Going camping at Van Ripers the week of 4th of July. Want to hear how things are going. Heard the opener has been slow for kings. A few feeder Coho have been caught off of Slip Point. Have any info to share about the "what" and the "where"?

Thats pretty much what Olsons web site said...SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW

I was there for the opener slow isn't the word it was DEAD. My brother caught a 70lbs halibut in front of the caves. Fished from 4:30 to about 9:00 am saw no fish caught. I was there last year for the opener and there was alot of fish caught. I hope the Makahs didn't wipe it out. Hopefully it is a late run.

Yesterday we fished from 2:30 to 8:30pm and had one drive by, just popped it off the downrigger. First time I was skunked on the opener.

Today was a different story, for us at least, as we brought 14 fish to the boat, lost one nice king on a popped leader, let go a 12lb wild king, a 21.5" king, finally bringing in 4 silvers and a pair of pinks.

We fished from 5:00am til about 8:00am in close from short of Pilar Point to Kydaka, then we headed out to 550 feet of water, fishing from 40 to 95 feet in depth until about 11:15am. Green hotspot with a green/white glow in the dark hootchie with shrimp oil was the ticket for us, heard white hootchie was working well, but we didn't have any.

There were about 10 boats out far, lots of boats in close, and when we were cleaning our fish, we were one of the very few with fish. Lots of folks don't know what pinks are, again, as one a-hole griped about me keeping wild kings (actually pinks). After a quick lesson on how to tell them apart, I received an apology. Learn your fish people.

Nice report Dogfish. Hope it picks up soon.

How many eggs did you whore?

Thanks for the report.

I'll be out there next weekend. Hopefully it will pick up by then.

July 4th report--

Tons of very small silvers out in the shipping lanes. Everything we hooked was 1-3 pounds. The good thing was that we had to release very few native fish. We caught a couple of pinks , but we weren't targeting them so I don't know if we had fished differently, we wouldn't have caught more. For us, the bite died just before slack (~9:30 or so).

We moved in at that point and fished for chinook for about an hour around the mid-morning slack. Didn't seem like anything was going on. Then, just when we were about to quit around 11:00, BAM, we hooked a 15 pound hatchery king . Hooked him shallow--35' down with flasher and green-glow splatterback spoon.

The fish checker had only seen two kings at noon when we came in. Pretty darn slow.

Pressure was light. It was pretty rough the two previous days, according to those that I talked to... and slow fishing to boot. Most people headed home on Sunday, apparently. We practically had the place to ourselves... well, we shared the place with a couple hundred others, but it seemed pretty low key compared with other times we've been there in July.

so how rough is rough out at sekiu, i was out at wesport yesterday, we did fairly well on kings, i think i brought 3 to the boat, my buddy had like 15+ on, we released alot at the boat, i was sick all day and didnt enjoy that trip at all, first time and last time for me out there, so is sekiu a lil easier on a person? how big are the rollers/waves?? kept'd 2 kings, 15 and 18 pounds respectively..

The wind comes up and blows 20-30 and you get a short steep chop. It can be pretty tough when the current is running out. The reason most of us fish Sekiu instead of Westport is that we have small boats. So, it's probably better than Westport, but I wouldn't take my boat out of Westport ever.

Give it a few weeks and the chinook fishing should pick up. It's not worth the drive for little coho dinks, in my opinion.

Anyone fish it lately? Thanks in advance!

Fished Sooke (on the other side of the strait) for 5 days. No Birds. No Bait. Few Fish. Things started to pick up a bit the 4th and 5th, but not what you would expect for this time of the year.

Fished it the 5th, 6th, and 7th. SLOW!

I'm headed up there again on the 11th and 12th, hopefully things will pick up.

My source further up the West coast of Vancouver Island says the fish are late to Sooke, but great numbers further up. Sounds like they are coming.

I was out of Snow Creek for opening weekend. Nice 12 pound plus native coho's at garbage dump but small size on Kings and hatchery coho...6 to 8 pounds, lots of pinks. Sunday/Monday salmon is closed in area 4 so went to Sekiu. Kings and coho's all kind of small, around 6 to 8 pounds. Picked up halibut a bit east of Slip Pt. Heard the late evening King bite at the caves produced a big King.

Both areas, when the in close bite turned off we headed out an deep till we found them. All hardware, no bait.

Good luck...Deb

Just got back. slowest I've ever seen. Hit small kings out in the shipping lanes but none in my usual spots. No keepers. Sounds like Neah is dead slow too unless you're willing to go 40 miles out. I'd say a minimum of two weeks if not three. Oh and to the guy who "went to La Push" from Sekiu cleaning a non-clipped king....yeah right!!!

Just back from Neah and it was slow unless you went to Blue Dot... ( 30 miles past tatoosh). Managed very few salmon. Ate in Sekiu Wednesday night and BS with a few other locals whos said it was slow there too. Hopefully a couple weeks will change everything, of course the WDFW will probably claim we reached quota and shut it down before it ever gets going....

Starting to sound like a broken record, but it was extremely slow for us as well. Managed one clipped king at Sekiu and one at Neah down by Umatilla for three days of fishing. SLOW.

Anybody notice the lack of bait in the area? This time last year and in previous years Sekiu was loaded. Don't see much of a reason for the fish to hang around if there's nothing to eat. Sure hope we don't have a springer run on our hands.

I guess having area 9 closed until August isn't so bad this year after all.

Good to see elkrun posting again.

We got up there late Wed (6th) & saw a little action in the afternoon. I hooked a nice lingcod just as I was pulling up near the bell for the day.. too bad it was closed.

The next day was a bit better at the caves. Friday saw another late start with some camper problems in the morning but we did hook a couple over at Slip Pt.

Saturday saw the most action & bought a 20# Black on a green hootchie. I hooked a couple on the army truck. Then we concentrated NW of the Bell for consistent shakers which was fun for my 12yo. They seemed to like the red/silver or red/gold Coyotes on the orange E-chip flasher.

We tried to grab the hally a couple hours on the side of each tide over the 4 days & saw 2 or 3. My dad caught nothing but dogs all day long which was quite humerous. I spent hours fooling around with my Lowrance 335 CDF & WOW what a unit. Too bad the 337 is twice the rez.

All in all I had a good time & my son was 50% happy but being 12yo its tough. He caught a few BEAUTIFUL Kings but 7-10#s.

Still, its disappointing to blow $500-1000 in fuel, moorage, food, & gear. I suppose that's why we call it fishing.. not catching! hehe You sure can't pay for a boat recreational fishing but it beats working for a living.

Anyway, it was a good trip.. my 1st to Sekiu. We participated in the PA halibut derby a month or so ago, so I feel good about learning all the spots & areas. I realized that PA was a lot closer than I thought it was.. its been years since I'd been up there. Sekiu is a drive though.

OT: It was my 1st time to the bubble off of Tulalip Bay last week & I got a set my 1st drop but lost him. At least we got some crab & hooked up with my old high-school buddy!

Fished outside of Neah, decent coho 10 miles out but no bait showing!!!! Got a decent king each day, and we were pleasantly suprised with the size of the clipped coho's (up to 10#'s).