I can handle myself when fishing Neah Bay or Sekiu for salmon, but I have only caught bottom fish incidentally when mooching. Anybody have any suggestion from Tatoosh to Waddah? Where do I look, what do I use? I can catch salmon with my eyes closed, but bottom fish in the big water are a puzzle.

Thanks in advance!

Andy

D F
On an incoming tide try fishing right behind dunkan rock. The black rockfish wad up there like crazy. Your fish finder will go black! Also just head into the kelp beds and slide with the tide. Watch your outboard, if you leave it running in the kelp you can have your water intake plugged by the kelp and blow out your water pump or worse. I always just take a bw full of 3/8 oz. jig heads (the cheap ones that allow the hooks to straighten out if you snag the kelp, you will loose less rigs) white, black or chartruese 3-4" curl tail grubs. Small dart like jigs wil work great too and will allow the possibilty of hitting a big king to.

depending on your boat size, (I have a 16 foot mirrocraft) you may want to stay inside? I had intentions of hitting duncan rock when I went, but the swells just looked to much like an insurance claim waiting to happen. I fished right inside tatoosh and my buddy hooked a legal ling almost right off the bat, then we moved down shore about 500 yard east of mushroom rock there are some rocks with a "chute" between them and the shore, we fished that run several times and had about 10 fish in the boat over the course of an hour. also I caught my keeper believe it or not on the inside of wadda island up against the jetty by the old wrecked boat. only 28 inches, but it tasted great, we swung around there and caught another just sub legal ling as well. we used the cheap 6" jigs from swains that you have to put your own hooks on. I read somewhere that the best way to rig your jigs up there is to not use a treble hook but instead attach a large single hook to the top eye next to your swivel. since these fish have huge mouths and they hit the jig body anyways this is supposed to result in the same amount of hookups and fewer snags. good luck! that was truely one of those trips that are going in my "I remember when" book

Don't forget to hit seal & sail rock just to the east.Hit the south west side of tatoosh for your rock fish as well.Ling's will be here and there through out the area's mentioned.
Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

We saw some large lings come off the reef just east of sail and seal rocks. The sea bass were really thick at Duncan rock.