First trip to Dabob Bay. Fished/crabbed Dabob Bay Aug 16-18. Crabbing was poor; plenty of crabs just few legal males. Got one or two keepers a day for two pots. Set pots from 35-80' deep. Didn't seem to matter. Dog fish at the deeper sets kept getting into the traps. Crabs really went for frozen Columbia River shad, steelhead and salmon carcasses.

First day fishing trolled flashers and green/spotted glow hoochies along the 120' break across the West lobe of the Bay behind 8 oz lead. Marked bait and fish on fish finder. 12 passes of line out on the Penn reel. Probably down about 40'. Caught and released some small (4-8lb) unmarked kings. Heard that Coho were feeding near Quilcene and some had already entered the hatchery.

Second day fished south of Quilcene marina 1/4-1 mile. Word was out. 20-30 boats trolling herring. Saw over 40 fish netted. No bait shops open the night before or in the morning so we trolled plugs. We trolled standard sized Brad's super baits in Blue Hawaiian, Sea Hawk, and Black Jack colors. No hits. My son put on a mini size Blue Magic and had a nice Coho on in less than 5 minutes. Unfortunately a harbor seal grabbed the fish and became hooked. Quit a battle, brought the seal to the surface three times. Eventually it rolled in the 50 lb braided main line and snapped the line. Lost the plug. No other hits that morning. Went out in the evening with my wife, 1 dozen herring and 1 rod. Trolled green label plug cut herring on a 12 lb 6' leader, 5 oz lead, 6-8 passes out on the Penn reel. Hat 11 hits on 12 herring. Hooked 9 fish. Landed 2 hatchery Coho (5lbs). Broke one off. Had a seal get another fish. Had 5 throw the hook. Amazingly hot Coho at the net gave us all we could handle. Coho were schooling all around us that evening feeding. Wind was calm. Very hot fishing. I think trolling Brad's mini super baits would also work well. Fish were small (3-8 lbs) and were keying on small baits.

Third day took my son and family out. Trolled herring. Wind blowing 5-15 mph that morning. Scattered bait and fish. Hook four landed two Coho. Released one unmarked fish. That evening wind was still blowing. Not as good as day before. Hooked 6 Coho, land two, released 1 unmarked fish. No seals!

Overall this was a very good first trip to Dabob Bay. We hear the fishing get's better after Labor Day when the main run of fish enter the bay. We'll try and get back. My wife really enjoyed that second evening.

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