Willapa Bay report 8/09

I went to Willapa Bay with the Revolution a couple weeks ago, my contact there said kings were in as well as silvers.  Slept in the truck Thursday nite, 8/14, went out on the incoming tide Friday morning.  Lots of eel grass in the water (that's Willapa for you---always weedy, except in big floodtide at the north end, near the
beach known as Washaway. Next stop, Yokahama Harbor)  The launch at Tokeland Marina is quite nice, lots of dock space, and 2 ramps --- $5 to launch.


  Put in about an hour from high slack and pedalled out to buoy 1, about 2 miles from the ramp. A PB had just come in with two guys aboard, they had 4 kings.  I started licking my chops...

  There were only a couple or 3 PB's in the area, I made radio contact with the Marina, and with the CG, just for safety's sake. It was windy but not too choppy, about 1-2 foot wind waves, and a fairly strong current "upriver".  The bay is very shallow, about 10-14 feet except 20-40 feet in the Willapa channel.  THe bay can be a giant mudflat at low tide, and on minus tides, you can't get out of the marina.
  Caught a couple dogfish, one big enough to trip the downrigger clip and peel out line. It was big enough to be a hairy encounter with the needle-nose pliers to get my Point Defiance spoon out of his cavernous mouth. Must get one of those
de-hookers! Then switched to mooched herring, and finally hooked up with a big king.  I was between buoys 1 and 2 on the west side of the center marker.  The fish peeled off about 40 yards of line in a couple seconds, then started pulling my yak upriver.  I checked the drag----not too tight, right??  lost about 70 more yards of line and started pedalling toward the fish.  He (she?) made another strong run, I tightened the drag just a hair and---yep, leader snapped.  20# Maxima with 5/0 hooks. At least I got the sinker back    Tide changed and bite was off, trolled until it got too rough and whitecappy.  Looooong paddle back against the current....

  Back at the marina, I was whining about my lost fish and at least 2 guys told me they used 40 pound leaders for Willapa kings, one guy said he had 3 break-offs with 30 pound leader!! Vicki at the marina said she used 40# mainline and 40# mooching leaders!  These are some strong fish, just in from the salt.  I have naver had a problem with 20 and 25# leaders, but am now rigged with 40# Trilene big Game leaders, and heading back to Tokeland  around the 9th, for the last morning flood tides before the commercial nets go in.
   This first summer of my retirement has been wonderful, but since I'm not on the computer all day (I was a programmer for the Seattle VA) I have been pretty neglectful of the NWKA.  Have caught a ton of pinks and only 3 kings this summer.
In general, king fishing has been very poor in area 11, guys who know what they're doing have put in their time, but come up empty more often than not. Thank god for the humpies!
   I spent last week on Orcas Island, trolled several hours 3 separate days on the
North Shore and caught only an underling and a couple pinks.  Kings and silvers are more easily caught in the big rips around Pt Lawrence on the east side.  But had a nice week with kids and grandkid, and wife Mary had fun in her Hobie as well.

 

Great to hear you're out living the dream KT!!!  Nice report.

Don't be such a stranger!  I've been missing your gear overviews and fishing stories. 

been missing his input too!. but am not gonna begrudge a man the enjoyment of his retirement. Have a great one, Kalli.

hey, SPOT? isn't it written somplace on here that you're the resident product reviewer??

hey, SPOT? isn't it written someplace on here that you're the resident product reviewer??

That may be, but KT be the OG and there's no denying his expertise.

No doubt. i remember his "back in the day" post where he revealed that he'd replaced a broken rod with a tree branch on a trip down the west coast of V.I.  how many would'a thot of that nowadays??

Thanks for the great report, KT. I went out in my johnboat two weeks ago (9/18)  and had a nice King break me off on 20# test leaders. I hooked up just below the surface, while in "freespool" mode and letting out line, just as I was going past marker #10. The fish jumped and then was gone, along with my hooks. It must have landed on the leader.
I was trolling a whole herring rig behind a medium, green Big Al's flasher. 2 or 3 oz banana sinker was all you needed to get down. My 4 oz  that I tried first was too much. It took me down to the dogfish. I saw bait on the surface.
I'm going to try again tomorrow (just looked at the time, and its already tomorrow!!! , again with 20# test leaders. I landed a chrome 31.5 # hen on 12# test in the river below Raymond before, so I know its possible. I might have to go to 25# leader , but that's as high as I'm going to go, since I just spooled on the 30# mainline, and don't want to change it.

A good time to quit in the Bay there is one hour after the tide change. My hard and fast rule.

I trolled and cast spinners in the river upstream of Raymond today, from my Ultimate 12, but nothing was biting. A few jumpers provided hope. I trolled from about 1:30 pm  until 6:20pm. I also drifted and cast to jumpers, and got the standard results from that futile endeavor.

Was a nice afternoon for a paddle, though.

I just picked up a Wilderness Systems Tarpon 140, and i might have it ready to troll from Tokeland by the 9th...need to get a birthday fish!

7:05am 9/2: Looks to be a nice day on the water. Gotta go!

  Hey--neat post!!!  I'm gonna head back to Tokeland this week, wanna hook up??  I mean, get together? Then we'll hook up with some silvers or kings!  I just called the marina, she said they were biting throughout the day.  Think I'll head out tomorrow or Fri AM from Vashon.

KT good to hear from you. And nice report from a place I've really been wanting to get out to. It might be too late but I'm thinking of heading out there the week of the 19th sometime. If there's still some action.

Z

  Commercial nets go in on Sept  15th, sport-fishing success  nose-dives at that point.  Best fishing can be between buoy 8 and 10, also right around the corner from Tokeland Marina, the "sand spit" can have kings and silvers turning the corner and following the shore in shallow water as they come into the bay on the flood. I hooked up between buoys 1 and 2 south---be careful as buoy 2 south is at the edge of the mudflats, the channel runs from about 40 feet deep at buoy 1, to 24-35 feet as you head east "upstream" into the channel.   There are buoys 2, 1 and 2 SE  in the south-east direction as you leave the marina, about a mile or so between buoys.  The channel of the Willapa runs roughly east-west, turning to the north at North Cove and out of the bay. Marker 10 is where the North River joins the Willapa, and there's a hatchery on the North that releases a  lot of kings and silvers, so it's a good area to fish.  There's a WDFW launch on Smith Creek but it can be a mudflat in the bay on low tides.  The upside of low-tide fishing is that the fish are concentrated.

    Weather forecast for this weekend in the Bay is for rain Fri-Sunday, clearing Monday.  Also, PM winds of 15-20MPH forecast. Monday and Tuesday look good, light winds, especially in the AM, so I think I'll head out Sunday PM and fish Monday-Tuesday.  Here's a link to some neat graphic info for the Bay:

http://www.tide-forecast.com/locations/TokePoint-WillapaBay-Washington3/forecasts/latest/six_day

  It used to be good fishing at Washaway Beach (now washed away) about 10-15 years ago, the standard method was to use cutplug herring and a 2-3 ounce sinker and position your boat just outside the second row of breakers, in 10 feet or so and when a big king hit, it had nowhere to go but straight ahead!  Every year someone would get careless and wind up capsized in the breaking surf, occasionally drowning----not for the faint of heart! 
About 10 years ago the Corp of Engineers constructed a  rock jetty at the beach to stop the erosion.  It did, but the fishing is no longer good there.  Just as well, as it was pretty dicey, and Yokohama is the next stop to the west!
 
   Here's a link to a very nice and comprehensive article on this fishery, from the South Sound chapter of Puget Sound Anglers. 

http://www.sschapterpsa.com/ramblings/Willapa_Salmon.htm

Here's a pic from that article, showing the mud at a -2 foot tide, blocking access to the tokeland Marina:


Salmon University also has a chapter on Willapa.

Hmm, may have to re-think my plan. I heard the netters were starting the week after. Thanks for the links KT!

Z

Zee, the tides look good for early morning thru mid-day fishing on the 12th, thru 14th. Maybe even on the 11th, but you'd have to start at first light, or before, to get out fishing one hour before the tide change.  The hot bite, of course, is one hour before until one hour after the tide change. There isn't much of a runout on the dates I mentioned, so one could probably troll for a couple hours after the tide change and still expect some action.

Nets go in on the 15th? That'd be my neighbor in his big&badass, flat gray gillnetter, "Outlaw," low-holing his fellow fish pirates.
 On the 15th, there should still be enough fish in the river above the nets to just go fish the river (launch at Ward Creek ramp and troll spinners) for a couple of days, without noticing much effect from the gillnetting.

Report on yesterday? Well, this is a kayak fishing site and we were in my john boat, so I don't want to appear like some sort of cyberslob.  Well, Ok, here's a brief synopsis:

We launched at South Bend, as my fishing partner for the day was driving up from Cathlamet. It was foggy, with E winds blowing down the river. The fishing grounds were completley socked in as I drove south around the Bay from Grayland. The fog lifted as we motored out the channel, and the wind died and the sun was shining brightly as we hit the fishing grounds. There were at least 50 boats out there, maybe 60 or 70...didn't count them, but they were spread out most of the time, except for times when a cluster developed, as happens regularly throughout day when so many boats are fishing.

We hit some dogfish, and saw rods bent and salmon being netted. I observed that more fish were hooked and being netted in the magic two hours I mentioned. I got a nice little Willapa hatchery Chinook buck, about 15 lbs, hooked up approx 40 minutes after the tide change, right near where I lost my fish a couple weeks ago. My new friend, Mike did a superb job of netting it for me. That's all we got, but we still saw fish being caught 1 1/2 hours after the change as we started back up the Willapa channel back to the ramp.

 I usually launch at Smith Creek or Tokeland (the minus tide mud there isn't a factor in my go-outs, as I'd be long gone by the time the tide starts ebbing strongly).
I didn't even know there was a salmon hatchery on the North River (Is it private? I have heard rumors of a private rearing pond). I thought all the hatchery fish there were trucked from another hatchery, like the WDFW Fork Creek hatchery on the Willapa River, or some other one. The Fork Creek hatchery rears Chinook and Coho, and steelhead too, I think.

KT, can you move your trip here back to the 11th thru the 14th? I plan all my saltwater fishing by the tides and weather, and the 7th thru the 10th now looks like I might be hiking/flyfishing in the Elwha or Queets drainage, or camping/paddling/fishing at Lake Ozette, or somewhere else in the ONP. Or even (gasp!) just here working. I'll be looking at the Bay again on the 12th, for early morning fishing. Sometimes fog is a problem early, and it doesn't blow out or burn off until late morning.  
I might fish the river upstream on the early mornings of the 9th thru 1Oth, if I don't head to the ONP.  My plans are always in a state of flux, subject to unforseen changes and/or higher priorities suddenly emerging. I've been trying to schedule this ONP trip between the "potentially good and logistically reasonable periods" for salmon angling in my area.

KT thanks for the tide/weather info link. I have been using Pro Tides (protides.com) because I like their tide graphs. You can click on the day's graph on the monthly calendar of graphs, and get a full screen graph of that day's tides.
I also look at the graphs of "hourly" predictions on the NOAA site to see what the wind and precip are supposed to do throughout the day. These are usually accurate for two days forward.

I like to start my ocean and Bay fishing in the morning. I like "fair weather" on the big water, and plenty of "extra time" to finish for the day and be back on dry land before darkness falls. I don't plan late afternoon go-outs around harbor entrances, as I never want to find myself in a precarious situation there toward dark.
On the 9th it appears possible to fish the late afternoon tide change and be done fishing by 6pm and back in by 7:30pm, but that's too late for me to want to be paddling out there. Maybe, though, just maybe...

I'm working today, and hopefully installing rod holders this evening, on my Tarpon and john boat. Still haven't launched my Tarpon here locally.

Here's a thought. The gillnetters might not be a problem if one launches from Tokeland and fishes between markers 13 and 8. Just a guess, and a hopeful one, as that's where I've been fishing in the Bay lately.
I heard its a drag running the gauntlet of nets from the South Bend ramp, though. And I have usually seen them around the point toward Washaway a lot, too, line up off the beach on the inside of Jacobsen's Jetty.
I just fish elsewhere when the gillnetters are working, anyway.

Conehead----I'm heading out Thurs nite from Vashon, to fish Fri _  Sun.

Cellfone 206 852 4372
Home 206 463 2671

   Stopping at Outdor Emporium tomorrow, need anything???

Ter

Awesome. I definitely want to yak fish the Bay on Sunday. I'm already taking my neighbor out in my john boat on Saturday. We'll look for you out in your Hobie.
 Tomorrow I had planned to troll up in the river with a friend at the crack of dawn, but he hasn't confirmed that he's going yet. I'll get him to make a decision this morning. If he ain't going, then I'm free to yak fish, but I might still do the river. High tide is about 7:15am to 7:30am above Raymond tomorrow, and you can start trolling once you clear the launch area at the Ward Creek WDFW ramp.
 We troll 1/4 oz or 3/8 oz spinners behind a plastic trolling rudder for the Kings and Coho, and as the tide drops up there, we often go down to unweighted spinners, especially when trolling downstream. Some guys like home made spinners, others just use Flash'nGlows.

Don't really need any more tackle or supplies, but thanks for the offer. All I need for the Bay is to tie up some more leaders (dang dogfish sure ruin a lot of 'em!)and go buy some fresh herring. This weekend mightl be the last of my effort in the Bay. I'm looking forward to yak fishing it on Sunday morning. Fellow board member SilverKing mentioned that he wanted to yak fish it on Sunday, as well. I have not yet met him, either. He PM'd me that he was out there in a PB last weekend and ran into some Coho. Perhaps he will chime in here. We might be a fleet of three, or more.

If I don't have a buddy for salmon fishing on Monday, I will probably paddle into the Elk River estuary and hunt for searun cutthroat with my fly rod, unless my arms are too sore by then. Then I'll have to wimp out and go on Tuesday, or take my john boat.

I'm going to go scope out the Westport Boat Basin today to see if the Coho are in there. I have heard of some starting to trickle in. Spinners with florescent red hootchie skirts have been popular there in recent years.

KT, I'll PM you my phone # and contact info. Were you planning to troll in the Bay tomorrow? If you want to try the river, let me know. The fish usually are more dependable biters out in the salt, though. I need to be taking out by around noon to 1pm tomorrow, though.

My forward rod holder and compass install on the Tarpon went smoothly. Still don't have the rocket launchers installed behind the seat, yet, but my milk crate has tubes on it. I need to find some pool noodle. Probably gonna get a 'Cuda 350 with gps. I'm going to go paddle the Tarpon today.

KT, check your PMs.  SilverKing, you still in for this? Gotta go get on it!   

OK, my buddy cancelled for tomorrow. Going solo doesn't give me the excuse to fish from something so large as a 16' john boat.  I am probably going to troll the river in my Ultimate 12, as that is a more comfortable boat for the river. I can also stand and cast from it. I'm going to try to launch from the WDFW ramp at Ward Creek no later than 6:45am tomorrow morning, shooting for 6:30am arrival.

KT if you'd want to try the river, I have extra trolling rudders. They prevent line twist when trolling a spinner. If you have a better idea, I'm all ears.

Word from my friend is that the Boat Basin has been slow so far. Just a couple of days ago, there weren't a lot of fish in yet. Gotta go hack down a jungle now.