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Neah Bay Coho on Atkins

3K views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  NZ Trout Bum 
#1 ·
We had a strange situation last weekend out near the whistle bouy and wonder if any of you have seen it or how you solved the problem. There were plenty of coho around and in the top 20 or 30 feet of water. They were eating without question as I had my Whaler partner and his 11 year old son aboard who couldn't cast in the wind. We set him up so he could send a plug cut herring (sorry guys) down on a dead drift and he couldn't keep the coho off. In the time he missed or lost 11 fish his dad and I had one follow. It seemed like they only wanted protien and nothing else interested them. Topwater had a very tough day as well.

I have felt that I have seen this before in September but never had bait aboard to verify that the fish were at a depth I could effectively fish with a fly. Strange part was that the following day it was business as usual.

Weather has been difficult but when we could see and cast the fish are there. They just get bigger and bigger. Had a great morning in the kelp with Moonlight where we found lots of rock fish and even landed a legal lingcod and lost several others. Two were fair hooked although two others took rock fish that were in the process of being landed. Big rods were bent to the corks and they still got us. A cunning plan when waiting out the wind.

They are out there...you should be too!

Warren
 
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#2 ·
Tuesday was.....

Went out for the day and since it was flat clam I wandered out to the Wheezel and the fish were scattered but very showy. Slow steady scratch till a bit after low slack then an ocassional grab until the Flood got rolling ( then into overdrive they went). It was very good and there were more of the Jumbo Grade males around I may have to make the drive again in the morning. Next year I will get a season trailer rental space.
I saw a couple of fellow feather flingers in another Lund I suspect they were also not lacking. I doubt there were over 15 boats total between Wadah and the Can.
 
#4 ·
Juro when are you planning on being around the NW for coho's and such?
I'd share the results from the last two days with you but it would be redundant and would elevate me above SS, although a report without the fish facts is pretty dull weather reporting! Suffice to say yeah its a pretty good year out there.
NZ Trout Bum and several other fellows are headed out for the weekend. I may just have to fish the weekend this week! I do like partys with Hardys. :cool:
 
#5 ·
my opinion on the poor bite over those few days was attributable to two factors. the first was a push of warm water (saw the temp rise 5 degrees in one hour at the buoy during the flood) and the other factor was water visibility. i felt the vis was less than 5 ft during those couple days.

another factor is that sometimes there can be too much bait, although it certainly didn't seem that way to me during that time frame.

hope you get the rod repaired quick... and that the fish who broke it was a smoothy so you could clobber it <g>

chris
 
#6 ·
Topwater

Thanks for the thoughts. Didn't know about the temp. Saw something similar again yesterday afternoon with lots of scattered fish working the surface but wouldn't look at our sliders. Worked the rips and had good action there though. Had a great day overall with the best topwater action of the year for the first several hours after daylight. Only fished the sinking line for about an hour all day. The rain seems to have got the fish moving as we found good numbers closer to the beach than we have seen all season.

Best fish of the weekend was about 14 pounds. There are some slabs out there. One that the rod broke on was good but rod failed because of a size 12 boot not because of the size of the fish. Althogh it was a good one.

Did get to observe a good number of topwater takes from the bow of the Whaler. Amazing how many "takedowns" we get without hookups. Could use a stinger but worried about mortality. What is your experience or do you use them? And then again, how many do you really want to land?

See you next weekend. W
 
#7 ·
i fish a trailer hook with the front hook cut off. i don't see anything but lipped hooked fish with this setup (i hate fishing a 2 hook rig for coho... imo it just tears them up). i feel that unlike under the surface, coho love to nip at topwater flies and having the hook back there really increases the number of solid hookups.

i use a banger head vs. a dink float for my sliders. from my perspective it floats and wakes better (and the cost difference.... those damn dinks are too expensive imo) plus if you find some bursting rockfish you can make it pop. i'll have to take a photo of one and post it here sometime. i'm sure you can guess the color <g>

the topwater action has been good lately, although i really don't get to do it too much. the last day i saw you on the water i had two coho completely strip out my poppers (hook and popper head).... i'll have to tie less quickly next time.

will be back out fishing tomorrow,
chris
 
#8 ·
Monday was awesome.

After not fishing Saturday and Sunday because I thought the weather would be too much rain too much swell too much wind (and being totaly wrong in my personal forecast) I went out after watching the USA women stomp the Aussies in the Gold Medal Game on Monday morning. Wow what a team.
I was very suprised to find the Ocean not only calm but there was not a single visible wind riffel anywhere West of the Twins all day. I had too shed all outer jackets and eventually my boots and fished in my bare feet it was very warm.
I fished a good deal on top too and as I still haven't gotten around to tying up a proper bunch of "Sliders" I was using a collection of unweighted tube flies with a dink float added to the line for a "Bow Waking device". The silvers don't seem to be too picky and it was rather amusing when fishing in the Mega School at Duncan that when a fish would get hooked and it would be running in circles around the boat the dink float would seperate from the tube and of course the tube would also slide up the line away from the hook and the fish. This resulted in a school of silvers milling around the loose objects taking turns smashing the tube and the Green dink float. I guess that means that you could probably catch them on just the float by its lonesome.
I don't think I will be heading out there today as it really is raining and windy and swelly!
Trout Bum I hope it wasn't the old Iron Feather that gave into the #12 Extra tuff
 
#9 ·
Thought I would share a few picks of Neah Bay in early August. Wasn't always this nice. Notice the pulpit on Moonlights Lund. Nice touch. Whoever is in the front of the Whaler is always asking why I don't have one. So much to do and so little time.

I will have to try the Banger heads. Topwater is right about the cost of the dinks although Zap a Gap is pretty cheap :chuckle: . I have been using one trailer hook with the fly tied on the shank of one with the pointy part cut off. Guess I will try droping the one that bites back a bit more.

This rain should start moving the fish around. Hope that big batch around the entrance hangs in a while. On the other hand it would be really nice if they came into calmer water.

Next weekend may be my last at NB for the year. My bride thinks that I should do a few things before I go to Canada at the end of September.

What a year :). See you there. W
 

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