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This fishing report is for Saturday to Monday.

I got to go fishing with my friends Robbie and Gringo Pescador for a long anticipated spring ling cod trip to Neah Bay. I can safely say this was one of the most epic and fun fishing trips I have ever had! We stayed at the Snow Creek Resort (http://snowcreekwa.com/). If you’ve never stayed there, I can recommend it for its ambience and location. The rooms will hold five anglers, but the view is a source of never ending beauty.

We fished out of Neah Bay, and each day ran out to fish various locations along the shorelines from Tatoosh Island to Wadda Island and down to Seal Rock. I wanted to show my friends the beauty of this area and the weather accommodated us perfectly. We had sunny skies, mild winds, and warm weather all three days we fished. See the HotSpots for a few areas to check out.

Our techniques were to either drift and jig bottom, or cast small 3/8 oz jigs and plastics to the kelp and rocks. Basically we’d switch back and forth depending on how sore our elbows were!
This year the regs call for 22” minimum sized lings, 2 per day, and no fishing deeper than 120 feet (to help protect the quillback rockfish).

The ling action was pretty good, but we caught a lot of sub legal fish, and only three keepers for the time there. We saw others do better. Tried some live bait as I know how effective that can be, but for us it just caused lost gear. Jigging 3-6 oz minnow type jigs was more enjoyable, if limiting for the big guys. As to the sea bass and kelp greenling, wow, we could have caught and released hundreds (and I think we did). We limited ourselves to sea bass first over 14”, then 15”, then 17”, and still caught a whole lot of keepers. The sea bass would just go non-stop for 3/8 oz jigs (unpainted) with any type of plastic attached, with a slow twitch retrieve.

Fun times with good friends, can’t wait to go back next year!

(picture is the Monday morning catch)

Toni

4/21/2015 6:57:00 PM

Awesome

Larry3215

4/21/2015 7:13:00 PM

Nice report and nice haul Mike! We havent been up there in several years. Hoping to make it back this year.

bluegrouse bill

4/21/2015 10:55:00 PM

I stayed at Snow creek in 2013 & 2014 in July fishing for Silvers & Humpys (the one year) Had a blast, neat little spot. I do miss the old Neah Bay resort that was right in front of seal & sail rock. It was run by the Anderson's I believe. Stayed there with my dad, grandpa, uncle & cousins every year for 10 days during late July early August from age 4 to 11. That is when it closed for salmon in the mid 90's. Now that place really had some character with the old resturant balanced precariously on crooked pilings over the bay..oh & the little store that had penny candy for us kids. Good memories

afk

4/22/2015 5:20:00 AM

Beautiful weather,water and scenery! Good times. Thanks for the report.

Gringo Pescador

4/22/2015 6:22:00 AM

It was a fantastic weekend! I know I'll be back.

KING KONG COHO

4/22/2015 6:58:00 AM

Great report! Looks like a fantastic weekend and a nice bunch of "groceries!"

downriggeral

4/22/2015 10:32:00 PM

WOW Mike, looks like you had a blast. I do miss the salt water living over here in Eastern WA.
Thanks for sharing your fun trip with us.....I can just smell the salt air,
See you soon at Chelan, can hardly wait.

bob johansen

4/23/2015 9:03:00 AM

Nice report Mike! Loved the scenic photo. I have been lucky enough to fish that area several times and have many pleasant memories.

tvh1882

4/24/2015 11:05:00 PM

I was up there Wednesday through Friday, we headed home Saturday. Our fishing was pretty much like yours. We concentrated on Lings most of the time and didn't have real good luck there. Caught 6, none of them very big. The sea bass however seemed to be a lot more plentiful than in the last few year and we took about 20 of them home. Good eating. We have been going up for the opener for about 20 years and really enjoy it especially when the weather is good like it was this year. We stay at the campground in town. They have made quite a few improvements there and it is a pretty good place to stay. It could be really nice if they would expand the Mens Restroom. It gets awful crowded early in the morning.

Mike Carey

4/25/2015 11:03:00 AM

Good deal, ya black sea bass and we caught a lot of greenling, more than I have ever seen before. I saw a bunch of under size lings on my underwater camera.

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