hey folks, me and two other marines are going to fly blind and try neah bay this weekend. several things I am concerned with are:

Saturday is a minus tide at 1000. how bad is the current up there in this situation?

what are some good "general" spots to try? I don't want any honey holes or anything, but seeing as neah bay is very large, some general coordinates would help us alot.

Are the some accepted practices in regards to Marine radio use? such as channels for chatting, radio checks etcetra?

best baits? we are going to bring some point wilson darts, some jigheads 5", and some herring with cannon balls.

basically just would like any help we can get to ensure this trip is successful, as we may not get to go up there again.

What kind of boat? What are you fishing for?

For currents, it is an issue if you are close in to the rocks fishing for Lings or rockfish. Also, if you are in a small boat and the wind is blowing against the current, the resulting confused seas can be quite a headache. The current by itself doesn't pose a hazard in open waters.

For the marine radio, you can yack on 68, 69, 70, and 71. Don't talk on 16 unless you need emergency assistance, or are responding to someone else's emergency. Monitor 16 to respond to emergencies if you think you can help, but don't become a victim yourself.

I would try and talk someone into letting you follow them out. Or get up early and follow a charter. Alot of guys are using pipe jigs for halibut as well as lings. They are pricey though so use 'em if you got 'em. I would suggest a big rubber worm if you dont. Use alot of scent and anything that will get it down to the bottom. That worked for halibut and lings last week.

shoemaker, I am going to make some pipe jigs, just got 200# of lead from the tire store. I am not really wanting to fish for halibut or anything out real far. I would prefer to stay along the shore or at least within 3-4 miles of the marina

boy, seems mums the word around here huh? hoping someone can offer some pointers prior to friday?

Mindfusion, I have not been out there for many years, although I plan on going out there with a friend from Port Angeles in July for Salmon. When I did go out there I was on a charter and we went to Swiftsure Bank, which is way out there.

I would suggest you do a search on this board. I know there have been plenty of posts in the past talking about areas close in. I would go to Outdoor Emporium, Sportco, or any tackle store that carrys the gear and ask them. Chances are always good someone will be in the store who goes there often and will help you out too. Hey, if you are going anyway then do what I do when I am in a new spot. Go directly to the boat launch and start talking with people, especially people with a boat similar in size to yours.

If I knew some spots out there I would tell you and if all else fails just find some rocks or kelp and start pitching some jigs. Keep talking to people and watching what is going on and you should get things reasonably figured out quick. Best of luck!

mike, appreciate the input, we are going, as we are all facing orders sooner or later and may not get another chance to hit neah bay. just got a vhf radio and gps this week so we should be ok if the water is not crazy. my boat is posted in the thread about boat pics if anyone wants to offer thier input on its suitablility for neah bay? we plan on skirting the shoreline down to around mushroom rock. we mainly just want to catch some fish, don't care if they are black rockfish or 300 # halibut, as long as we live to talk about it

I saw your boat and looks good to me as long as the weather doesn't pickup too much. When in close to the rocks do be careful of the current and if you get a wind against the current the waves will grow higher and be more confused. I would suggest you pickup a chart of the area if you don't have one. The chart will show you structure such as rock piles, pinnacles, and kelp to help you locate spots to fish.

You might want to think about Seiku too. Fishing and Hunting News did a little story on Seiku in the most recent issue still on the shelves. Its safer in a small boat then Neah Bay.

I used to be a National Park Ranger stationed out at Kalaloch on the coast. I saw boats smaller then yours that had ran out of gas drift down the fifteen miles or so South from La Push then come crashing into the beach through the surf. Neither the boat nor the people on board came through unscathed, although I never saw anyone killed.

Know your limitations and the boats limitations and always remember no fish is worth your life. Hey, we are depending on you to defend this country so stay safe and have a great trip. Best of luck to you!

mike, seems me and your are the only ones interested in this topic anyhow,due to 3 dollar gas at neah bay, we plan to carry our gas with us, so I should have a total of 16-18 gallons on board, it is a 4 stroke so it does good on gas and I am constantly checking it even in the sound down here. I think it will be a good trip, I just hate to think i am going to take these guys all the way up there and there may be a chance we will not do any good due to poor lure and or location selection

Mr. Mind, Here are some tips. Head right when you come outta Neah Bay. A couple miles down are two large rocks (seal and Sail rocks) anywhere near there is good just watch the fish finder and look for a fishy bottom. A little shorter run is if you go left and get in front of Waddah Island. There are fingers that come off The Island. Fish the fingers. Don't get to relaxed out there and get to close. Watch which way the current is flowing and use that when setting up to fish. There is also the Garbage dump hole across from there. Just ask anyone where it is and they will point it out to ya. There are alot more fishing spots out there. Just watch the other boats and keep your options open. Be careful out there and watch that wind. Hard tides and hard winds = disaster!!! I hope this helps a little and let us know how you do out there!!

P.S. If your wanting to know some more spots, I would be more then glad to go with you sometime to show ya!!!!!

souns good thanks. we were thinking about trying further down the shoreline around mushroom rock, is this to far in my boat? I was also thinking about wadda island, but isn't that pretty close to the harbor to be holding alot of fish? I don't really care about what we catch Like I said earlier, just as long as we can stay safe. does anyone have any input on this weekends tides and how they may or may not effect the area?

If the wind is not a problem, I would go out past Tatoosh Island. There is a pinicle about
(2) miles out of the slot on a 225 heading. Look on a chart. It will say breakers.

This area is great foe all types of bottom dwellers.

Go NW of the pinicle and the bottom turns sandy. Thats right, halibut.

You can also go through the slot and head south a few hundred yards and fish the pillars.

I have fished Neah for years in rental boats and my old 17 ft bayliner.

It is all about the wind, the tide change, and fishing hard on the slack tides.

MF,

I don't think anyone is holding out on you I think it's just a matter of people investing in the time to go to NB they are after Salmon and Halibut . Everything else is an after thought. Aslo once you get there it will be real clear where you can go depending on the conditions. I have run 4 to 5 miles out when it sdead calm and no sign of changes coming. In a 14ft boat. Realizing that if a storm came in at 20MPH I better be able to do 21MPH in open water or pay the price. If you have the finder just look for structure and move. I would swing around the corner and head S. If the tides and wheather allowed.

Just got back from neah bay on a bottom fishing trip. the weather is supposed to be pretty good so you should'nt have any problem. We found schools of black rockfish & lings on the east side of tatoosh around the flat topped rock that is there around 100ft down. Take lots of jigs! they start at about 2 - 3 bucks a piece in neah bay!! I've had best success on the dart style jigs in the 2 - 4 oz range. Halibut is to close at midnite thursday so rockfish will be the only game in town. DO NOT KEEP ANY CANARYS OR YELLOWEY! Watched a guy get fined yesterday for keeping 3 canarys thinking they were something else. $168 per fish plus the Coasties tacked on a sub fine of their own. OUCH!!

chaser sounds good! how many did you catch? also what size boat did you have around tatoosh?

went out for halibut 2 days and limited both days within a 1/2 hr. limited out on rockfish and lings on the second day and half limits the first day. Were in my buddies 22ft olympic but you should be fine in yours on the east side of tatoosh. Good luck!

well folks here goes nothing, we leave tommorrow after work, hopefully everything works out good I used maptech to plot coordinates on my gps (poor mans way) it works good, I guess I will find out saturday if they were accurate or if I end up in canada somewhere. Thanks to everyone for the info and guidance, I am really enjoying these boards and look forward to offering what little knowledge I have gained.

When you get to Neah Bay go into Big Salmon Resort and they have copies of the charts with the popular spots marked and gps coordinates on them too atleast they did last time I was there. Have fun and be safe.sealice

Hey, let us know how you guys do when you get back. Enjoy the trip!

will do, I will try to post pics if I get anything, otherwise you will get pictures of road signs from the way up

I just got back last light (20th) and I found a map of Neah Bay by "Fish 'N Map Co." that had good info on spots there with GPS coordinates right on it. Me and a buddy used that, and were sucessful. We drifted south to north at Twin Peaks and picked up some nice lings, up to 37 inches on big herring, with a spreader bar. Touch bottom and come up about three feet to avoid snags, use about 14 ounces of lead. An area 100-200 yds east of Chibahdehl rocks rises up to about 30 foot, and we found some nice big black rockfish there. A south west to northeast drift in the area by the jetty on the outside with a 1/2 ounce jig head and a white or red/orange curly tail produced rockfish for us too. We didn't fish to the right, but talked to guys that did, and they had nice fish, rock and ling. I was there in a 16 foot Arima, and the water was not smooth, I did fine, even on runs to swiftsure everyday. Good luck

cool, sounds like you did pretty good. how many rockfish did you find? you went to swiftsure in a 16 footer? it doesn't really matter now with halibut closed I guess

An Arima is a pretty seaworthy boat, it is almost 8 foot wide, but we saw Buckets of black Seabass come in from the kelp right around the corner to the left. Run out to the west edge of the little "lake" that the jetty makes there and fish along the Kelp. If you get there at night go to the fish cleaning station, listen and ask questions, most guys will help you out with what to get, how to do it. Another rule of thumb is that if there are 3 boats there, they are catching something! Good luck...

to everyone who helped me out, thanks! we had a great trip, with a couple dozen fish caught, not all keepers, but oh well. alot of the bigger boats did better, I could not get out past tatoosh due to large swells that I was not comfortable with but still caught a couple of keeper lings and several rockcod/ sea bass

Neah Bay can be an awsome place. Glad you were able to get out.

We just got back from NB last night. Went up Thursday afternooon. Gas is $2.86 a gal.

We needed a larger fish box. Lots of black sea bass, but never thought we would be throwing back Lings after we had limited on them. Also took 2 cabizon at 10# & one at 13# (damned big fish).

We fished Umatilla Reef Friday & had a ball.

Then fished east of Tatoosh Sat morning , pulled some along the shore on the way back & finished at Sail & Seal rock. Even had a halibut nail a sea bass on the line near the kelp east of Seal rock. Rather pumped the heart rate up when using steelhead gear.

Weather was great, but had a few rain showers Sat, then cleared up & sunny & warm.

my huge catch from neah bay not the biggest fish, but that combined with a few others and some rockcod made the trip worthwhile. we would have did better had I decided to cross through tatoosh and go on to duncan rock I think but better to live and fight another day when driving a dingy

Good eating, those young sea monsters!

Happy fish & chips!