Earl Sande with two kings
In the middle of July, Crag Coons called me up and said “Let’s go to Neah Bay for a few days and kill some kings.”
My immediate response was “When do we leave!”
Crag has an old 1980 19-foot Glas-Ply with a cutty-cabin. It is powered with a model 470 mercruiser stern drive that was developed by Mercury engineers about 1974 and introduced in 1976 as a 224-cubic-inch four cylinder with the power of a V-8.
Basically this engine is an aluminum block made by Mercury with a Ford 460 head and pistons. The design was unusual with positive and negative results. The last year of production was 1991.
This engine is quite infamous for head gasket problems. The top of each cylinder is surrounded by water and the slightest defect in the head gasket will allow hot compression air to enter the closed cooling system, building up pressure until the radiator cap can’t hold it and overflows causing the engine to overheat.
Crag’s engine had a new head gasket many years ago. But this one is now showing its age. As long as he keeps the RPM under 3200 it doesn’t overheat and runs good.
I guess we all have our limits the older we get!
I hadn’t been to Neah Bay for at least 20 years, so I was excited about going not only for the fishing but also to see how much the town had changed. The first time I fished Neah Bay was in August 1975. I had a 1973 16-foot Glas-Ply with a 1968 in-line six cylinder Mercury outboard.
To pull the boat I had an old 1963 Ford pick-up and left Belfair at three in he morning. I got there at daylight, found the launching ramp and headed around Tatoosh Island not knowing where to go. So I stopped, hooked up a cut-plug herring and started trolling west. Not five minutes later the line was ripping off my reel. Twenty minutes later I had a 30-pound king in the boat.
I could barely believe what had just happened. My first thought was “Wow, this is going to be easy!”
Right. That was the last bite of the day! But that was by far the biggest salmon I had ever caught. I was one happy guy and was definitely hooked on fishing at Neah Bay.
I didn’t even own a cooler so I put the salmon in a garbage bag full of ice for the ride home. My granny Baldwin helped me can half of it and the rest I cut into steaks.
For the next week I ate like a king!
From 1975 to 1987 I fished a lot for salmon every summer at Sekiu, Neah Bay, La Push and Westport, creating a lot of fantastic memories.
All that fun nearly came to an end in 1988 when I started my business (Earl’s Marine), because for four months every summer I worked from 9 in the morning to nine at night, seven days a week.
About eight years ago I decided fishing was more important then working. The older I get the more I believe in those wise words.
Crag caught some nice big kings out near Swiftsure Bank last July so that’s where we headed for the first day. I have a picture in my office of Edward Moff holding a 96-pound king salmon he caught there in 1916.
We started fishing about 12 miles out, sending our downrigger balls out 190 feet. Crag put on a herring and I used my favorite coyote spoon. We started catching Chinook right away, but they weren’t large enough for our liking so we just kept releasing them. We were careful to not put them in the net and not pulling them out of the water.
The ocean was calm, the fog went away, the sun came out and fish were biting. It was truly a wonderful day on the ocean!
We each kept a 14-pound Chinook and a five-pound hatchery silver. Then we decided tomorrow was the day for bigger kings and headed back to Snow Creek Resort for the night.
We slept on the boat and were up at first light. It was foggy, choppy and windy as we headed west for Tatoosh Island. We could only see about 50 feet and carefully traveled by GPS and radar with a few waves coming over the bow. We made it to Skagway Rocks and started fishing with cut-plug herring in 40 feet of water about 25 feet down.
It was calm on the south side of the rocks. The last week had been very good for kings right here. We were the first ones there, but had no action for the first hour. Suddenly, Crag’s line is ripping out. King on! It was close to 30 pounds and didn’t want to come near the boat.
Finally, 20 minutes later the king was tuckered out. I was just putting the net in the water when all hell broke loose. A very large sea lion going about 20 miles an hour two feet under the surface and three feet from the boat grabbed our 30-pounder and was gone in a second.
What a freak’n bummer!!!
After that episode we decided to head south for Makah Bay. We were still fishing with herring. I was using a small diver and Crag was using a downrigger.
We saw some birds working some bait, so we trolled that direction. We trolled around them and I caught a sea bass. Five minutes later, Crag has a nice king on. Then 30 seconds after that I have a king on!
Now this is fun! We know we have to get these fish in the boat before the sea lions show up. Crag gets his to the boat first. I have my pole in my left hand and net his fish with my right. Crag quickly gets his fish in the box and nets mine.
That was cool!
Mine was almost 24 pounds and Crag’s was 20 pounds. After a five-minute break, we kept fishing, hoping for some close-in silvers. While trolling we caught four nice lings with one being about 15 pounds.
We were happy with our fish and wanted to get an early start for home. On the way we saw a large sea otter lying on its back eating something. I’ve seen lots of them in Alaska but that was the first one I’d seen at NeahBay.
The beauty of Neah Bay near shore is spectacular and really adds to a fabulous fishing day.