2006 Neah Bay Halibut Opener

Tucked away in the north-western most point of the State of Washington is a place called Neah Bay. A few years ago, a friend of mine, Bruce (of Gamefishin.com) introduced me to this fishing frontier where big water and big fish live - I’ve been hooked ever since.

I then turned another good friend of mine Brian Dwinelle to Neah Bay. Since then it has been an annual pilgrimage. All year long we talked about our plans for this outpost location. Our plans were set in motion since we got back from last year’s halibut opener trip. This year, Brian invited another angling nut Chris Monnastes and fishing guide John Steed along for the trip.

The month of May is always a gamble because of the unpredictable weather. On any given day, sometimes in hours and in minutes, the weather and sea conditions can change so quickly and wreck havoc to your carefully planned outings to the coast and beyond. This year wasn’t any different. We saw anywhere from 12 to 15 foot seas during the week.

Just like clock work, I got sea sick during the first day of our 5 day stay. I was doing my best to re-enact the vomit scene from the movie "The Exorcist." I was using Scopalomine patches to no avail. I ditched the patch and switched to Meclizine, which Chris was using, and it seemed to do the trick. No cotton mouth and no drowsiness.

The highlight of the trip was the one day we were able to get out to the halibut grounds in Canadian waters. Aptly named “The Long Hole,” it was roughly a 40 mile ride from Neah Bay. It took our 22 foot Arima, powered by a 150 Honda 4-stroke, approximately 3 hours to reach the destination in good seas.

Once at the hole, with little to no current, the halibut bite was wide open. We caught our limit of 8 flat fish (plus 2 bonus Ling Cod) in roughly 1 hour. The procedure was simple; drop 2 lbs of weight with some form of bait (horse herring) in 450 to 500 ft of water, jig or drag the bottom, wait for the strike, set the hook, and winch the flat fish up to the boat.

My gear consisted of a Lamiglas BFC5610 matched with a Penn Senator 113 reel spooled with roughly 800 yards of 80 lb Tuff Line. I’m fairly satisfied with this set-up. The rod and line combination is sensitive enough allowing me to feel the bottom and the bite. The 2:1 gear ratio of the reel allows me to reel in the heavy lead and or fish with minimal effort. The only thing I would change is to replace the reel handle with something more comfortable.

At the end, we brought home a cumulative total of roughly 200 lbs of filleted halibut, ling cod, black rockfish, and cabezon. We could have gotten more, but I suppose that why there’s always a next time.