Up next in 10
SEKIU Neah Bay - Multi-Species STRATEGIES for SUCCESS - LINGCOD, Halibut, and SALMON!
1K views
May 8, 2025
We had incredible trip out to Sekiu and Neah Bay in April chasing Salmon, Hailbut and Lingcod and this video is all about the multi-species strategies we employed to try to maximize our success. In this video I share what went well and what didn't for each species and for the overall strategy. I also talk about the my partnership with TruDave and their crazy comfortable deck boots for fishing. Use discount code PNWBestLife at checkout or this link for a 15% off discount! for a limited time! https://trudave.com/affiliate-program/sell-product?source_type=sales_plugin_af&slt=sales_plugin_af&productPage=1&referral_code=FS6PE6T23GOL Also, mentioned in the video, here's the invite link for the PNWBestLife discord channel. https://discord.gg/gEgUV3eCr4 Super awesome downrigger spools: Contact Trevor Jackson on the Westport Sportfishing facebook page. Also, here's the downrigger braid he will tell you to buy: https://amzn.to/3F7WEse Lastly, consider becoming a member of the channel as there's more Sekiu / Neah Bay content on the members only section and there's going to be multiple new videos each month all year long!
View Video Transcript
0:04
what's up everybody this video is about
0:06
having success or failure in some cases
0:10
going after multi multiecies in one day
0:14
this can be a great challenge but a lot
0:16
of fun to try to go after trying to get
0:18
your halibit your ling cod and your
0:21
salmon in one day we were out in CQ when
0:23
we were able to go over to Marine Area 4
0:25
NIA Bay and get our and work on our
0:28
lingod rockfish limit then go back to CQ
0:31
and work on our halibet salmon limit now
0:33
of course you have to offload your catch
0:35
between each area because you're not
0:37
allowed to have those fish in the
0:41
boat but having success at these types
0:44
of endeavors it requires a lot of
0:47
proficiency with each species that
0:49
you're going after but it also requires
0:51
that you fish the optimal part of the
0:53
tide for each one so if you're thinking
0:56
about this if you're thinking about a
0:57
summer trip or even a fall sometimes is
1:00
even better you know when you got open
1:01
in like August September out there some
1:04
people are crazy they try to they do
1:06
like a a cooal ling cod tuna combo man
1:10
if if you've ever pulled that one off
1:11
with anything close to limits uh like
1:14
you're you're you're out of this world
1:17
uh that's like hitting for the cycle or
1:18
something like that so drop a comment if
1:20
that's you i want to know i want to know
1:22
about that but uh you know these are
1:24
exciting opportunities to really load up
1:26
the boat get the groceries fill the
1:29
freezer but you've got to do it just the
1:31
right way to be successful and this
1:34
video is like just about our attempt to
1:36
do that what went well what we struggled
1:38
with what we do different next time so
1:40
enjoy all right we're going to do this
1:42
species by species and just talk about
1:44
the different parts of the tide the
1:46
techniques we use for those species
1:48
trying to go after this multiecies
1:50
bonanza you know for uh each day we were
1:52
there and we're going to start with
1:54
lingod rockfish right cuz this is one of
1:56
the species combos that's pretty easy to
1:58
load up on and actually we weren't even
2:00
thinking like we're not going to try to
2:02
maximize rockfish we want eight quality
2:04
lings there were four of us on the boat
2:06
and whatever rockfish we pick up we're
2:08
fine right and it turns out we were able
2:09
to get those fish pretty quickly but
2:12
because of my recollection of other
2:14
times we'd been there in May June when
2:16
the average size of the link cod was
2:18
just bigger some of those dragons come
2:20
up on the rock piles and there's some
2:22
really nice lingod we were kind of
2:24
picking through some fish thinking like
2:25
well you know let's keep let's keep
2:27
cycling through this we'll get bigger
2:28
we'll get bigger lingod we didn't really
2:31
get bigger lingod they were kind of in
2:32
that Puget Sound keeper range you know
2:34
26 in 28 in you know a couple of them
2:38
were nice but many of them were in that
2:40
smaller smaller class medium class right
2:44
primary technique we're using is Lancer
2:46
Jig what happens when we roll ahab we
2:50
had a few other ones i want to show you
2:51
my my high low rig setup that I use uh
2:54
that that I love to do that for a chance
2:56
at getting both lingod and rockfish in
2:59
the same drift whoa whoa gas i don't
3:02
know it's pulling
3:04
line might be
3:06
a might be a lingus yeah mine's not
3:12
very I mean your stomach is but my
3:16
stomach
3:20
is you have color no not yet
3:28
yep
3:35
yeah I got color oh it's just a big bass
3:38
with a ling uh behind Oh it's a Oh yeah
3:42
oh my gosh dude oh look at that on the
3:45
bass no no no it's a It's on my lower
3:48
rig oh it is it's a double it's a ling
3:51
cod ling cod rock but primarily we're
3:55
using lancers the 4 oz to 7 ounce
3:58
variety depending on the depth of water
4:00
you can get a really big ling caught on
4:01
a 4 oz lancer in shallower water so not
4:04
worried about that no I I saw it dancing
4:06
it's like it's a big lake oh yeah oh
4:09
yeah
4:16
no
4:25
lingod rodeo oh yeah that's not bad
4:28
that's not too bad
4:30
i'll take it you got one all right come
4:33
on Chris
4:36
my daddy i'm on the back of my
4:39
caddy oh this is a Oh yeah it's a wing
4:43
it's a big one it's a big one
4:54
oh yeah oh yeah watch out watch out
4:56
watch out you got to let line out let
4:57
line out let line out push the button
4:58
there you go oh yeah ow
5:02
he is uh pissed
5:05
all right remove that
5:08
holy moly
5:12
one of the one of the important
5:13
technique things with loading up on
5:15
lingod quickly is how you're actually
5:18
jigging the lancer you don't need to do
5:20
this big swinging motion right look at
5:22
what uh look what Tim's doing here
5:26
that's a wing that's a big
5:29
le Tim is a just a master uh [ __ ] with
5:34
with the Lancers and he's just kind of
5:37
he's just kind of jiggling the rod right
5:38
just kind of giving it a little bit of
5:40
life down there you don't I've actually
5:42
put a camera on the end of my line just
5:44
to see what's going on and you watch
5:46
bottom fish trying to take your jig and
5:49
just as you're pulling it away with the
5:50
big swinging motion i always see people
5:52
do that with that big swinging motion
5:53
you don't need to do that we've actually
5:55
gotten a lot of lingai by just dropping
5:57
down the bottom cranking it up a couple
5:58
times and just letting it sit there
6:01
right just letting it sit there it has
6:02
life in the water it's it's still moving
6:04
around these link don't care but I
6:07
really like what Tim's doing here he's
6:08
just trying to give it a little bit of
6:09
life i watch other people do that too
6:11
it's a really effective technique for
6:13
getting those lingod to bite and we had
6:15
no problem with that we were able to
6:16
load up on lingod pretty quickly the
6:18
biggest problem we had was we were like
6:20
"Oh let's turn that one away it's too
6:21
small." Well maybe it's not no that's
6:24
good
6:28
uh let's let's keep let's try to get
6:30
bigger ones bigger ones bigger ones well
6:32
at some point you're really chewing into
6:34
your time for the multiecies effort and
6:36
you've got to just take and accept what
6:38
you're getting and say "All right let's
6:40
go moved on to the next species." Of
6:42
course one of the challenges with that
6:43
is you've got to go fillet your fish at
6:46
CEQ and drop them off before you can go
6:49
fish for halibit and Santa it would be
6:51
really easy if or it would be a lot
6:53
easier if you know the one marine area
6:56
was open for all of these species and
6:58
that'll happen later in the year in like
7:00
Nia Bay but for now this was what we
7:02
were working with so we go back we
7:05
fillet the fish that time we're back out
7:07
there though now it's in the afternoon
7:09
it's like man we're really cutting short
7:10
our our time to go after halibet and
7:13
salmon and then it's like all right
7:15
let's go get back out there by one of
7:17
the factors for me that made this trip a
7:19
blast was the new deck boots I got from
7:23
True Dave uh true.com and doing a deal
7:26
with them you can use my code PNW best
7:29
life get 15% off uh you know at checkout
7:33
time and I'm telling you uh first of all
7:36
I only I only promote products that I
7:39
actually believe in otherwise I'm not
7:40
I'm not doing it but the these were
7:42
these were no joke uh probably the some
7:45
of the most comfortable shoes I've ever
7:47
worn if you're going to be on your feet
7:48
all day running a boat fishing 10 hours
7:51
12 hours in a day you want comfortable
7:53
shoes and I like my extra toughs those
7:56
those are great great boots but man
7:59
these these deck boots were so
8:02
comfortable i couldn't believe it um
8:04
just like walking on clouds all day so
8:07
um check those things out use it use my
8:09
discount code oh this drift is perfect
8:12
though not again discount codes #
8:16
everyone but friends you have to let it
8:18
go eventually
8:20
not until I got a pair on my feet oh you
8:22
have to find your wallet for that that's
8:24
true okay i mean that's that's solid
8:26
that's pretty valid that's solid intel
8:29
let me know what you think i I I thought
8:31
they were I thought they were great
8:33
great boots i can't I can almost can't
8:34
wait to go fishing again just to wear
8:36
them now the other problem we had was
8:38
for Halibet uh we we really didn't know
8:41
where they were in area five i haven't
8:43
done a ton of halibet fishing in area
8:44
five i've done more in four done more in
8:46
two out of Westport and so it was like
8:49
all right you know I've always heard
8:51
Pillar Point's a great place to go uh
8:53
try for him but that was like that was a
8:55
10 mile run and and I heard they were
8:57
getting them in CQ River right in front
8:59
of the CQ River um you know between that
9:01
and Kaidaka and so all right let's give
9:02
that a shot we ended up getting one
9:04
there but we spent way too much time
9:06
drifting that water you know kind of
9:09
that big bigger slope um between between
9:12
Kaidaka and Seekio River we spent way
9:15
too much time doing that that 240 foot
9:18
line 250 foot line there were a couple
9:20
other boats there we weren't like crazy
9:22
um that is a spot where they get them
9:24
but we also heard that the couple days
9:26
we were doing this it was slow for
9:28
everyone so it's kind of like all right
9:29
what you know that what are you gonna do
9:32
you know you've got to be you got to be
9:33
good at every species and you can't be
9:35
grinding out you know if you're trying
9:37
to go for multiecies limit so that's
9:39
something that we probably uh we wanted
9:41
to put our time in but we weren't really
9:42
set up for success doing that nice
9:47
let's go boys
9:50
first butt on the boat first butt on the
9:52
boat
9:57
this is why you'll never get a quack
9:58
card
10:00
this is why you're always on probation
10:02
the other thing to consider and I want
10:04
to talk about this is what type of tide
10:06
is ideal for these different things
10:08
right back to lingod and rockfish for a
10:11
second you generally want to be closer
10:12
to slack you want a slower tide when it
10:14
comes to halibit though you want a
10:17
little bit of current movement that that
10:20
can move that bait that scent in you
10:23
know away from your rig and to where the
10:26
halibit uh are sitting and kind of draw
10:28
them in now it'd be ideal if we were
10:31
knew where they were at and we were to
10:32
anchor on them with a little bit of
10:34
current right before the slack tide
10:36
right uh you know draw them in to to our
10:39
bait but I don't really have an anchor
10:41
set up for halibit in deeper water and I
10:44
didn't really know where I was going to
10:45
anchor so we were drifting and you know
10:48
that that's we were able to get one fish
10:50
out in front of the Seiki River in 160T
10:52
feet of water that that's basically how
10:54
our halibet trip went not not as
10:56
successful as we were hoping but I want
10:57
to talk about for a second the tide
10:59
situation the current situation because
11:02
how you plan your day is all about these
11:04
currents and a lot of people don't
11:06
realize that the the the the slack tide
11:10
the current change uh when you go from
11:12
incoming to Eb or E to incoming it
11:15
happens at different times depending on
11:18
the depth of water right so let's say
11:20
let's say it changes at 9:00 in Clawen
11:23
Bay well uh the spot you want to fish
11:25
for rockfish and maybe uh in lingod in
11:28
like 180 to 100 feet of water it's going
11:30
to probably be two hours after that
11:32
right and if you want to fish for
11:34
halibet in deeper waters like 200 250 ft
11:37
of water you're talking probably 3 to 4
11:40
hours after the current change in Claw
11:43
Bay it happens in these layers which is
11:44
why on deeper drop offs deeper shelves
11:47
is why you get the current breaks right
11:49
you get these these you get currents
11:51
that are changing going one way at one
11:53
depth of water and another direction at
11:56
the other depth of water and that's
11:57
where fish will get trapped it's why coo
12:00
will spend time in those current breaks
12:03
it's really useful to know about these
12:05
tide current layers that exist that it
12:09
helps you to identify certain where
12:11
certain species like to spend time but
12:13
also it it if you're planning your day
12:16
you don't want to be planning your day
12:17
thinking it's slack tide in 250 ft of
12:20
water when it's actually max e right so
12:23
you it's really helpful to know how
12:25
these things work and it's especially
12:27
notable in places like the straight
12:29
where you get big big currents on any
12:32
kind of decent tide tide exchange also
12:34
check out the membersonly video section
12:35
of the channel you know it's a small
12:37
amount per month support the channel but
12:40
hopefully there's some really good
12:41
content in there that can help you and
12:44
on your journey especially if you don't
12:46
do a lot of this very often you know um
12:49
I I'm basically I'm I'm holding nothing
12:52
back and going into detailed how-tos um
12:57
and taking a lot of your suggestions too
12:59
you know there's the always you can jump
13:01
on the Discord channel for PNW Bestife
13:04
uh club members uh some North and Falcon
13:06
season setting stuff some inside stuff
13:08
is on that channel uh but also you can
13:11
draw you can use the comment sections of
13:13
those members only videos and you know
13:17
ask for specific stuff you know a lot of
13:20
the videos I'm making is in response to
13:22
what subscribers are asking for saying
13:24
hey I need I want a video on this a
13:25
how-to on that and I'm going to turn it
13:27
around because that that section is all
13:29
about helping you be as successful as
13:32
you can on the water so all right last
13:34
topic is what we're doing with our
13:36
salmon
13:37
on the bottom of the anchovy 157 ft of
13:40
wire and salmon when you're blackmouth
13:42
fishing you know it's it's just kind of
13:44
a steady thing you rarely find like
13:46
instant limits you know when you got you
13:49
know four people maybe get one or two
13:50
fish pretty quickly but usually you're
13:52
you're talking good fishing this might
13:54
be two or three bites an hour and we
13:57
found a nice little spot 160 ft line
14:00
where we were consistently getting bit
14:03
it was quite nice we had to deal with
14:05
some unmarked fish only a couple
14:07
sublegals but we were getting consistent
14:09
legal size fish in this 160 foot line
14:12
150 foot line dragging the bottom and
14:15
you know I have not found a more
14:17
efficient way a quicker way to get bit
14:20
salmon fishing in especially blackmouth
14:22
fishing and especially when there's not
14:24
the dog fish around than running bait
14:27
and what I run for bait is I run an
14:29
anchovi in a helmet and I run that
14:32
sucker right on the bottom hit bottom
14:34
with the downer ball come up a couple
14:36
feet and just let it run get make sure
14:38
it gets spinning just the right way you
14:41
know we brine it some salt some borax
14:43
and give it a little bit of color and
14:45
and we let that thing spin and it just
14:47
draws in fish after fish after fish it's
14:50
great in the summer too but winter time
14:52
can't beat it the fish go crazy for it
14:55
it's an absolutely awesome way to to get
14:58
bit when you're salmon fishing
15:00
this goes up front right here
15:03
that one spins good
15:07
the other thing that's really helpful
15:09
and I just started using this last year
15:11
is these anodized aluminum downrigger
15:14
spools i swapped out my my uh plastic uh
15:17
Scotty spools and replaced them with
15:19
these aluminum spools and filled it up
15:21
with you know 500 600 feet of braided
15:24
line and these things are awesome 20 lb
15:28
balls gives you confidence to fish any
15:31
depth of water you think that the salmon
15:33
might be might be running in uh it's
15:36
great when they're shallow i love
15:37
shallow water salmon fishing but
15:39
sometimes you've got to be on the 200T
15:41
line sometimes you got to be on the 250T
15:43
line or the 300T line you can't do that
15:46
with wire and these plastic spools it It
15:49
doesn't It doesn't work the other thing
15:52
I I that I think is important with that
15:54
setup is the mooching reel it just It's
15:58
funner to fish deeper water with
16:00
mooching reels it's much easier to be
16:03
dropping that than having your thumb on
16:05
like you know to have braided line when
16:08
you're if you're using a conventional
16:09
reel you're usually putting thumb
16:11
pressure on it and that that braid as
16:13
it's as it's dropping shreds your shreds
16:16
your thumb if you if you all have a
16:18
different idea of how to do that I'd be
16:20
curious drop that in the comments but I
16:22
love the moo mooching reels are really
16:23
fun to fight fish with anyways but these
16:25
are just ideal downrigger reels and
16:28
especially when fishing deeper water
16:31
like this uh this is to me this is a
16:33
game changer with running downriggers
16:34
and this is this is a big part of my
16:36
program now and I I would never never
16:39
want to go back to the plastic spool the
16:41
wire the conventional just the whole
16:43
thing for me is is is a game changer and
16:46
it's really helpful uh when salmon are
16:48
deeper and you can go get them you're
16:50
not you're not you're not confined it's
16:52
like it's like crabbing right you get
16:54
the 100 foot spool of rope and you're
16:56
confined to 70 ft of uh depth of water
16:58
but you know the crap sometimes are
17:00
deeper well here you go you can go you
17:02
can go get them wherever wherever you
17:04
need to go get them you can go find them
17:06
and and uh and get bit there's there's
17:09
no limits when when you're fishing this
17:11
way and I love that cuz what we're
17:13
trying to do is we're trying we're
17:14
trying to get limits so uh this is a
17:16
little cliff area i'm just
17:19
curious uh we finished the we finished
17:21
the trip with a decent hole of salmon we
17:24
just didn't get enough time to to to
17:26
spend at it to get you know uh the
17:29
multiecies limit what part of the tide
17:32
are we fishing for salmon well the part
17:34
of the tide that kind of sucks for
17:36
halbot and and link rockfish which is
17:39
the current is ripping you can catch
17:41
salmon all parts of the tide but you can
17:44
catch salmon when you can't catch the
17:47
other species in that part of the tide
17:49
so we basically tried whenever the
17:51
current was ripping it was salmon and
17:53
trolling time and we got it done we just
17:55
didn't spend enough time out to get uh
17:57
to get limits on those although we
17:58
nearly limited on a couple different
18:00
days um we certainly had our
18:02
opportunities hopefully there was
18:03
something helpful in this video a tip
18:05
that might help you with your multiecies
18:07
planning multiecies uh approach and
18:10
strategy or maybe something for a single
18:12
species uh help you be a little more
18:14
successful out there but definitely if
18:16
you have suggestions for me drop me a
18:17
comment i'm always looking to learn and
18:19
I'm definitely going to be sharing my
18:21
learning journey with all of you
18:23
hopefully uh help us all you know get a
18:25
little better at always love to hear
18:27
your feedback and connect with some of
18:29
you throughout throughout the uh comment
18:31
sections and social media so hope to see
18:33
you on the water um lot a lot of fishing
18:36
left to do this year it's going to be a
18:37
great season so uh thanks for watching
18:40
uh don't forget to hit that like button
18:42
subscribe to the channel turn
18:43
notifications on hope to see you out
18:44
there
#Fishing
#Outdoors
#Water Activities
#Water Sports