Northwest Wild Country Radio Station

This winter, I’ve spent a good chunk of time (much more than any responsible person would squander) in the town of Forks and surrounding rivers, trying to find steelhead that have all but disappeared like George Bush on January 21st. I’m ready to put the poorest winter season on record behind us - let’s get on to more pleasant and productive fisheries.

But I’m not ready to break out the spring Chinook and kokanee gear just yet. There is one other fishery happening right now, in the backyard of vampire-crazed Forks and steelheading Ground Zero.

Dare I say it’s the best late winter/early spring fishing I’ve done in many years. It’s on the saltwater. For king salmon. Lots and lots of them. And, amazingly, unlike the seething hordes of anglers packing into local rivers, mosh pitting, tasering and bludgeoning one another for the two fish left, most days there are only a few boats around.

Curious? Read on.

Perhaps a change of pace ...: Each morning as I drove down Highway 101 to plod about the Sol Duc, Bogachiel and Hoh, I would see boats and trailers turning on to Highway 112, heading toward Sekiu. Now I, along with most of western Washington anglers, am more than aware of the winter blackmouth opportunities off Slip Point, Clallam Bay, The Caves (Sekiu Point) and Kyadaka Point.

There’s a zillion of us packed in those areas from July 1 to September 30 for some of the best adult Chinook and coho fishing Washington State has to offer. With steelheading being so awesome …ahem… I figured a shakedown trip to Sekiu for a tasty blackmouth might be a swell way to kill an afternoon.

Little was I ready for a lights out bite that unknown to me was going strong for several weeks before my initial visit.

The few times in past years I’ve participated in this winter fishery success is the norm, as a matter of fact I’ve never been skunked. It’s always been a fairly good bite, one morning snap session and another at the tide change. What you can expect are salmon of high quality. One early April day, my partner and I landed two immature kings of 15 and 17 pounds, when the checker put the wand to their heads they both beeped. He cut the chips out of the fish’s heads, and promised to let us know where they came from.

Both were Lewis River hatchery spring Chinook. You tell me how they tasted on the barbecue.

This season, wow.

The restaurant is open, and the patrons are coming.

Each time I traveled west to target steelhead, JD Love’s neighbor was returning from Sekiu with bragging sized fish. Talking to the fish cop at the ramp, he’s checked eight salmon of 20 pounds or better this winter. The nice lady running Olson’s Resort at Sekiu Point (the only launch open during the winter months) tells me the same, and adds that there are already mature fish moving through, anglers reporting losing some dandies with too light tackle.

Unconfirmed - naturally- reports of a 34-pounder keep our eyes fixed to bent rods non-stop.

And the beat goes on, da da dum da dum dum: As of this writing, I’ve spent eight various days at Sekiu, from early March until now (April 2nd) targeting blackmouth. The fish this year average 5 to 10 pounds, many 12 to 15 and just enough 17 to 23 pounders to make sure your knots are quality. Curiously, every single salmon we’ve brought to the boat has been marked, or clipped adipose.

The biggest problem is … you are done too quickly. There are no shakers. All blackmouth I’ve encountered are well over the 22” minimum size.

I’ve been starting my troll east-west, or vice versa, depending on which way the tide is rolling and troll with the flow. Sekiu blackmouth act a bit different than their Puget Sound brethrenv - that is, you do not have to drag bottom to hook them. They have favored 130 to 150 feet of water, most of the fish marked are feeding in 75 to 120. I’ve been setting my ‘riggers at 115 feet (with blowback line angle I figure I’m fishing approximately 100 feet) and had more consistent, almost too much action there. Most salmon are marked between 90 and 110 feet.

The how-to: The bait of choice has been herring, herring and more herring.

Twelve-pound Maxima Ultragreen mainline and 7-foot leaders, two 3/0 nickle Gamakatsu hooks tied 4½ inches apart. Leaders clipped to a Sampo ball bearing swivel, tied to a 1-foot piece of 40-pound Maxima tied to a second Sampo swivel then tied to mainline. This terminal setup prevents line twist, and when you troll a tight-spinning cut plug, the dual ball bearing swivels and short section of stiff mono keep lines straight. Without them, you will have one hell of a mess of twisted, weakened line.

Sekiu blackmouth stomachs have two different contents: forensics consistently show each fish contains a half dozen needlefish and a few 4-inch herring. Not surprisingly, red-label herring has been our first choice; a distant second is a green/UV Koho Killer. Both are presented 6 feet above an 11-inch green/glo dummy flasher. The flasher is tied to 15 feet of 30-pound test, clipped to the downrigger ball fin. The release clip is set 6 feet above the ball, right on the cable. Strikes are 10 to 1 favoring herring over the little spoon.

So, for 90 percent of the time, we're trolling dual cut plugs.

I troll at just enough speed to make the dummy flasher roll and give the cut-plug herring a tight, fast spin. Since the troll speed on the GPS is not accurate on the salt due to currents, I watch downrigger line angle. Slightly less than 45 degrees is ideal.

My signature, parabolic Lamiglas Certified Pro X10 MC, 10 foot 8 to 12 and old school Penn 109 work magically off the downrigger and features the ideal balance of play and juice for Sekiu blackmouth.

Can I get a little help, please?!?: Last time out - alone - was a happy/crappy day. I began, as usual, hooking fish 5 to 7 pounds every 10 minutes, releasing them and waiting for a larger specimen to fill my punch card. Directly in front of the famous Caves I was digging for a candy bar, not watching my rod.

The screech of the old Penn aborted my search. This was truly a pig, and it was barking for Canada. After 20 minutes of chase and sweat, there it was, shaking its head on impulse power, retaining just enough fight reserve to teasingly stay just out of netting zone.

It is f##@ing hard to net a large Chinook solo!

The big king, which appeared to be in the mid-20s, just rolled over 5 feet from the net, dropped the barbless, flipped me off and swam slowly out of sight. Another angler with me, we net the thing 15 times.

Fishing alone sucks. An 11-pounder landed shortly thereafter did not ease the sting. Or the cursing.

Or the blood. You see, it was a choppy, windy day, my ass was bouncing with grand uncoordination all morning, and I repeatedly rammed very sharp hooks in my thumb and pinky. My own sticky redness on everything. Never mind the fun of putting on bandages with wet hands while bouncing to and fro.

I don’t think bleeding profusely in an area so recently famous for vampire activity is a good idea.

My season so far: Counting last Tuesday, my totals are eight trips, eight kept between 6 and 14 pounds. My occasional partners have also taken quality salmon from 10 to 13 pounds each time out.

Bank fishing for steelhead one day, the other out on the Sekiu salt, picking the calmer day for salmon. A nice way to spend two days out West.

Looking ahead: Blackmouth season mirrors the best times for wild steelhead: Sekiu opens in mid-February and closes April 10. Clipped fish only for retention, but as stated earlier, I’ve not seen a finned salmon this winter.

You may be thinking this Sekiu blackmouth fishery is possibly the tastiest endeavor available. Please explain to me, then, why there are so few anglers taking part?

Buncha reasons. One, there are decent blackmouth fisheries open much closer to larger populations, like Tacoma, Everett and Hood Canal. You may only keep one marked salmon. Long drive for a single fish. The weather. Remember, it’s winter on the Strait of Juan DeFuca. The winds can kill a trip, and they may flare up at a moments notice.

The days of favorable weather are few and far between. A bit of a gamble, a long expensive drive to look at whitecaps. Springers are starting in the Columbia.

However….

Pick your weather days well, stay for more than a day and enjoy an opportunity to do something we have damned neared lost here in the Brave New World…a quality Chinook fishery featuring a slam dunk success rate with nearly zero competition.

Bring plenty of bandages and a garlic necklace.

Metal To The End,
-Bill Herzog