Whidbey Island halibut Sunday 5/11

Thinking of heading out to Whidbey on Sunday for a try at Halibut. Between 5:30-10:30 AM it looks like the tides will be pretty mellow and lend to some decent conditions. Weather.com is calling it to be 51 w/ showers (50%) and winds to 8 mph. Not exactly perfect conditions but my last chance to fish for halis until I get back from vacation at the end of the month. If you're ready to play in the currents of Admiralty inlet come on down.

Z

Zee, can you do Saturday?  I was thinking about that day.  Weather looks better too.  Some iffy forecasts starting Saturday afternoon into Sunday.

-Allen

Zee, can you do Saturday?  I was thinking about that day.  Weather looks better too.  Some iffy forecasts starting Saturday afternoon into Sunday.

-Allen

Sure, why not. The first ferry @ Mukilteo is 6AM on Sat any possibility for camping out Fri. night?

Z

I have a better chance of just leaving early and looping around through DPass than I do of camping on on Friday.

-Allen

BTW, we only have a small window of opp before the tide starts kicking up.  We'll be done by 10-ish I think, so pre-dawn launch is in order if we want to get some quality fishing time in.

-Allen

BTW, we only have a small window of opp before the tide starts kicking up.  We'll be done by 10-ish I think, so pre-dawn launch is in order if we want to get some quality fishing time in.

-Allen

I feel ya. O'dark thirty it is.

Z

I have a better chance of just leaving early and looping around through DPass than I do of camping on on Friday.

-Allen

Have you ever paddled through deception pass?, That's some scary water. I walked over that bridge on DPass, way scary!!

Have you ever paddled through deception pass?, That's some scary water. I walked over that bridge on DPass, way scary!!

Sure have.  It looks scary, but it's not that bad... if you have the appropriate skills.  It's a ton of fun.

-Allen

Forecast looking good for this weekend.

COASTAL WATERS FORECAST FOR WASHINGTON
 PZZ134-081000-
 /O.CON.KSEW.SC.Y.0067.000000T0000Z-080508T1000Z/
 ADMIRALTY INLET-
 SAT
 SE WIND TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS.
 SUN
 NW WIND 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS.


COASTAL WATERS FORECAST FOR WASHINGTON
 PZZ132-081000-
 /O.CON.KSEW.GL.W.0030.000000T0000Z-080508T1000Z/
 EAST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-
 SAT
 VARIABLE WIND TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS.
 SUN
 W WIND 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT.

Picking up a tad on Sunday.  But Saturday is the day I can get out it it looks like all systems go!!!

-Allen

Hmmm ... it's ~2.5 hours to drive around the top and back down to Keystone.

It's about 2 hours and 40 minutes to drive to Dungeness spit via the Tacoma Narrows.

For whatever reason I feel more confident over at Dungeness.

-Allen

Polepole,

I don't know if the fishing will be any better a one location or the other, but what Dungeoness has that Whidbey doesn't is a pretty good amount of shelter behind the spit if the wind comes up while you're out there.  You'll have to come out from behind its protection to get to the water that's deep enough, but it's only as little as 100 yds away from the tip of the spit.  So a pretty decent break water and wind break is close at hand if it turns out that you suddenly need it.

Of course the downside is that the tip of the spit is about 3 full miles from your launch site.  If I had to make a guess, I'd say that the halibut fishing right there is just about as good as anywhere else in the sound or the straight, except for out at Neah Bay and beyond.

Fishin-T

You guys are the OG locals so if you think dungeness spit is the call I'm down.

Z

Well Pole and I took off early.. 4AM and headed for Dungeness Bay. Got there exactly at 6:45 and were ready for the launch at 7. Right when we were about ready to launch a boat came in and the guy had a nice 40# Halibut hog tied on board. He had been there for about an hour and was done fishing for the day. Pole and I said later and left the PB'r in our wake..

I swear we had rooster tails shooting up behind us! It was a good paddle (3 miles or so) and got to the spot w/ insanely perfect windless glassy conditions.

We drifted a few times and we has some take downs and lost some bait so we felt pretty good that something would stick soon. Then Pole got this mystery hit that somehow took his weight and rig w/o a serious takedown. Strange...

Anyway, we got back to drifting went to different depths, a few different rigs but unfortunately it didn't turn any better. On my last drift when I dropped down my rig I realized the water had a bit of a wavy disruption to it. I thought,it looks a little brackish.. wonder what that's all about.. We did a few more drifts w/ no action so called it a day.

Most of the paddle back was fine but as we got closer to our launch spot the outgoing current picked up. We were paddling at a good pace and my GPS was reading 3mph... not good. The tide was doing it's thing. As we got further in we realized it was getting really shallow 2-3 ft. and had to follow small inlets... then they all but dried up and were forced to pull our yaks to deeper water. But once we got to deeper water the current was really ripping. I was pedaling full speed where I'd usually cruise at 4-5 mph and I was doing 1!!! So I followed Pole hoping that his whitewater background would somehow take us through a shortcut that would make it all easy.. but didn't. It took us about a good 40 min. until we finally  got to where the water ended at mud.. 150 yards away from the launch...

So it was time to drag the yaks across the mud back and we decided to carry our gear first and then get the empty yaks. That was until we started sinking in the mud. Pole got almost knee deep and I stopped and turned around. He muscled his way in and then found a better route that didn't have such sticky mud. We surfed our kayaks across the mud and finally got back to the car.

Not only were we muddy but frickin tired and skunky. Rough day. That place looks good and fishy but I will never mess around w/ the tides there again!
Z

Z,

Hey, good report.  In all seriousness, I would have been right there with you guys if I had been able to stay in Wa. just a little longer.  I still think that the spit has good potential when the halibuts are in their annual migration mode, like right about now.  So other than the "mysterious take-down" where Pole lost his entire rig, did the other take downs feel like for real fish bites?  Or good chance that they were merely hang-ups on rocks etc.?  How deep were you guys fishing on average?  If you say that those were for real fish bites by the vibration, etc., then I'd say that they'd just about have to be halibut bites considering the area.

Pisco managed to hook that one last time over by the bouy that's off to the east-north east of the tip of the spit.  So did you guys drift parallel east and west along the spit or what.  It drops off SO fast there (down at LEAST to 400') that it's hard to keep a bait just right above the bottom.

Hey, next year I plan to be in town for this time of year and I'm ready and waiting to go right back over there with any body that'll do it.  Just got to have a plan for the tides and such.  I've never had a launch that was across a shallow mud flat like that one before, except for the one time that Pisco and I did it.  And we just turned out lucky by total chance.  I'm glad you posted the whole messy story like that!  I know that I for one sure learned a great vicarious lesson.

Thanks,
Fishin-T

I've fished that area a couple of times, now, and it usually seems I'm heading out against the flood and in against the ebb. Grrr.

I've learned that following the shoreline of the spit helps a lot. There's a channel over there that makes it easier to keep from getting stranded; if I'm in the shallows against the spit it decreases the opposing current, and the spit then blocks the afternoon wind, which almost always pipes up.

Last year, John and I stopped at D. Spit on the return from Neah Bay. It was so darn calm, for hours, that when we heard people out at Dungeness Bar whooping about a 'but caught, we paddled out there.