08-17-2013, 05:46 PM
First, thanks to Idaho Griz for his post wishing us good fishing. We just returned from our yearly trip to Sekiu, Washington for some salmon fishing in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Fished it Monday through Thursday, and had great fishing and terrific weather. Almost no swells, no wind at all, and blue skies after patchy early morning fog. We started each morning fishing the shoreline for kings, and caught an average of 6 kings each morning. Largest was 32, and average was 15-16. Kali hooked the 32, and wow, what a fight. He made a 275' initial run, and she would have been easily spooled if we hadn't chased it all over the ocean! A 20 minute fight ensued. There were two other boats fishing the same area, and they both had big kings on at the same time. About half the kings were missing their adipose fins, and the others were released. We would then head out to deeper waters, and target coho and pinks. This fishing was nothing less than insane. We rarely got the second downrigger in the water, because they were hitting so fast. When we would bring a fish to the boat, he would often be followed by as many as 10 others. Both the pinks and coho were nice-sized this year. Our timing was great, because the pinks showed up in force the day of our arrival. It didn't seem to matter what depth you were fishing. Some of the guys out there were fishing for kings at the 120-140 depth, and catching pinks that deep! We found it unnecessary to go deeper than 35'. With a limit of four fish a day we brought home enough salmon to fill our nearly empty freezer. A pod of killer whales and a large group of grey whales kept the fishermen entertained the last two days. It just doesn't get any better.
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