Re: Sekiu Salmon Bonanza

[Andy Towell]

Sean, Patrick was using his pontoon boat on the inside bay water next to the beach. This weekend we were fishing predominately on the kelp outside of the bay and the current was probably running 2+ knots. We were in a rental boat with a 10 hp motor and I was very unhappy on the return trip running up current, upwind, in the swells and wind chop with three heavy bodies in the rental boat. Slip point (the area around the green bell buoy on the east side of the bay) can get extremely dangerous under various wind, current and swell combinations, so please be careful. The rental boats contain no safety equipment (lights, radio, GPS) and fog can also be a real concern, as the current can move you a long way. I had pretty good coverage with the cell phone, but also brought a CB, the GPS and a compass just in case.    John, About patterns: While I would like to say that it took a lot of careful work to develop successful imitative patterns, that was not the case. I used two flies predominately - both about 4" long and tied on size 4 daichi salt water hooks. A friend suggested that the patters are variations of the Sea Habit, but I copied them off of an umpqua herring pattern that I had purchased some time ago, so I do not know for sure. The herring version has a white belly topped with green, blue, and peacock with each layer consisting of a mixture of reflective materials and non reflective (I used crystal flash, flashabou and angelhair, with polyhair for the non-reflective component, but if I would have had a dead polar bear around, would probably of used it...), and an epoxy head formed over a short piece of pearlescent body material. The other top producer was a white and pink version (white, pink, fluorescent pink). I also tried chartreuse and felt that it was attracting only the smaller fish when cast and stripped, but John, the third party in the boat hooked some on the chartreuse clouser he was chucking and it held its own when bucktailing. I also tried a purple topped version, as it had once been suggested to me that purple was the magic color in September on the straits, but it did no better than the herring or pink versions. Patrick appeared partial to greens. A realistic candlefish pattern also did nothing better.   We had some discussion about tying in a stinger hook, but I think a lot of the missed fish were willing to come back and hit again, or were just the little guys (12-18"), so rather than increase the hooking mortality and the number of small fish caught, we stuck to the shorter-shanked patterns.   I hope that helps,   Andy   PS I could post pictures of the patterns if desired, but I am not sure that it matters that much.   ----- Original Message ----- From: Sean Grier To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 3:40 PM Subject: Re: Sekiu Salmon Bonanza 10-4!  Thanks for the clarification.  Never been to Sekiu, but I think I'll rent a boat when I do.  As I recall, you guys were talking about them not being too expensive.  Though my passport is up-to-date, I'm not really interested in a revival of The Minnow and Gilligan's Island! Leland Miyawaki wrote: I thought it was Patrick Peterson, who began this thread, that took a pontoon boat into Sekiu. I believe he was talking about cruising the shoreline near the road on the inside of Clallam Bay. If that's all you did, you'll be OK, but if you begin thinking thoughts of chasing salmon outside the buoy, you'd better bring your passport. Leland.   Thanks, Willy!  That's kinda what I expected, but it seems that I recall someone making a reference to pontoon boats in a previous post re. Sekiu.  I get uncomfortable floating around Kayak Pt in my pontoon, so I will heed your words of caution.  Yeah, maybe my wife and I will rent a boat this weekend and pick up some silvers on a flyrod. Thanks again. s Willy Gevers wrote:  The open ocean is nothing to be trifled with. I have flyfished at Sekiu and Neah Bay in a 15 foot aluminum skiff with a 25hp and felt only marginally safe. Rent a boat or go with a friend who has a boat so that you will be around to post your next fishing report! -----Original Message----- From: Sean Grier [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 12:23 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Sekiu Salmon Bonanza Patrick, Would you say it's safe for a one-man 8' pontoon boat to be out there in the rip/kelp, or do you need something with a little more power.  I've got 6' oars on it. I'd hate to end up in Victoria (or Hawaii), just 'cause I wanted to touch a silver with a fly.... Thanks, man!  Sean PATRICK PETERSEN wrote:  Greetings list members, To start off, I hope everyone has a better week this week than last and my prayers go out to the everyone effected by this tragedy. A couple of friends and I went to Sekiu to fish Sunday and Monday and it was by far the best thing we could do to get our minds off of recent events. The Silvers were in the kelp beds just waiting for our flies to be cast at them. Many of the fish were in the four to five pound range and we also got a few seven to eight pounders. Buck tailing was definitely the best method for numbers of fish with casting and stripping being effective  but not as much so. The fish seemed to concentrate at the points of land sticking out into the water where a rip had formed. Several times we had three or even four fish on at a time in those areas. Andy was even inspired to put down his rod (when his arm got tired) and picked up the video camera to film this event. Hopefully we will have some footage soon to share with the website so you all can see for yourselves just how hot fly fishing can be in the salt. Sekiu and Neah Bay is so under fished by the fly angling community ! ! it surprises me that more people aren't doing it. No crowds and  tons of fish. In fact I have been thinking of attempting  to set up a Washington fly fishers outing there next year.On Sunday we wanted to see just how many fish we could actually hand release not counting any fish that came off next to the boat or any fish that played but came un buttoned. The total for three of us in eight hours were 67 fish LANDED with at least twice that with fish on. If anyone is interested in joining us for an outing next year you can contact me by e-mail. It is plenty early to make plans,but I for one,am already counting the days. Oh and if that isn't exciting enough there are also the occasional king to be caught. --- PATRICK PETERSEN--- [EMAIL PROTECTED]