Salmon are in at Neah Bay!!!

I figure I caught somewhere around 150-200 of them from Thursday night to Sunday morning. Started as far south as off of Ozette and gradually worked my way closer to Neah Bay harbor.

First night we fished in front of Wadaah Island and caught some... and figured we'd really get into them by going down to Umatilla Reef. We ended up only getting about 8-10 miles south before we changed our minds and decided to fish Makah Bay. 10 pound kings caught here

Next morning we decided to only fish in front of Tatoosh. We caught 10 pound kings here and our companion boat caught a 28 pounder the day before.

Next morning we just ran past Wadaah Island and started fishing there.

The fish were everywhere and even in close to shore. (Close to shore is relative. We were 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile out)

Our original thoughts were we would need to run down to Umatilla to find the bigger kings and found out that wasn't necessary. Our biggest were caught in front of Tatoosh and off the Koitlah Point aka "the garbage dump".

Also contrary to conventional thinking I didn't need to fish deep for my biggest king. I caught it fishing 30 feet deep in 260 feet of water fishing silver style. This wasn't the only king I caught that way as the night before we got into a school of kings and were banging them about every 5-10 minutes fishing shallow. My biggest was a 19 3/4 pound white king probably headed for the Fraser.

We also didn't need to travel to find kings. They're right in front of Wadaah, and in my "small boat opinion" not necessary to travel far around the corner from Tatoosh to find.

Hot lure for me was a blue/green hoochie that I had in my box for about 20 years. Never before had enough confidence in it to catch a fish on it. Hot lure for my partner was a new color Coyote spoon out called the "Super Trooper". It's a variaton of the Cop Car and sold by Ted's Sporting Goods in Lynnwood.

I ate smoked salmon last night for a snack. Had teryaki salmon last night for dinner. Brought smoked salmon to work this morning for the gang.

Signed,

A fish eating seagull

sounds like if you had had a commercial license, you could be retired now! that's a lot of fish for 4 days.

if you made it as far south as cape alava, i presume the sea state was not at all severe. what was it like, anyway?

john

John,

We didn't make it all the way to Umatilla reef...only to the next point above it.

It was a little "bouncy" in my boat and took us some time just to get down to where we were. I'd hate to mention how long it took...

One thing I didn't mention as I hope it was assumed...... we didn't keep all those salmon. If I did, shoot, it would have sunk my boat.

I'm already planning my next Neah Bay trip.

Thanks for the info on the water-logged gas. I heard of a disabled boat out near Tatoosh during the same time period and you have to wonder if he got "bitten". I might buy a couple gas cans for my trip.

I'm looking at installing an inline fuel filter that has a reservoir to collect water. It's different than a regular fuel filter and I don't know how to describe it, but there's one out there for marine applications.

Carburaeted motors will go belly up with water. The fuel injected ones can pass it, but will run balky. I had both in my boat. One that wouldn't run..... and one that kind of shook the boat as it got up on power.

I heard this filter is about as big as a regular oil filter... so it's not dainty.

Bill-- An in-line water separator is an excellent idea, which reminds me that I need to change the cartridge before heading out to Neah Bay myself.

The size isn't that large-- about the size of an oil filter on my wife's Toyota-- but the mounting bracket does take up space. I've got mine on the inside wall of the transom with barely enough room to drop the cartridge.

Once you replace the cartridge and see the gunk that comes out, you will never have a boat without one.

While I haven't seen them, there may well be versions made for use with portable tanks that you could install in the fuel line. I'd probably check the catalog at a West Marine store.

Keith

bill: one highly respected filter brand is RACOR. at marinefilters.com you can look up the RACOR model 320RRAC01 that they sell for about $44. it is both a fuel filter AND a water separator.

but, bill: the flow rate is only 60 gallons per hour. is that enough for your rig????

john

John,

That's the name that was mentioned to me. I didn't know how to spell it... and even forgot the name... but my memory fired up when I read your post.

Back on Monday when I talked to the shop I didn't want an exposed filter in my motor well... but... I be starting to lean that way now.