Friday about 7pm I was all packed up and the boat was loaded to hit the west side of Area 7 early in the morning. About then my kid asked "When are we going back to Neah Bay?" The wheels started turning, I looked at the marine forecast, made a few calls and found a cancellation room in Sekiu, and at 4:30a on Saturday we were headed west instead of north.
We started fishing about 9:30am Saturday. It took about 10 minutes to start catching fish, although they were mostly the wrong variety - blackmouth, and tons of them. We kept heading west with the outgoing tide, dodging humpbacks. There were at least 20 of them inside the Straits, we saw 8 blow at once and had one breach within 50 yards! Holy crap.
Unlike orcas, we seemed to do well around the whales. Picked up a few unclipped coho (can't keep) and pinks (released) until we got out past Tatoosh into the ocean. We ended our limits for day 1 with a double on a nice king (which we can keep in the ocean) and an unclipped coho that got sent back. Added a rockfish and ling for good measure.
Day 2 was more of the same. First 12 fish were blackmouth up to about 25", all tossed back. We struggled to find anything but blackmouth and shaker coho, releasing more than 20, until we got out to the ocean and found some mature fish. But once we got there we made short work of our limits, ending in the same fashion as Day 1 with a double of an unclipped coho (released) and mature king (bonked). Finished about noon in the ocean, and arrived back home at 6:15pm. A crazy 38 hours!
