We have never been but are thinking of going Thursday thru Sunday with the Family. Not sure if we should go to Neah bay or Sekiu....If anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated. We have a 21' boat and will be tent camping. We love to bottom fish as well as Salmon.

Thanks a bunch for any info,

Jeff

Well Wooldridge... I just talked to a friends wife... he has been at CQ for a couple of days... and they got 15 sea bass and several salmon yesterday... not to far out....

Good luck!

If you love to bottom fish, I would have to say Neah Bay is the place to be. Matter of fact for salmon too, Neah Bay is better. The extra 30 minute drive is worth it to Neah Bay.

I just came back from there. My recommendation would be Neah Bay, and to fish outside in the ocean. I don't have quite enough boat for a long run into the ocean but those who did were catching plenty of fish.

Not much happening inside around Waadah, Mushroom rock, or the Garbage dump for kings. Some small silvers in the rips but it's not what I would call "hot" yet. Bottom fishing is good, mostly for blacks.

Fished Monday morning for kings at Sekiu and drew a blank. Didn't see too many nets out for the 100 or so boats there either. Went out into the shipping lanes looking for coho but came up empty there too.

Weather was great all weekend and the straits and ocean were about as flat as I've seen them.

I'm headed to Neah bay tomorrow on a one-day trip, where that extra half-hour drive each way makes a big difference, so you can tell where my preference lies. Neah Bay can be very, very good-- much better than Sekiu in my experience. Plus the rockfish are usually there in quantity with a more liberal limit.

Tomorrow should be a good day with little wind early and soft tides.

I've heard that the fishing is only so-so for kings, but that silvers and the bigger ocean rockfish were to be found a couple of miles west of Tatoosh.

Keith

Neah Bay hands down. If you read the reports from Seiku you'll notice how many native kings had to be released. You can keep them at Neah Bay. Bottom fishing is way better at Neah Bay.

My three sons and I were up there the 10th & 11th. I only have a 15' boat with a 25 hp motoer so we obviously took turns on the boat and stayed inside of Tatoosh. Two-day total was 6 kings, 25 silvers, 30 black rockfish, 3 brown rockfish, 3 lingcod, a greenling and a cabezon. We only spent 2 hours on the second day fishing the edge of the kelp beds/rocks inside of tatoosh for bottomfish.

If I had a 21 foot boat I'd get canadian licenses and pick up halibut on the canadian side of swiftsure and then check the reports for Umatilla or Blue Dot for large kings. Obviously we did fine inside but better fishing can be had outside. Ask at Big Salmon or on this board for current reports.

BTW on the salmon - Just my experience but, a Green-glow-splatterback hotspot flasher with green-glow splatterback hootchie outfished herring 4 to 1.

Have a great trip - I'm trying to decide wether to go back to NB or stay home and fish sockeye.

OS-- How deep were you running the flasher?

Go to Neah, stay at Snow Creek ( http://www.snowcreekwa.com ), It's just before the res on a sharp right hand corner. You can fuel up at the fuel dock at the Neah Bay Marina, Straight ahead when you clear the inner breakwater.

Thanks so much for the information! I am thinking of Neah Bay. Are the water conditions about the same for both places? I think I have heard Sekiu is calmer but the conditions should not be too bad anyways...

Thanks agian,

Jeff

Another vote for neah bay. I go out there in my 17'er whenever I can. I love the open ocean and the conditions arent much different than sekiu until you round Tatoosh.

When I was up there a couple weeks ago the mooching in the early AM was great right infront of the Green can at the mouth of the bay.

KJ - I was running the flasher from 40 to 70 feet down - caught fish at all depths but about 45 caught most of them.

Thanks, OS-- the way things are going today, I'll probably forgo downriggers for this trip and use Plan B for depth control. That may be a mistake... I'll have a report Friday.

Keith

Here's the report: Hit the water about 8 in the morning and left about 3:30

The "nice weather" turned out to be 10-20 knot winds out of the east in the morning. WIth the tide, wind and swells, the water off Tatoosh was rough. In the afternoon, it calmed down and was glass with swells on the way back to the ramp.

We hit no kings, but then we weren't trying for them, opting to give my NY son action rather than big. We got into silvers immediately off Tatoosh about a half mile. The fish were big-- 8 maybe even 9 pounds-- something I would expect to see in late August. We caught a few smaller silvers and probably ended up catching 12 or maybe 15 salmon, but only five of them were hatchery fish.

We also got into some rockfish right off the island. All fish were shallow-- probably within the top 10 feet. I did see some surface slashes.

It was a great day to be on the water, and worth the seven hours of driving.

On the Good News front, the road construction around Lake Sutherland in almost finished.

Keith