Here's our report from yesterday at Sekui. Very interesting fishing... There were hardly any native fish. Mostly SMALL hatchery coho 3-4 pounds. We let go a lot of fish before we kept our limits. Probably 5 to 1 hatchery to native. We caught very few "hooknose" (although it's always nice catching 15 pound coho, even if it's just a couple). It seemed more like late August than late September.

Overall, our average was about 6 pounds per fish. The fish checker said it was very typical of what he'd seen. He said only 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 boats had "ocean" fish.

What a zoo--I've never seen it so busy!

wonder if its the first of the dungee run?

Fished Saturday and Sunday a.m., not nearly as many nates as last year, was no problem getting limited.
All the fish we got were 6-8 avg. , but got one in the teens.
There were some big uns being caught, saw several in the teens.
There are some big fishies out there.
It was consistently hooking fish , both days I fished. It was not nearly as busy as I expected.

It was pure fun!!

Thanks Aunty M and Caveman! , for taking ol' Woodsy Wayne out! <img border="0" alt="[eat]" title="" src="graemlins/eat.gif" />

WW

Spent the last 5 days at Sekiu. Did not get limits every day but the quality of the fish and how hard thay fought was excellant!! We had a lot of fish that were out of the water more than they were in. The bonus was playing and releasing 2 30 plus lb kings, 1 on Thursday and 1 on Saturday. Our big silver brat was 10lbs and the average was 6 - 8. Had a great time with some great folks.
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

Fished there Wednesday afternoon and Thursday and Friday mornings and caught lots of fish. Unclipped fish were thick all three days, and we let go probably half dozen from 12 to 15 pounds. We kept our possession limit of eight (there were two of us) and they ranged from 7 to 12. Thursday afternoon we saw being weighed in at the Coho Resort a 22-pound hatchery fish -- a giant hooknose. Left with some concern about all the fish released. Coho are so feisty they tend to get wrapped up in the leader and pinned tight with both hooks, whick makes releasing them a chore. All the big wild fish we let go were fine - we had to revive one a bit - but we did let a couple smaller unmarked ones go that were bleeding, and one floated off belly up. Hate to see that and wish ALL hatchery coho were being marked to improve the ratio.

Strange.
I caught very few fin clipped fish. We bonked 9 for 3 people over two days, biggest being around 14. We did release a few small clipped fish. We probably caught 50 that were not clipped.

Be careful, there are a few Chinook hanging around. I got spooled for one of the first times ever. At least that I can remember. Hit at 88 feet on an Army Truck Hootchie. It is still going!

Salmonbelly, I too am concerned about the number of fish being hurt by C&R out in the salt. Here's a couple of things that I personally do that you might consider... these are just things to think about... to each his/her own...

First off, I don't use double-hook setups in release fisheries. IMHO, single Siwash hooks do less damage than double-hook setups. I'm not claiming single Siwashe setups hook as many fish as double hook setups, but single Siwashes definitely make it MUCH easier to shake / release unclipped or unwanted fish.

For the same reason, I don't use bait. I still catch plenty of fish, but I probably don't kill as many, because they aren't hooked as deeply... and, since most bait hookups involve two hooks, they also aren't hooked in the side or top of the head as well as the mouth.

When playing a fish, I keep my boat in gear, and keep the fish coming to the boat... a wise man (Larry Williamson) once told me - if you lead them, they will come (unless we're talking 25lb+ fish). As soon as you let them turn their head, they will start to shake their head, roll around, get tangled in everything they can... and end up damaging themselves in the process. I keep my boat in gear, keep the fish moving, don't let people pause while they're reeling, and the fish come right to the side of the boat, where I can check for the fin and release them quickly if neccessary.

I use a catch-and-release net. It's got a soft, fine mesh, similar to the catch-and-release trout nets, but the mesh size is a bit bigger, and the net is normal salmon net sized, with a 36" deep bag. When I do net a fish, I see little to no scale loss in the net... I mean NONE... like I don't even have to rinse the net out in the water... it's amazing. Because of the small mesh, these nets are a little different when you dip them in the water... they have a LOT more drag... but once you get used to it, they work great.

I often times will not release any fish that are legal to keep... this may sound stupid, and some people may look at me wierd at the cleaning table with a couple of 3lb hatchery fish as part of our catch, but in the end, I'm killing less fish, and it's my choice. I could release fish all day and cull for the biggest fish, but how many fish am I going to hurt / kill in the process? It all depends on the day, and who I have fishing with me.

And this last one may sound like a plug, but it's really not meant to be. I use Salmon Scenters all the time. I think they work great on targeting hatchery fish, and I believe I catch more fish because I use them... and we all know how important "fishing with confidence" is. I've been keeping track the past four weekends while fishing Sekiu, writing down every fish we catch... and over four weekends, I've had a 47% clipped rate on fish to my boat, with a 67% clipped rate this past Saturday. I'm not sure what other people are averaging, or if they're writing down every fish, but I've heard 10%-20%.

-N.

Sounds like Stormin's boat and ours were in the same area. We had similar mark rates, and similar fish sizes, although we maybe had more small fish-- probably 20 fish to the boat.

At Sekui, we've never once had mark rate approaching 1:1 and so in late September to have 3:1 clipped to unclipped was surprising. It was nice to not have that "guilt" about how many wild fish might have been hurt, etc. I've been there before.

The other thing that was interesting is that our fish caught on bait were almost all hooked on the outside of the snout. We also didn't have difficulty releasing fish, which usually you have several that you think "that one won't live". Not Saturday-- maybe one fish had some trouble and that was it.

Wasn't that sunrise something?

I think you're probably right about using a single hook, but I can't give up a herring strip on the hootchie. I think artificials tend to target smaller fish. While fishing with a friend using a spoon, while I used a hootchie and a strip, we noticed he caught way more shakers. I also leave the boat in gear, but I've had plenty coho over nine days at Sekiu this year that weren't going to be led like a puppie on a chain. They ran, tailwalked, jumped, spun and did what they wanted. They'd have been lost had I horsed them. Also use a de-hooker to release and that usually works well without netting or touching the fish, but not always. As for mark rates, I've noticed it varies by day and I think maybe by the patch of fish you're on. One trip a couple weeks ago, 70 percent were marked, including some jumbos. This last week it was the opposite. Still a phenomenal fishery.

Sea Claire, early in the day we started in 200ft of water off of Olson's and trolled north to about 650ft of water, then trolled east... after a few fish in the boat, we took a "lady's bathroom break" and spent 45 min motoring through the fog to and from Olson's. We went back out and ended up fishing about 500ft of water off of Sekiu Point. That sunrise was really pretty... I was especially surprised to see how quickly the sun rose!

Salmonbelly, like I said, to each his own... if the hootchie and herring strip works for you, use it. Was your friend that was using the spoon using a big spoon, or something smaller like a Coho Killer? If he was using a small spoon, next time have him try a bigger spoon, like a 5 1/2 Canadian or a Top Cat... he might catch less shakers.

I totally agree that the clipped rate varies by day and by patch of fish you're on. Per day, mine has varied from 34% to 67%, but within a day, like you say, I've hit some certain rips that had almost all clipped fish, and others that were the opposite.

I also agree that it has been an awesome fishery... not as hot as two years ago, but I can only hope it's as good as this every year... fun stuff!

-N.

A buddy and I were there Sat/Sun too, and did well. Got a 14# buck on Sat that just missed the derby cut. Two others at 10+, and a small one we kept for our limit to get back in time for the derby deadline. We also released a nate buck that was well over 20#. Sunday was slower, but we hit a lot of large nates. Finished our limit Sun at 1:15 with 2 over 10# again.

In a day and a half, two of us kept 8 fish and released 60 of which 50-55 were nates, many over 15# and one of our doubles featured two nates in the upper teens that hit both rods simultaneously.

I think we were into bigger fish on average than a lot of folks we talked to. We also were trolling faster than most and away from the crowds. And, we hit fish on a lot of different gear, from bait to flies to hardware, mostly shallower than 45 ft, but sometimes down as far as 75.

The weather and water were perfect, unless you don't like the fog. Heading back out again Thur-Sat and it's looking like similar conditions.

One thing I was very disappointed to see was how many people were netting every fish they hooked, then dumping them on the floor of their boat only to "throw" them back overboard. Between our release stick and a set of pliers, we only brought 1 fish in the boat that we intended to release, and that was only because this big buck had wired it's mouth shut with the leader and the hooks were inside. Even then, we lifted the fish in the boat with two hands so as to do it less harm, then cut away the leader. Took a few minutes of cold hands and CPR after that, but he swam away strong and it was worth the extra effort.

Of note, a friend of mine in another boat got a $75 ticket at Sekiu Sat for not recording a fish on his punchcard IMMEDIATELY. They'd just landed it and were reorganizing things (important when there are rods and hooks laying around with kids in the boat). They hadn't put their rods back in the water yet nor had they done anything which would suggest they were starting to fish again. And, they passed every other inspection (licenses, barbless, safety and floatation on kids, etc) and had recorded the other three fish in their box. Given the perfect marks everywhere else and the fact that they hadn't yet returned to fishing, I think the gamies should have given him a warning instead. After hearing this Sat evening, we made sure we marked our cards Sunday before our keepers were even out of the net...

How big are the boat rentals at Olsen and how reliable in deep waters???

deep or shallow both will float your hat!


They are like 16' heavy glass boats, very solid, stable and they don't care about how deep the water is. I whatched one go out with three adults and two children onboard for an afternoon trip.....they made it back...alive....

Sometimes, if you are lucky, you can get one that is like the boats in Florida, you know with bottoms that you can see through......it's great for whatching the sharks and killer whales

Tickets = Revenue

To hear about $75 tickets given in cases like that, really irk me.

On one hand the game wardens want to be treated with respect, but on the other they want to disrespect the law-abiding citizens by making sure they generate revenue at every stop.

Does anyone think they are out there to "Protect and Serve" or are they out there to "Tax and Harass"?