Olympic Penn suggestions???

My wife is from Seattle but never really spent much time in the Olympics (other than backpacking when we were in college).  She's got a week off from work and grad school at the end of the month, and we were thinking of doing a car camping tour up the Hood Canal side of the penn.  We'll bring our kayaks.

Any fishing/crabbing spots I should keep in mind?  I know nothing about the run timing of fish in the Sound.  Advice would be greatly appreciated (and I'm happy to offer suggestions for folks visiting Oregon!)

I recommend that you take the pretty drive up Hood Canal and keep on going to the north end of the Peninsula. (Or go up the west side- summer is the driest season for there, too.)

In late June on the Canal, crab is closed, bottomfish is closed (semi-regular fish kills), and salmon is closed. Crab opens 7/2, salmon n 7/1, but will not be good till late August.

The N side of the penninsula, especially out west toward Neah Bay and Sekiu, should be good for bottomfish. There may be some salmon opportunities in Neah Bay, in late June.

WDFW crab link- http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/shelfish/crabreg/area12c.shtml

WDFW fish regs (scroll to MA12 for the Canal)- http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/regs/2008/2008sportregs.pdf

ThreeWeight, There is some good C&R fishing to be had in the northern Hood Canal for searun cutthroat.
That is about all I ever fish for there, except the occasional chum salmon fishing. There's also some great searun cutt fishing around Port Townsend. If you are interested, i may be able to point you towards some spots.
The searun cutts hang out close to the beaches, feed mainly on sand lance, sculpins, salmon fry (early spring outmigrating Chum fry) and various organisms.

Check out washingtonflyfishing.com and do a search in the "Salt" forum for "searun cutthroat" and you will find a wealth of info. Pay special attention to the great advice offered by Roger Stephens and Les Johnson, as well as the many other experienced searun cutt fly anglers that contribute there.

A brown over white, tan over white, or olive over white baitfish pattern, 1 1/2" to 2" long should work. I think the sand lance patterns working now are tan over white.

Also, the Conehead Squid is a very good searun cutt pattern to use in that area. Size 6 or 8
Sculpin patterns, Muddlers, Rolled Muddlers will work well at times.
The Cone Head Muddler gets down and dirty and grabs a few at times.
The cutts will chase and hit surface gurglers that resemble injured baitfish.
Sizes 6 and 4 hooks are about right for most searun cutt fishing.

I like to use either a clear intermediate sinktip with unweighted flies, or clear intermediate full sink, but sometimes I like a floating line when fishing shallow and close to the beach. I use my 6 wt. A 5 wt is fine also. Your 3 wt will be a little light for these hard fighters.

Find some moving water, a rip or current seam close to the beach, and look for structure there, either large rocks, depressions, pilings. Try various stripping speeds, rhythms, etc. Sometimes slow works, other times a fast retrieve is the only way. These fish have a strong "chase" instinct that can be triggered by quick stripping... they'll chase and want to nail your fly before it gets away!

These fish move around a lot, but will hold behind rocks and in depressions when the tide is running, waiting for food to be swept along to them.

Thanks, really helpful info guys.  I've got an whole arsenal of 5 wt rods to draw from for sea runs (though no clear sink tips, hmmm).  Any advice on specific spots to try would be great, and I'm happy to trade some Oregon spot suggestions if you like.

Gray skies are back in Portland (at least this morning), so I'm pitching my wife on sunshine. 

We have picked up a few really nice SRC off the beach at Lilliwap,  I plan on taking the yaks out there soon an trying it that way.  we were using pick buzz bombs at the time.  I was thinking some vibramax spinners would work well.  and not really on the olympic pens, but at the bottoms side of it they are picking up a few kings, just to the south of allyn.