Went out of Neah Bay for the opener. Left the dock at 6 am or so and headed out into the ocean. lots of guys fishing right at the mouth of the bay and along the way out. Saw one really nice king being released poorly and a few other blackmouth being caught.
Went offshore and ran into the silvers immeadiately. Lots of bait but no big schools or bait balls. Caught a ton of silvers up to about 8 pounds(wild) and only 1 King, about 12.
Had a good time but could not find a lot of Kings out in the ocean. The checker at the dock said everyone was catching fish but not a lot of size to them over all.

Thanks for the report. I am heading up the morning of the 8th and appreciate the info.

We were at Neah Thursday - Sunday. Got our halibut all 3 days at Canadian Swiftsure, all 25 to 30 lbs. Fished Duncan on Saturday on our way to Swiftsure. The black sea bass were so damned aggressive we had 3 limits in about an hour or so. Had to release a king about 20 lbs and had another follow the dart to the boat. We caught and released 3 more kings out at Swiftsure Saturday afternoon, one of those was about 20 also. I am really a fan of those Soft catch and release nets.

Jerry- Those sea bass were the main reason that I went offshore to try to find some Kings. They would not leave me alone anywhere inside. I probably caught about 20 before I got pissed and moved out. They had driven a school of bait into the rocks on the West end of Whadah (sp) and you could see hundreds of them in there. Would have loved to catch some on a fly rod.

Was there a lot of bait out on Swiftsure when you went? We started out that way but got distracted by some cohos on the way out. I have still yet to fish it but am going to try to my next trip.

Jerry we were also out on the Canada side for the past three day in a 19 Arema hard top may have seen you out there. Have not seen the water so flat and the fishing for flats that good in 18 years. We also got limits each day and sqeeked out a pair of 45's and a 70 to top the trip. The salmon are plentiful out that far and also watched many kings follow the rigs up from down deep. give a yell if you see us out next time, cheers

When you guys are out there do you have coordinates that you go to or do you look for certain structure on the bottom? Do you see many boats out that far?
What should someone who is running out there for the first time try to look for? Would mind sharing some tips?
Thanks
David

GPS coordinates are the only way to go out there. We started marking every fish we caught and it's amazing how close together the marks are.
We fish for the butts with 8 oz. darts so we pick up the occasional king on the drop and some when we are reeling up quickly. The dogfish seem to be especially aggressive this year as some of the butts we brought up had been chewed on.
There was alot of krill in the water but not much for herring on the surface. It's pretty neat when you see a couple of acres of herring choeing on the krill.
I'm going back out July 8.

Was anybody having luck @ the praire or Umatilla?

We fished Neah Bay on the opener. All inside of Tatoosh, although the water was SO calm we could have run to Swiftsure in our little boat without a problem.

Limits of kings 15-25 pounds and small silvers about 4 pounds by mid-morning.

Seemed like most people were getting their fish, although I'm not sure it was any better fishing in the ocean than inside. Nice to see so many fish inside already. Maybe they will push into the Strait for the Area 6 opener.

I'm not exactly sure about this but I was talking to a guy at Neah Bay this weekend that was saying that most of the kings coming in right now are actually Fraser kings and that their run is earlier than those headed to the sound. Anybody else hear this or is there any truth?

Kramer, I don't know about the timing of the Fraser R. run, but I do know they were always pretty identifiable. We used to call them Fraser footballs - short but very fat.

fished again this am. Started at 4:30 right out of the bay and within about 10 seconds had my first king of the day, 15 lbs or so. Ended up catching 8 or 9 with the biggest being 18, which I kept.
Could not touch them on the flasher/hootchie or coyotes. Everyone was caught on a blue label size herring cutplug.