Neah Bay, July 16-23

Our annual week long Neah Bay family trip is in the books. It was a great time as usual with lots of catching. I was pumped for this trip as I got some early intel from buddy Aaron who was just up at Neah. On our drive up, I get a call from J.D. who saw my rig pass through Sequim. The last time I got Neah Bay intel from J.D., it was a blood bath to be remembered. This was no different.

On the first day I decided to head to Swiftsure to prospect. I saw Jambo was already there and no doubt doing what he does best. We get our first line in and not more than 1 minute had past and before the rest of our lines were fishing, we had our first fish of the trip. We pretty much repeated this hectic but fun scenario everyday for a whole week.

The Cohos were shallow as usual and chased the Coho Killers and Coyote spoons and the Kings were deep and the best bite happened on the tide changes. Our downrigger cables went down to the 200+ ft depths. The plugs, which I like to run at Neah were untouched for some reason. The hoochies however, were mugged incessantly.

Although I heard of good fishing down south of us, there was no reason for me to leave fish to find fish. Swiftsure was an easy run from the dock and limits were the norm. We were limiting out quickly that we were back at the dock to get some breakfast and spend the rest of the day in camp taking cat naps, eating, watching movies, playing dominos, cards, and basically doing nothing but relaxing.

There was so much life out there; tons of krill in the water, birds diving for their meals, porpoises slashing through the water, bait balls lighting up my sonar, humpback whales in a feeding frenzy, pods of Orcas hunting, and sea lions waiting for an easy meal from fishermen. My wife and grandson finally got to witness the treasure that Neah Bay holds and why it has been a hallowed fishing destination for me for the past 10 years.

I personally only reeled in a handful of salmon out of the whole week. I was happily content watching from the helm, my family and friends catch salmon after salmon until their smiles became permanent, their arms got sore, and basically on a high like they’ve never been before.