Neah Bay - best charter trip of my life

[FishingFool1968]

First off, hi this is my first post. I'm from the midwest but heard of this site from the skipper of the Gumshoe.

11 of us just spent 3 days fishing with excel fishing charters out of Neah Bay we stayed at Olsons resort in Sekiu and drove out to get to the boats at 5 am each day. We fished with both Tom (cabezon) and Joe (gumshoe) for a combined total of 5 charters. Both captains are exceptional. We have fished with Tom since 2010 and this was our first year with Joe.

Day 1, I fished with Tom we went for salmon. Fishing was phenominal but everything was wild. We ended up with 7 coho all about 7-10 lbs. We told Tom that we wanted to net fish and do all the work on the boat and he taught us his methods of fishing.  Tom was great to fish with as always, awesome mellow personality until fish are on then he gets real excited.

In the morning we tried hard for kings but it just wasn't happening. We hooked a few but they dominated us crushingly loosing one at the boat, beer helped this out quite a bit.

The weather was great and we fished until about 2, there was a boat that needed help and we ended our day to tow them in.

Day 2 - We had both the Cabezon and Gumshoe booked for combo trips. 5 went on the Cabezon and 4 on the Gumshoe (including me). Running to the spot planned Joe stopped the boat when he saw something and said "This isn't where I told you we were going but I have to fish this." It was instant, we could hardly get rods in the water the salmon were so thick after 80-100 hookups we were limited on salmon by 9:45 am.

After we limited on salmon we headed inshore for rockfish. Jo says "let's do some grocery shopping, I'm going to put around until I find something I want to fish on, oh wait here they are." I looked at the fish finder there is a wall of fish from 90 feet to 45 feet as thick as the bottom looks on the sounder. We put 35 rockfish and 4 lingcod in the boat in 15 minutes. After we limited on rockfish, we put the lingcod gear on to mop them up, they came a little slower but we got six more all in the next hour! The guys on the Cabezon had a similar experience limiting out.

Day 3- The icing on the cake. We had previously booked Tom and convinced Joe to take another day off and take a second group out. I fished with Joe again but we scrambled the groups up so . We struggled finding hatchery salmon hitting about 30 wild in a row trying to get our last fish by 11 am, man were my arms tired. Then we took a short 30 min nap as we travelled to where the rockfish and lingcod had been caught the previous day. The Cabezon was already there fishing away. When we arrived they took off and headed south because the lingcod fishing was slow.

We pounded the rockfish putting 35 in the box in 2 drifts accompanied with 3 nice lingcod. Our skipper, switched the gear as he did the day before and asked if we wanted to see a trick. He then rigged something different on 2/4 poles and said "this might not catch as many but hold on tight when you hook up". I broke a few big fish off and started getting frustrated, I exclaimed "All I want is a big lingcod" and BAM my rod burries. At this point Joe snaggs the gaff from my buddy and rips the 38" lingcod out of the water in one fluid motion. It is the largest fish I have ever caught. We were in shock on the scale it was 24 lbs. By the end of the drift we had a few more nice ones in the box but then my rod burries again. This ling comes flying in the boat with some hoots and hollers and measures out at 40" and 28 lbs. I caught the largest and second largest fish in my life on the same day. Then another rod goes down and a 36" ling comes in the boat we had 3 lingcod inshore all in the twenties! Once we picked up a few more and were limited we headed to the dock.

After some beers, a lot of vaccume packing and telling stories about our few days our trip came to a close.

Between both boats, we kept 51 coho, 44 lingcod, and 154 black rockfish.

Tom or Joe maybe you will see this on here? See you next year.

[FishingFool1968]

Pic 1

[FishingFool1968]

I'll post some more later when I get them from my friends.

[trophyhunt]

Amazing trip!

[full choke]

 
Looks like a great time!

[FishingFool1968]

A few more

[Stein]

Holy smokes, that's a pile of fish there, sounds like a blast.

[greenhead_killer]

sounds like an awesome trip! thanks for sharing

[trophyelk6x6]

nice size bass! 

[CLARKTAR]

@wetwoodshunter

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[h20hunter]

Yes sir, epic trip,  good friends, a few pops, fish were killed, Capt and crew safe....perfect.

[elkrack]

That’s a trip you won’t be forgetting!
Neah bay is a special place!

[Wetwoodshunter]

I had an awesome time with you guys. Hope to see you next year, and have a great time slug hunting for the whitetails!
That was some real epic fishing, you guys can fish.

[FishingFool1968]

^^ Awesome job Joe ^^ We have been eating fish almost every day since I got back home. 

[Tjv28]

Fish nuggets for dayzzz!