June 3-4, Sekiu Halibut Derby

I emailed Olson's this weekend and haven't heard back yet.

-Allen

Here's the response I got from Olson's.  You must launch from Sekiu and fish must be checked in by boat at Van Riper's.  So my plan would be start a drift at the Caves and drift all the way to the mouth of the Hoko ... then 3 miles paddle back.  All depending on weather of course.

We can have a lunch break at Hoko.  We could also leave a car over there if we don't have a halibut to weigh and don't feel like paddling back.

-Allen

You register in Sekiu the evening before the derby or next
day.  You have to launch from Sekiu.  Derby fish must be caught and
registered dwith the following hours Sat., 6/30/06-5:00 a.m. until 9:00 pm
and Sun., 6/4/06-until 12 noon. Weigh in is at Van Ripers Resort only during
official derby hours. Fish must be transported by boat via water to Van
Ripers's weigh station.  The time will be noted on derby ladder by the derby
officials logging the catch.  Fishing boundaries West to Sekiu River, East
to Pillar Point.

Okay Polepole, you win.  The plan that you just outlined would only expose us to "medium" levels of sensitivity to wind and currents (at Sekiu point and at Kydaka point), according to the Clallam Bay - Sekiu web site that you gave the link to.  The float past Pillar point and Slip point apparently would expose us to "high" levels, not to mention disqualify us from the derby.  I'm liking your current (pardon the pun) plan much better and the idea to leave an optional ride back from Hoko river is probably a really good one too. 

Of course anybody that wants to tag along and NOT pay to enter the derby would be welcome as can be, but I love the idea that we have a chance to startle the judges and other contestants at the check-in... just by bringing in ANY halibut at all.  There's totally nothing to lose for us, except the paltry $15 entry fee.

Fishin-T

Full rules posted here ... http://www.olsonsresort.com/rules.pdf

-Allen

So right now, I'm only aware of Fishin-T and I planning to fish this derby.  Anyone else going?  Tom, we need to figure out where we're staying still, right?

-Allen

Wish I could, but gas costs are a killer, right now. I'm saving my points for our derby. Kristi is willing to give me lots of local (cheap) time.

Fishin-T and I will be staying in a "camping cabin" at Olson's Resort.

-Allen

East wind this weekend ...

 .SAT...E WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT.
 .SUN...E WIND 10 TO 15 KT BECOMING SW IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES
 1 OR 2 FT.

Not too bad, but we'll be paddling home against the wind.

-Allen

Paddle back to camp against the wind?  Nothing new here.  If I'm not mistaken, this is always the way for kayak anglers.

Fishin-T

Here's how the weekend went.

Fishin-T and I left from Shoreline around 5 and arrived at Sekiu a  little after 10.  We hecked into a camping cabin at Olson's Resort, which was a pretty basic cabin with a couple beds and not much else.  Started to get our gear together and remembered that this was a barbless zone.  The big circle hooks were impossible to crimp the barbs down on and neither of us had a file with us that was worth a dime so we bought one and got to work.  Those big ol' hooks were rather difficult to file down still.  Got up at 5:30 the next day and got set to launch.  The plan was to head straight north and drift west with the current.  D'oh!!  The current had other plans as we were drifting east.  Fished the 180-240' zone and ended up off Slip Point about 2 miles east.  No joy on the butts for us.  The wind started picking up and we were a little more than 2 miles from port so we started in.  We stopped at the reef at Slip Point which was somewhat sheltered from the wind.  In fact all of Clallam Bay was so we fished shallow for lings.  I got one at 27" but crackered off a couple other nice ones including one that I couldn't get more than 10 feet off the bottom before it ran back down.  After a couple yo-yos off the bottom it spit the barbless hooks.  Caught a few underlings and crackered a few more.  I can't remember losing so many lings before so I can only blame the barbless hooks.  We ended up covering 8 miles that day.  We were both exhausted after the morning so didn't fish anymore, in fact we got a nice nap in.

The next morning it was raining and we decided to head over to Snow Creek which was ~15 miles down the road.  We wanted to check out the NWKA derby location and meet the owners.  Met Craig and Jake, the owners, and they told us the black rockfish were thick at the edge of the kelp bed perhaps 1/2 mile from the launch.  I headed out before Tom as he was still gearing up.  I encountered some good black rockfish boils on the surface and threw a bunch of different plastics at them with no success.  I finally switched to a 2 ounce kastmaster and TROLLED for them.  Hooked up a nice 3 punder before Tom made his way out to me.  We met up in a kelp bed and I dropped the kastmaster to the bottom between the kelp and hooked up with nice 29" ling.  That was a pleasant surprise!  We drifted downwind a bit before heading back up to the kelp.  I caught a couple more blacks and Tom got a nice 26" ling.  After a couple hours Tom  headed in a I trolled back up to the kelp.  i was about to head home when I noticed another boil.  I made my way out to it in short order and hooked up a couple more blacks before losing the school and decided to head in again.  On the way in I hooked up another and circled back.  Repeated this 3-4 more times before loosing the school again.  I ended up with 8 black rockfish all in the 3-4 pound range.  All fish were caught in 20-35 feet of water.  It was nice to see some quality fish in the derby location.  Thanks Fishin-T for another fun weekend.

-Allen

Way-ta-Go Allen!  Nice report Brother, btw, up here in Canada...the ones I've been catching looks just like yours and the Department of Fisheries call them Greenling.  I was confused for the longest time...didn't know if it was a Ling cod until finally somebody there told me that the the difference between a Lingcod and a greenling is that the Ling's mouth will extend pass the eyes and has razor sharp canines.  They can weigh as much as 70lb. 

The Greenling's mouth on the other hand, will not extend that far and usually smaller.  Heck, I don't really care, as long as I'm out there fishing and catching them, I'm happy....got anymore photos?

Keep them coming....

VP

PS. That darn Snag-a-but's gone off fishin @ Sombrio again and my SPTW has not arrive yet. 

Nice job fella's ! Some nice black bass there.

No VP I didn't make it to Sombrio. I just have too much on my plate so don't need any more fish.

Hey, my cousin and wife visiting from Ontario has just gone on a Halibut hunt (fishing charter) in Tofino. they'll be 10 or 12 miles offshore and I know it's not yakfishin but if he lands some Hali's I'll post some pix anyway.

If he brings back a big one maybe I'll roll the yak down to the water and take a few nice pix 

Cheers,

Well, as I mentioned, it's not yakfishion but it is in the PNW. My cousin and wife managed to haul in 3 Hali's and 3 Springs/Kings on their charter in Tofino.

They were in a 24ft "Grady white" and not one hali was over fishin-t's 20lb mark and I very humbly commented about that. It just goes to show that our fishin yaks are as functional as any good fishing vessel but we all new that. They did land some nice size spring/kings too.

They were way off shore. Not going to happen in my yak in the near future so I'm still not sure what spot we will be targeting on our August trip to Tofino.

Here's a pic
Cheers,

Still have no idea if this trip is possible for me, but I'm, working as hard as possible to build up the WAF! 

ok, this is roughly 2 years old, but have been reading thru the old posts to see if i can pick things like terminologies [ what the heck is "mooching", anyways] ...,but pisco, please explain the  "WAF" fund.. totally stumped..

and by the ways, reading the rest of the posts that came off this thread i've quoted, all i can think is how great a weekend that had to have been
Rich

WAF is a little term I burrowed and adapted from audiophiles (people who love their high-end stereo equipment) and used it on the NCKA board about three years ago.  For some reason it stuck.

WAF = Wife Approval Factor and it refers to that otherwise unspoken points system your wife uses to keep track of you.   

When you go out and buy that new GLoomis fishing rod you've been drooling over, that G-Loomis rod carries a very low WAF meaning it decreases your overall WAF by a lot.  If your overall WAF gets too low you won't be going on that big kayak fishing trip.  Of course tackling that honey-do list increases your WAF.

There are subtle nuances to the whole WAF thing and everybody has their own point system, but the wife never tells you explicitly how it all works.  It's up to you to figure it out.  Oh, and mentioning the concept of WAF to the wife can cause a big drop in the overall WAF.


Brian