Fellow anglers,

Looking for some input on Neah Bay for the weekend. Outside or inside, is it worth running all the way to Umatilla, or Swiftshure or Blue dot? or is the Salmon fishing just as good on the inside?

Also, I have been down to Umatilla a few times, and have had a hard time trying to figure out a general sense of where to fish. Its such a large area. Bottom fish, no problem, but those salmon are sure elusive for me!

Any input or advice is appreciated. Thank you all in advance!

JW

A guy out of Snowcreek got a 44lb and a 31lb out at Blue Dot Thursday. The coho are thick out at Swiftsure. Most people out at Umitilla are fishing out in 200ft + of water.

Thanks Jerry, appreciate your info.

Tight lines!

JW

Will be up this weekend also.

Have been sticking close and getting buttloads of Coho. Can't keep em' off your hook sometimes. Good sized Coho too. We might venture out though, weather permitting.


Fish on.

Go to any outside area and fish like you would in the sound. You will catch Kings. It's unreal.

Plan on heading out this weekend as well until Tuesday. How many fish are left on the king qouta? Are they still catching kings outside of Waadah? Dont quite have a big enough boat to fish outside of Tatoosh...

Kings are closed as of 8/1 inside of Tatoosh. Check the regs, no nookie worth a ticket.

NEN

Thanks for the reminder... for some reason, I was thinking that it was the end of this month. In total agreement -not worth a ticket..., and will brush up on the regs, again, before heading out...

If any fellow anglers from the board are heading out to Neah this weekend, let me know. We can swap some reports out there. I am heading out and fishing Friday and Saturday... Boat name is the "Nemisis"...

Look forward to possibly meeting some of you.

JW

JW:

I am going to be up there!!! How would you like to communicate???

My son and I will be there this weekend as well. I'm hoping to pick up a VHF handheld today so that I have a radio finally.

This will be my first trip to Neah. We were at Sekiu last weekend and had a great time. Where is a good place to Launch/Moor the boat? We'll be sleeping in the boat so I would like a quiet marina if possible.

BTW: I have the Green 19' North River with the River Anchor on the front.

There's only one show in town...Big Salmon. The docks are nice and it's pretty quiet.

Anyone heading to Neah have an open seat? I have never fished up there before and would love to see what the excitement is about.

I moved to Philly for dental school, and have not had a chance to salmon fish here at home or out east since I left. I am having fishing withdrawals!! Unfortunately, I head back to Philly in about two weeks to hit the books again.

I can help out with gas, food, etc..., and I have my own gear.

Thanks!
Joe

This is Jerry Garcia's favorite place and is a couple miles East of the Fine City of Neah Bay.

http://www.snowcreekwa.com/

There is a rail launch. You can either moor up on the dock or get a buoy. As soon as you get out to 180 feet (out to the North) you can see Wadaah and the green can at the entrance to Neah Bay.

Bring your GPS!! We were in fog with less than 1/8 mile visibility on the 8th.

The entrance is near Seal and Sail Rock. There are some things in the water you need to look out for. To exit go strait out from the Blue Buoys. There is a reef which is exposed at low tide 50 yards to the East of the entrance.

I usually listen in on VHF 68. This weekend I will be on the "TrueStory" I expect that we will be at Big Salmon.

Hey, a Neah Bay Neophyte here!

I have a 14' Smokercraft Alaskan, with a 25 hp Mercury, that I would be pulling up there. Now, I understand the water around there can get nasty in a hurry. When looking at the weather forecast, what wind conditions (i.e. what max wind speed) would be OK for me to fish? And, what forecast wave height should be OK for my boat? Even though it's only 14' long, it has high sides.

I prefer to fish with flies. I will fish on top, bucktail, cast flies, dredge with fast sink tips, whatever it takes. Though I much prefer to fly fish, I will take gear with me, too.

Any recommendations or suggestions on places I should concentrate?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Richard

Just look for the rips, diving birds and bring lots of clousers.

I don't think you want to go past Tatoosh in a 14'. We took the kicker out of Big Salmon out that far. What we saw the on the 8th, well, I wouldn't have wanted to be out there in a 14'. The Fog can be very thick and occur at any time. I don't think I would venture much past Wadaah Island. Sekiu might be a little more forgiving. Maybe. VHF and GPS is a must. Where your PFD. Don't forget the Dramamine or you will

I just got home yesterday ffrom there, We were up there from Sun the 8 through Sat the 14.

Friday there was a crash out there. I heard on the VHf that someone got a few broken ribs, thats all I heard. Also a 22' boat almost sunk out at swift shore Had water coming half way up front window when a wave would come, prop was almost out of the water (it was his first time out)
Not a smart place for small boats or first timers, in bigger boats.


Fishing was unreal again fog was thick and water got rough.

Baitboy and I fished Friday and Saturday in Neah Bay. We drove up on Thursday night and got up Friday morning to find some fairly large swells rolling in. Nothing dangerous in my 15' Arima, but not comfortable either. We decided to fish right outside of Wadah Island. After a couple hours of catching some fish and struggling to keep our previous nights dinners down, we said, "We don't need this." And we went in. We tried again on Friday evening and found similar conditions. My motto is: "If it isn't fun, go in." So we did. My last two trips to Neah Bay have been absolutely fantastic, so I just resigned myself to obeying the weather god's wishes.

Saturday morning though was a different story. Foggy at times, but easily fishable. The line of the morning was, "Pea soup and crackers" Mother nature fed us the pea soup and Baitboy and I crackered at least a dozen salmon. We stayed inside Tatoosh due to fog and uncertain seas, caught some cookie cutter silvers and called it a trip.

Mother nature had a word to say this trip, but all in all it was still a great time.

Hey everyone, thanks for all the posts on the topic. Barnettm... tried to get ahold of you going out on Friday, to no avail. Ended up down south of Umatilla, fishing for Kings was pretty slow for us, but managed a couple silvers too. Friday, the fog was thick, really thick, and water was more comfortable outside than inside. Got a half day in on Saturday, and called it good. Friday though, the fog seemed to clear about a mile from Neah bay as we were coming in. Bottom fishing was fantastic at the reef (as usual).

Hope you had a safe trip.

JW

Made it out to Umitilla Reef Saturday Morning on the "True Story" We were followed closely by "Captain Nasty" Here are a few shots of the coastline as we travelled south Tatoosh Island
Skagway Rocks
And this is a picture from Umitilla Reef.

Moral of the story? No GPS? No Radar? Stay close!

We got a 26# that jumped strait up 6 feet high 3 feet from the boat. What a sight! As well as assorted Tasty Bottom Feeders and a buttload of Coho.

Very flat seas yesterday. We were out at Table Rock. Just a few Coho out there.

My son Justin and I headed out last Friday and arrived at Neah about midnite. We pulled up on the side of the road and took a cat nap till 4:30. Got the boat in the water and headed out just past Wadah in the dark. We had 6 or 7 strikes but no hookups. By then it was light enough to see Tatoosh in the distance so we headed up to see if we could hit any kings. There was no fog until we got to Tatoosh and then it socked in. We decided if we kept the island visible we would continue on. We got around to the west side of the island and marked a bunch of fish on the finder so we dropped down about 60 feet. Justin immediately got a rockfish on his hootchie. When he went to put the downrigger down again the cable snapped. This was bad as I didn't have an extra ball and therefore couldn't fix it without going in. We decided to bag it and fish for rockfish on the east sire of Tatoosh. That was a great idea! We didn't find any lings but we sure had fun with the Bass! We put 10 in the box and 90 more back in the water before noon. We decided to head back in and see about fixing the downrigger. By this time I was tired of the limited visibility and no GPS or VHS with me (Won't happen again if I have my way!). I got a new ball for the rigger at Big Salmon and a new clip to hold it on. We put a new cable and headed back out. We decided to see if we could get anything off of Wadah as all the reports coming back for kings were that fishing was tough and visibility was non existant. By the afternoon it was just plain rough! About 3:00 we decided to head in and take a nap. After dinner we headed back out for a few hours off Wadah and finally got the first salmon to the boat. Unfortunately it had too many fins so it went back in the water.

Sunday we got up about 4:45 and headed out just off of Wadah again. We got our lines in the water just as it was starting to lighten up a bit. We both put on the gear we had used on Saturday. Justin an army truck hootchie and for me a green and silver bait buster. Justin got the first strike 2 minutes after putting the ball down to 35 feet. I had dropped mine to 42 feet and 5 minutes later I had a fish on. Surprise surprise it was a nice 10 lb KING. Back in the water it went and just as I'm releasing it Justin has one on. His was another king of about 12 lbs. It went like this for the next hour catching and releasing blackmouth like crazy.

Finally about 8:00 we were getting ready to release yet another king and Justin's rod is hanging with the flasher and hootchie trailing the boat by about 20 feet. A silver came up and slammed the hootchie right on the sureface! As the line is screeming from the rod and we're laughing our heads off I dropped my line back in to get ready to put it on the downrigger and another one slams mine! Our first double of the weekend! Justin's keeper and went in the box. Since we seemed to have located a school of silvers on the top I decided to break out the fly rod. Right after getting my line in the water Justin is into a big fish. This was took him for several long runs and we finally get it to the boat. It's a beautiful 12lb silver and Justin is done for the day. While taking care of Justin's fish a silver slams my fly and line starts ripping off the reel. Before I can get the rod out of the holder I'm down to my backing! This is the first fish on my fly rod. It's a small silver about 5 lbs but we keep it just the same.

My last fish came on the fly rod as well. Justin had gotten his limit so we decided to try something new. We pushed the speed up to about 5mph running on the jet. With the fly just about to the back of the white water from the jet I had a silver hitting the fly every few seconds but not getting hooked. I thought it might be due to my instincively jerking my hand when this happened so I decided to put the rod in the holder. Just as I reached towards the rear facing hold the fish finally hooked itself. Justin killed the engine and I had a great fight trying to keep the fish from running too far. He took me to the backing several times but finally I got my second salmon on the fly. It was a nice 9 lb hen.

I'm hoping to head out again in the next few weeks. I just hope they won't be as expensive as this weekend was! Not only did I have to fix the downrigger but Justin also broke one of my steelhead rods on a bass! OUCH.

Gary;
It's boat limit's so there was no need for Justin to be done. Everyone can keep fishing until the boat is limited on the salt!

You might try VHF 68 and ask if someone has a ball you might "borrow". You might be surprised. If I heard you ask and was in the neighborhood I would try and help.

Great story Gary, you and Justin faced down adversity and through tenacity ended up with a great trip and fish in the boat. Way to go!