Anyone know what the King count is as far as the quota goes?

The minimum size was raised in areas 1 through 4 which is a direct target of large native fish. Yet area five is restricted to small clipped fish. I still haven't heard any justification for the discrepency. Yes puget sound stocks need to be protected but there are stocks in Columbia tributaries that are even more endangered (ie. Snake river fish).

Sekiu was slow Friday through Sunday. Caught a few nice kings, but they had too many fins. Pulled the boat out and trailered it up to Neah Bay. It was a good move.

We fished just inside of Tatoosh and once we found the fish nobody drove the boat for an hour and a half while we had endless doubles and triples. We have no idea how many we caught yesterday. Punched out with 6 silvers and 3 pinks for the boat. One bigger clipped silver, about 7lb+, the rest were 3 lb'ers. Release one nice silver over 8lbs. The hit everything.

Pinks galore! Sekiu should be hot in about a week or two, just in time for the 4 fish a day limit.

Do u have to run far for the fish at Neah Bay? I"ll be using one of those 16ft rentals witha 15 HP and wont be able to travel to far for the fish.

Alot of fish are caught just outside Neah in the rips that form off Waadah Island. I think Tatoosh is about 5 miles from Neah.

I think Elkrun is pretty much right on in his assessment. People are keeping blackmouth in areas 5 and 6 using up the quota with 5-8# fish. It is possible to retain a nice sized Chinook that is clipped. Neah Bay or area 4 is a totally different fishery and the way the season is set up is almost totally a result of the Makah tribe's demands at North of Falcon. The Makah trollers are working out in the ocean and in the straits every day and the liberal season for sports fishing is a boon to the town of Neah Bay and the tribes.

By the way, the hottest fishing is 12-20 miles offshore and it is no place for a small kicker boat. The area inside Tatoosh to Sail Rock is really an excellent and safe fishery.

The fishery in area 4 have a "guideline of 3,900 Chinook. I don't know for sure yet what a guideline is compared to a quota but my guess is that the Makahs will call the shots on any closure. The Skagway Rocks area should just be starting to turn on this weekend and bigger fish should be available.

I still haven't heard a valid explanation or the reasoning behind why the ocean is open to killing wild fish while the strait is not. Can't find it on WDFW site either. Anyone?

My understanding through talking w/ the people in charge at WDFW is that many of the fish that are caught in area 4 are Columbia Rv. fish and not Endangered Puget Sound fish. I assume this data is off past Coded Wire Tag recoveries, but not positive, does not make alot of sence, but I have heard it from many people. Why we are alowed to kill wild CR fish and maybe OR fish, I'm not sure.
I may only have part or the story, I to think there is a tribal factor involved.

NEN

Grandpa had it right when he told you that the Makah's have a big say in the North of Falcon process as to what the season will be in area 4.

But I am not talking about just area 4. Areas 1 though 4 (the entire ocean) have catch and kill on native kings. The snake river, last I heard, has even more endangered runs than PS. Plus the CR is projected to have it's third largest hatchery return ever. So where's the logic?

If you go to the North of Falcon meetings [ where they set salmon quotas and seasons] you would see there is very little logic involved.

Stlhead,
I believe, and I could be wrong it does happen a lot, that most of the Snake River Chinook are Spring and Summer Chinook and the fish that are being targeted now in areas 1-4 are fall Chinook that spawn in the lower river and lower tribs up to Hanford reach, which is still healthy. I do not know what the clipped rate is for fall chinook on the columbia, but I do not think that it is very high, therefore most fish would be released anyway.

NEN

i fished Sekiu thursday and fridayand got into around 80 salmon , mostly coho around 2.5 to 4 lbs...Around 20 of those fish were kings of which a half dozen were legal size but all natives...biggest one was around 10 lbs...i didnt see many keeper kings being caught....the ticket was 8 oz wt with plug cut herring with around 100 ft of line out...Mousilini pt was the hot spot and the caves early in the morning...cant wait to get back there

At this web site, http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/creel/puget/ your can keep track of fish counts at the docks.
And by divideng the total number of fish caught by the numbers of anglers, you can get a decent estement on the chance of cating a fish even down the the type. For the week of the 7-13 at Sekiu, fishermen had a chance of around 40% of cating a fish. I keep track of this on Power Point and set up charts to see when the peak of the run is ( the highest percentage). I keep track of Everett, Sekiu, Pt. Difiance, and The Hood Cannel.

[edit] The numbers shown on this site are only the fish kept by fishermen and not ones that they released.

Fished Sekiu Saturday. The water was like glass, and the fish have moved east from Neah Bay. The morning hours were the best, with about 60% of our fish being caught in the first three hours of the day. We punched a total of 6 silvers and one pink after 10 hours on the water, with about 40 fish brought to the boat, and at least 20 more on for some period of time. Only caught 3 pinks, but the hatchery to native ratio on the silvers was pretty good at about 1:5.

The kings gave us a wide berth, with only one probable hooked. (I took off with a nice 80 yard run, then unbuttoned.) Only saw a few kings at the cleaning station.

We did see a number of halibut landed, with to fish over 40lbs, and one boat with a couple of fish in the low teens.

My 4 year old got his first salmon in the salt, a scrappy 3lb hatchery silver.

Andy

I am going to be heading out there tomorrow morning early. We have been doing well on hooking kings but just not the hatcheries. The first 2 i caught we hatcheries and the last 15 have been natives:( We had to realease about a 35 and a 25 last weekend.

fj15- DORK

Headin back over there for Friday and Saturday. If it's anything like it was 2 weeks ago I'll be in heaven. Gotta get back to sail rock for some more bottom fish as well...yummy!!!

Just found out that I'm a proud poppa to be (first one), so I gotta get out while I still can.