Went to Sekiu with the family for what should have been fast and furious coho action. Heard some promising reports from last week, and with the rain, I thought things were set up for some good fishing.

Hmmm. Not so. We fished pretty hard on Friday, and got blown off the water around noon with only two good fish (6 lbs and 8 lbs) in the boat and another few wild fish released. Also, we had about 42,000 12" coho shakers. Ok, maybe not that many, but we had a lot.

Saturday... too rough. Got the poles in the water and called it after about 15 minutes.

Today... weather was finally better. However, fish still weren't abundant. Ended up with one fish about 8 lbs. Fish checker said it was about 1 fish for each 4 boats! That's pretty crummy odds for coho in early September.

Anyone have any better reports??? Is Sekiu a bust this year for coho, or are they still coming?

I hope they're still coming as they need to get by Sekiu so I can chase them out of PA or JWM

A family friend is out there right now and has been for a couple weeks... First few days they were limiting the boat.. These last few days, nothing but wilds..

We were up at Snow Creek August 26th-29th and scratched up one hatchery fish with a few wilds mixed in, a lot of shakers and some 4-5lb blackmouth. Ended up being a bottom fishing trip, most years at that time it is lights out for coho.

Talked with a friend who's been out there for a while. HIt and miss fishing. Biggest so far this year was 13#. Average is 8-10#. Today's trip for him yielded one legal fish and 3 natural origin releases.

If you know what coho fishing is usually like at the west entrance of the straits during labor day weekend, you'll find this interesting. We took a troll in SCA conditions yesterday from the 50 fathom line WSW of tatoosh to the west side of duncan rock up to the old whistler bouy location, and continued north to almost to the commercial traffic lanes. About 2 hours and 5-6 miles total with three rods down through and along the same big tide rips that are usually teaming with coho from early august to mid september consistantly every year.

ZERO bites. Never seen it like that there in Aug/Sept, SCA or otherwise. Not looking good for CQ and Puget Sound anytime soon. Hopefully some of that swarm of coho way offshore head east and not all south.

do you think there is any chance that wdfw will keep it open into October if the run is way behind schedule? would be nice huh?

kenzmad

Or should the season be closed early because the run is smaller than expected?

However without reliable models to update the run I would expect the season to run as more or less listed; may not be the best thing for the fish but does provide predictability in the seasons

Tight lines
Curt

Some people have said all the runs have been late this year. Not sure about that, but maybe. It really hasn't rained until today. We need more rain. Bet CQ is lights out next weekend if it rains more. You guys likely know more than me.

Same story in Tofino BC a month ago...my week there is my usual indicator of run strength back to WA. 30 or more coho per rod per 8 hours is indication of a great upcoming coho season. 10-30 is indication of good fishing, and less than 5 means its going to be tough. We caught a grand total of 10 coho for the week, all but 1 was wild. We actually caught more sockeye than coho, which was a first and amazing considering we fished mostly herring and plugs.

I was just wondering cuz I am booked up for september and unable to wet a line this month. looking forward to 8-2 and area 9 in october, but sekiu would be awesome if they kept it open. how quick they are to close it early if there are no fish but haven't seen them leave it open if the fish didn't arrive on time. just my $0.02

kenzmad

Need more rain???

At my place here in Marysville we got 2 inches of rain in a 24 hour period August 31/Sept 1 and it has been raining non-stop stop since mid-morning today -enough all ready!

I do agree that the run may not be late. Compared to the past couple years last year I saw fewer than normal coho smolts during the summer's fisheries, very few coho jacks last fall, and the resident coho were essentially missing in action all winter/spring/summer. Not encouraging signs for a strong adult run this fall. Take that with the lower Columbia coho numbers, a so-so ocean coho season, contuing shaking reports from Neah Bay and the north coast it is not looking very promising.

However like all fishermen I have my fingers crossed that the fish will show or at least those that do will be in a biting mood however my expectations are tempered with the above.

Tight lines
Curt

One thing I thought about was the complete absence of resident coho... not just from Sekiu, but from everywhere in Puget Sound. What would cause that?

All the fish we caught and all the fish I saw at Sekiu last weekend were what I would call ocean fish. (Except for the huge number of 3 year old coho... saw a ton of those!)

I'm w/ you on that one Jaydee.


The fishing off Westport is on schedule w/ most of the days catch being mature coho. Here is a charter report from the last few days.

September 6th, 2010 7:58 PM
BREEZY, WET, & LUMPY TODAY. BUT OK FISHING DESPITE THE WEATHER. ONE PLUS PER PERSON, SOME LIMITS. 75% COHO UP TO 19-20 IN THE ROUND. MAIN FISHING AREA ABOUT 7-8 MILES SW OF GH BUOY IN 230-260 FEET OF WATER

September 5th, 2010 6:42 PM
GOOD FISHING DAY - SALMON 1.5+ - ABOUT 70% COHO - NICE HOOKNOSE - MOST FISHING AROUND THE SOUTH BOWL AREA - TUNA CONTINUES TO BE GOOD.



c/22

Question for those who've been fishing Sekiu recently:

Have you been marking fish/seeing much activity that signals that the Coho are/aren't there?

Reason I ask is that it seems that Sekiu was slow this summer for the Kings but the inner sound saw a great year for the MA 9/10 kings, in both numbers and size of fish. Could it be that the fish are blowing by Sekiu without actively feeding?

From the reports I've heard from Sekiu, it seems like the inner sound is more productive for Coho right now then out in the straights. Fishing for me in Area 9 hasn't been red hot but I've been finding a fish here or there in the past week. Got two the other morning...

We didn't mark much at all on the sounder. Didn't see bait balls, but we did see a huge patch of krill right on the surface with fish finning right on top and gulls eating them. Never seen that before.

I think that the difference in PS vs. Sekiu is that you have to release the wild fish up there. We landed at least 4 or 5 fish each day, but had to release most of them. In fact, my buddy went home with 0 after releasing 3 fish that were in the low teens... all wild.

So, it's about expectations. If I were fishing at Possession, I think we'd call a 4-5 fish day a success... but not at Sekiu when in the past, late August and early Sept. is usually 15-20 fish days to bring home our boat limits of 6-8 hatchery fish.

That's encouraging to hear that there are some Wild fish are present. I also agree that a few fish a day at Sekiu during September is definitely a lot worse "catching" than what is should be during this time of year. I can remember years back when your cut plug couldn't spend more than 10 minutes in the water before getting annihilated by a Coho. Those were the years that you couldn't even get your line in the DR clip to lower your ball before a coho would grab your herring on the surface behind the boat...

I, too remember those years... maybe I hold onto those memories too tightly? I think it was four years ago, I took my family up in Mid-Sept. and we had our limit of eight 8-12 lb coho in about 90 minutes. That year was the first we could keep the wild coho in mid-September.

The kids were losing about two fish for each one we boated. I was constantly untangling, de-netting, rebaiting. We had doubles, fish hitting the gear while in the DR clip on the surface... pretty much chaos. And, we had a total blast!

I'm not willing to believe it's not going to turn on. I'll be back up in mid-September... hopefully it will be better.

Just had the worst trip to Neah ever as far as silvers go. Wonder if those hombolts last year had something to do with it ?

Just finished my 20th year fishing S.E. Ak. this was without a doubt, the worst silver season I've seen.