FISHING OFF SWIFTSURE Bank remains nearly a sure thing for anglers heading west out of Neah Bay, even with poor tides and rough weather and seas the past few days.
“The last three or four days we’ve had really tough tides and the weather hasn’t been the best,” said Ben Maxson of Neah Bay’s Windsong Charters (360-640-8728).
“People have been fishing more on the inside on the Strait [of Juan de Fuca]. This morning [Wednesday] things were bumpy and lumpy out at Swiftsure.
“There’s still plenty of fish to be caught and plenty of bait. We are looking forward to some better tides and a little better weather, because the forecast looks clear for Friday through the weekend and the tides should be better.
“So we are excited for it to lay back down and have some nice water to fish.”
And Marine Area 4 (Neah Bay) anglers will still have the chance to land two hatchery chinook as part of their two salmon daily limit at least through this weekend.
State Department of Fish and Wildlife fish checkers counted 1,156 chinook and 570 coho caught by 1,698 anglers from July 17-23 at Neah Bay. That puts Neah Bay at 74.1 percent of the area’s 7,900 chinook guideline for the season.
That’s close enough for Fish and Wildlife ocean fishery managers and stakeholders to discuss options going forward.
Ocean salmon manager Wendy Beeghley said the state is hoping fishing effort declines over the next few weeks so anglers can keep going after two-chinook limits off Neah Bay.
“We are hoping the effort will follow the typical pattern and kind of level off over the next couple of weeks,” she said.
“We plan on reviewing the catch totals next Monday and discussing those numbers with stakeholders. If need be we could go to a one chinook bag limit, two total in retention. We did that in Westport to start the season. If we don’t have enough chinook left to do that, we could switch to a coho-only, chinook non-retention scenario where anglers can focus on coho and pinks.”
Pink totals are low
Beeghley said 94 pinks were counted from July 17-23, but more are out there in the Pacific Ocean and inside the Strait.
“Not great numbers for the pinks, but we are seeing a few,” she said. “People tend to sort through and keep their kings and coho [and release pinks] that’s my guess.
“Typically we have that two-pink bonus bag limit, but with the projected returns so low to a number of rivers this year, we didn’t think that was warranted.”
Maxson said Windsong is still focused on finding kings.
“We are targeting kings, but there are lots of silvers at Swiftsure,” he said. “And pinks, we got our first pinks in the boat to speak of recently. And maybe that’s not the eating fish that the Makah and serious fishermen target, but one thing about pinks is they put up a pretty nice fight because they handle the water a little differently and for a customer that’s exciting.”
Joey Lawrence of Big Salmon Resort (360-645-2374) in Neah Bay also said he had heard of more silvers moving through.
“I heard [Wednesday] from [Big Salmon employee] Joe Ward, that he had heard of a few more coho starting to be caught. A few pinks moving in as well.
“And it makes sense because it’s kind of that time of year.”
Lawrence said Swiftsure is still the spot to be, but for those anglers who by weather, tides or smaller boat, are fishing nearer to shore, the size of fish has been impressive.
“We’ve Been getting good reports of guys fishing the shoreline,” Lawrence said. “There’s some slow days, but size is getting better and better in areas like Mushroom Rock, the Garbage Dump. Those spots have seen some fish in the high teens and low 20s [pounds].
“It’s a lot better than last year, but anything really was better than last year.”
Lawrence and Maxson both said bottomfishing continues to be off the charts this year.
“Rockfish and lings have been fantastic, just been a great year for those,” Maxson said.
“We’ve had some great lingcod catches, a 23-pounder and an 18-pounder. And lingcod are such hijackers. Sometimes we get a smaller rockfish on and then you feel that much bigger bite and you reel up and the smaller fish is gone and what you have now is a large lingcod, a hijacker.”
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
