Previous Next

Ah, halibut fishing! It had been probably ten years since I last ventured out for them. I don’t know why I stopped, I guess other things got in the way. Anyway, not this year. This year I planned a four day trip with my friends Randy (rseas) and Robbie for a combination halibut and kokanee trip (Lake Sutherland).

We fished halibut on Thursday out of Port Angeles, and Saturday out of Seiku.

Thursday we arrived and launched after driving from Redmond, and lines were in the water by around 9am. We were fishing into the low tide, and the conditions were a bit breezy. Breezy and choppy enough that I didn’t want to venture out too far from Ediz Hook in my new boat. It was just my second time out in the boat (a 20 foot Thunderjet Luxor) and I was still learning how she handled. It was also the first time in the salt.

The three of us ran a variety of bait, herring, octopus, mackeral… and we used either spreader bars or drop weights. We fished varying depths from 60 to 200 feet, and fished until 4pm. Mostly off the Hook, and then in the afternoon over to the 1st Hump.

Randy had two hits, one pretty solid, but no hook ups. When we returned to the dock the fish checker reported 60 fish checked in, so others had some success.

On Saturday it was just Robbie and I. We drove the one hour to Seiku. I’d never launched there – it was pretty busy, but from what I heard not as bad as Neah Bay. This time we decided to fish really deep water. We headed out from the Caves and fished in 280 to 450 feet of water through the high tide. Quite a workout, but no fish to show for it. We then fished the low tide off Kydaka Point, this time hitting 200-250 feet. We ended the day off the Hoko River in 60-100 feet of water.

Again, we had no luck, Robbie had his bait come back one time shredded but that was it.

I’m happy to report, my boat handled the chop and waves great! I’m going to have some fun adventures on this boat. Unfortunately, it remains to be christened in halibut blood.

Larry3215

5/15/2016 8:53:00 PM

Nice boat!

2003TJ20

5/15/2016 9:30:00 PM

Mike, I just wanted to congratulate you on your new boat. Welcome to the Thunder Jet family! We have a 2003 Luxor OB with Suzuki Motors. You will love it!

BARCHASER10

5/15/2016 9:37:00 PM

I started fishing Butts in 1991, both at PA and CQ. But I haven't been out since 2013. As recently as 2008 you could fish CQ into early July, and have trips for Butts and Chinooks too. They cut the number of days back so much that it got hard to find days when the tide flow was slack enough to fish 300-400 feet. I was going to go last year but the weather forecasts put me off for the days we were going to go. Seemed better in the 90's and the early 2000's. I think there were more fish then. But I looked at the recent fishchecker reports and there were a couple of days at both places that had pretty good results. Pretty tough when its windy. I still have two Butt rods/reels, maybe next year. Thank you for the report..

CaptZtown

5/16/2016 5:24:00 AM

Looks like too much angle to be fishing halibut...

BARCHASER10

5/16/2016 11:52:00 AM

I havent tried it, but I'm hearing a lot of guys anchor up in 80-100 foot of water near the Winter Hole and particularly off the mouth of the Elwah near Angeles Pt I did see some guys anchored up off the Elwha the last time I fished PA 4-5 years ago. I also talked to an old guy (like me) when I fished CQ for Chinooks and bfish in April. He said the same thing, more guys are anchoring up in shallower water. Prob the way to go when the wind blows, need a good anchor and a lot of rope though.. . .

jbball50

5/16/2016 6:06:00 PM

There was some boat anchoring up in the 31/36 hole two years ago on a derby day, wow was that annoying. We saw two diff boats get hung up on their anchor. Def the way to go probably when tides are too much that you have to motor mooch though.

Really nice boat btw.

Mike Carey

5/18/2016 6:32:00 AM

thanks everyone. Yes, I think it's the beginning of long good friendship, LOL. :-)

Leave a Comment:

Login

Flag

×

Why is this comment inappropriate?

Close Submit

Delete this comment? Provide reason.

No Yes

Edit

×

Cancel Save