanding of the regulations is that you can only land the designated limit at the place of landing no matter where you fish. This applies to any catch of any species landed. A phone call to enforcement and a very careful reading of the regulations is much less expensive than a citation. I'm neither a lawyer or an enforcement officer so don't rely on my interpretation, check with the gentlemen that can cite you, and confisticate your boat and gear if they deem the infraction is worthy of it.

Doug Wilson

You wanna up the fun factor X 10??

It's been a while since I've done it, but casting flies and stripping in the kelp beds for black rockfish is an absolute hoot!

I think there may have been a post on this in the past ... prehaps run a search for it. I think John Shewey has a book that covers this as well

I am not sure of the regs, but it seems to me that we have 2 seperate issues. The first is the landing of Washington caught fish in a Washington port. I can launch in Everett (area 8.2) and catch fish at Possesion (area 9) and still return to Everett even if area 8.2 is closed.
If I fish out of a Washington port and fish Canadian waters with a Canadian licence I believe I have to stop at a Canadian port and declare my catch before I can return to a US port with my catch. This assumes that the Canadian limit is more than the US limit or that the US area is closed.
This is my understanding of the regs, but I've been wrong before!

Sea bass on the fly is a blast as The Big One said! Last year my son and I ran into a 3 acre school of black rocks mixed with lings. While I stayed with the fly, I set my boy up with a jig head and gummy worms. The green and yellow ones seem to work the best but they also are my favorite so we ran out at the end of 2 perfect days there. We had 18 whale sightings.....one 50ft from the boat....lost count of the bass though we did weigh a few at 7lbs, hooked over 20 lings and took home one nice ling for dinner. I prefer to use a med sink clear line on an eight weight for water under 12ft. and a sink tip for deeper water or steep drop offs. I will use a heavy-er tip with more current speed. Clousers work best for me and bunny flies are built to take a lot of fish before they just tear it up. The fishery has so impressed me over the years there that I will be offering fly fishing trips to my clients at Neah Bay and Sekiu this season. A word of caution.....with an 8 wt rod you WILL hook something you cant land at least once a day...I have decided that a 10wt is a little more appropriate for the area.

Capt. T Wolf

Coming back into US waters with Canadian caught fish to a port not open for those fish, other than Neah Bay for Halibut, is illegal. The low down I have heard on this has been that it has been done and the people arrested but no one has ever been prosecuted. When JD Wade in Bellingham tried with his group, the Puget Sound Anglers, to promote fishing out of area 7 (San Juans) to BC by boat then come back, They said they would work on it. They (WDFW) made them think they were going to take a serious look at it. PSA's reasoning was that they were not targeting american fish, but Canadian, thus not hurting any US runs. At the next meeting, they quickly slammed the door on them saying there was absolutely no interest in it by Washingtonians and moved on to the next topic. Apparently they have never been at the BC border in the summer time looking at all of the boats and trailers going across. They told him that they don't ever want to see any Canadian fish brought back into the US, ever! The regs are stated so it is okay to bring them back by auto but not by boat. Your tax dollars at work against you. What ever happened to: For the people, by the people? I guess it is now DO it to the people! Most of these regs are Ocean and Straight of Juan de Fuca, not inner Puget Sound. Just some more info on fishing Sekiu. If you go out and fish Sekiu and or Neah bay in the coming months, Octopus is one of the favorite baits to use. We have caught many a bottom fish out there with tentacles hanging out of there mouth. The old Big Salmon used to carry it. I don't know if the new owners do. Smelly Jelly would work out there. Anything works out there. I noticed the smelly jelly makes a bigger difference here in the sound, as there are fewer fish here. Good Luck. Ron