THE KING BITE picked up in a big way over the last two days off of Neah Bay, with some impressive results Thursday for charter anglers fishing Swiftsure Bank with Tom Burlingame of Excel Fishing Charters (360-374-2225 or excelfishingcharters.com).
I could sense the smile on Burlingame’s face when he started to discuss the day’s fishing during a Thursday afternoon phone call.
“I almost hate to give you a report because it was so good out there that I hate to disappoint people when they come out if they don’t have a similar experience,” Burlingame said.
“The chinook fishing was just unbelievable.”
Despite the ocean salmon season kicking off last Saturday, Burlingame hadn’t fished for salmon this week.
“It had been really slow and I hadn’t fished salmon at all because of that,” Burlingame said.
“But today it was an epic bite.”
Rainfall helpful
I check the weather radar a couple of times a day out of habit and I was concerned for anyone out Thursday due to the rainbow color scheme running east to west across the western portion of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and in the Pacific Ocean west of Neah Bay.
But those worries were for naught. It was plenty wet and raingear was a necessity, but Burlingame and another charter operator fishing for halibut said conditions were otherwise optimal.
“Just rain,” Burlingame said. “The ocean was flat as can be.”
I’ll credit those recent rains for the pickup in king catches.
“It’s a long-held axiom that it’s the first rain of summer that gets the chinook moving,” said Quilcene’s Ward Norden, a former fisheries biologist and owner of Snapper Tackle Co.,
Burlingame’s boat was fishing with larger, Luhr Jensen Superior Commercial spoons — not the type of recreational spoon you’re going to find at Swain’s, Jerry’s Bait or Brian’s Sporting Goods, but the color scheme was the same.
The largest king of the day, a chinook a little larger than 28 pounds, hit a cookies and cream colored spoon.
“I fish a little different than most and I was fishing big spoons,” Burlingame said. “The big one hit the cookies and cream and we had a gold one out there that was performing just as well.”
That large king was hungry, Burlingame said.
“It was a dandy and it had a 1½-pound hake in it. “I’ve never seen that before, such a big fish inside another fish.”
Burlingame said the hake was a relatively recent meal for the king, so my thought was it already had a bit of breakfast.
“It wanted a little dessert,” Burlingame said.
Halibut bite strong
Ben Maxson of Windsong Charters (360-640-8728 or fishneahbay.com) had his customers fishing offshore for halibut Thursday.
“Plenty of halibut and ling cod caught at 72-Square,” Maxson said as he brought the boat back to Neah Bay Thursday afternoon.
“The ocean was flat clam but you’d better be wearing your rain gear.”
Halibut’s popularity has Maxson and crew fishing for flatfish on open days (today and Saturday are the last scheduled halibut dates of the season for Marine areas 1-10).
“What we have been doing on those days is salmon/halibut combos,” Maxson said.
“You are able to get out early, catch your salmon limit and then drop for halibut. We haven’t focused in as much for ling cod on those days, but that’s been okay. The chances of getting salmon and halibut is a good one.”
Maxson said the chinook really seemed to show up Wednesday for sport anglers.
“They are out there and they are all over the water column,” Maxson said.
“We’ve been fishing almost exclusively for chinook at deeper depths, but we dropped our downrigger only to 60 feet and still encountered chinook. We ended up with chinook on the top as much as chinook on the bottom.
“The size of the chinook that we are catching has been very nice as well, ranging from the low teens [pounds] to mid 20s.”
Maxson thinks most of the recent coho catches have been inside of Tatoosh Island and in Area 4B inside the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Early catch totals from the state showed more coho catches than kings in the first two days of the fishery last weekend.
“For coho specifically, those guys are catching them in the near shore near Neah Bay,” Maxson said.
Salmon, crabbing
Brian Menkal of Brian’s Sporting Goods and More (360-683-1950) in Sequim was glad to see the summer rains.
“Hopefully, that’s a little shot in the arm this weekend for people going to fish for summer steelhead or salmon on the West End,” Menkal said.
He was out fishing recently and said the water levels resemble late summer already.
Menkal also made the excellent point that salmon fishing will begin Monday off Marine Area 5 (Sekiu) and Marine Area 6 (Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca) and crabbing opens for areas 5, 6 9 (Admiralty Inlet) and 12 (Hood Canal North of Ayock Point) on the Fourth of July.
Menkal listed the tried and true techniques for salmon fishing: jigging, mooching herring or trolling your favorite cohokiller spoon from a downrigger.
“Early on, it’s small bait fish. The candlefish or small herring, that’s what they are looking for.
As for spoon color, Menkal suggests “anything with a shade of green is a good way to go.”
Cookies and cream or cop car colors also work well.
Menkal said blue and green spoons also work for squid.
It’s a little early for squid to show up in big numbers, typically it takes some warm summer weather to bring them in the bay.
Salmon/steelheading
Menkal will offer his two-part Introduction to Salmon and Steelhead Fishing course at his store, 609 W. Washington St., No. 21 in Sequim, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday with part two following at the same time Tuesday, July 9.
Menkal knows a ton of tips, tricks and locations to fish around the North Olympic Peninsula and offers the course for $50 per person plus tax.
Menkal asks attendees to RSVP to 360-683-1950.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
