RE: Sekiu Report, 8/25

[Dan Reynolds]

Leland, I fished those Kelp beds from beach about a week ago the the silvers were just chasing the bait all over those kelp beds and even into the shore,we didn't land any fish but had a few good hits I was using a bait pattern and my partner was using a popper.  Do you know a good place to stay at or around Sekiu ?

Dan

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Leland Miyawaki

To: Waflyfishers

Sent: 08/26/2001 9:21:43 AM

Subject: Sekiu Report, 8/25

Coho With An Attitude

 

Fellow listmember, Brian Lencho, and I fished the outgoing tide

yesterday at Sekiu from 7 am to 12 noon in a rented boat from Van

Riper's ($86). Occasionally, the morning sun would peek out from

behind the high clouds, but for the most part, it was overcast and

the water was dead calm. We began our search for coho by trolling.

Brian fished a traditional bucktail and I switched back and forth

between various streamer concoctions and poppers. We motored back and

forth over most of the water in Clallam Bay, concentrating our search

along the kelp beds.

 

We trolled for an hour and a half without a strike. Next to the bell

buoy at the rocks near Slip Point, Brian hooked his first fish, a

five pound wild coho. We narrowed our search and began circling the

area looking for feeding schools. On our third pass off Slip Point,

we made a tight turn and Brian hooked up again on his bucktail. The

change in speed and direction also brought a huge boil to my popper.

The game was on.

 

Schools of three to four inch herring were swimming under our boat.

Gulls were diving into the water inside the kelp beds and just enough

salmon were crashing into the herring to let us know they were

around. And we were the only boat there.

 

For the next three hours, we drifted along the outside edge of the

kelp beds just off the beach. We cast poppers into the holes in the

kelp and stripped them back to the boat. I don't think we made more

than a dozen casts that didn't elicit a strike or follow. We lost

count, but figure we each had at least 30 fish up to the boat. We

weren't netting them. We simply reached down over the boat and and

slipped out the barbless hooks. We took photographs of the first few

salmon but soon became too busy to shoot. We were in a zone, you

might say. There were a few shakers but most were wild coho between

four and five pounds with a few that were over. Toss in a couple

good-sized blackmouth, and we had the makings of a good day.

 

What made the fishing so fun was the popper on the surface. We would

make a long cast to the edge of the kelp bed. As soon the popper hit

the water, we began stripping with short strips and pauses. Within

the first couple strips, we could see a salmon wake behind the fly

and that's when the fun began. We provoked strikes by manipulating

our poppers. Brian said it was like teasing a cat with a string. We

sped up like a frightened baitfish and the salmon would slam the fly

from behind. We stopped dead and the salmon would turn away, then

when we twitched the popper, the salmon would turn back and take the

fly from the side with a huge boil. We changed directions with quick

mends and the salmon crashed the fly. When we stripped our poppers up

to the boat, we could see the salmon behind the fly. If we raised the

rod and pulled the fly alongside the boat and stopped, the salmon

would take it at our feet. All our moves brought violent strikes.

These coho had a bad attitude and wanted to annihilate our flies!

 

Around noon, the action slowed, so we headed back to the docks to get

something to eat. On the way, we decided that since Brian needed to

get home that night, we might as well call it a day and leave after a

gourmet lunch of hot roast beef sandwiches with instant mashed

potatoes, powdered gravy mix and canned peas at the Breakwater. How

else could we top the morning we just had?

 

 

--- Dan Reynolds

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