I'll be out in Neah Bay this weekend for my first real serious fishing in the new Tomcat. I have my ipad along and will update with a fishing report when I get a chance. My co-owner, I and his 9y.o. boy are going. I'm excited to the get the little guy into some fish. In the rare event any other brats are out that way, give me a holler.
Neah Bay bound
- Thread starter rogerbum
- Start date
colvosview
New member
I saw the headline and knew it had to be you. Good luck, and enjoy the new boat!
We got a late start today and made it out to neah bay around 3:00pm. By the time we got in the water, moored, fueled, trailer rinsed and parked etc. it was around 5. We putzed around getting some supplies, tied up tackle, dropped a couple of crab pot, bought a pizza and polished off a nice bottle of wine. Tonight's my first night on the tomcat. Weather is good and i've seen plenty of nice looking king go by in wheel barrows. Tomorrow we'll be on the water early looking for kings and will then knock off our bottom fish limits.
Nice fish Forest!
Here's the abbreviated report from Saturday and Sunday. On Sat, we couldn't keep any coho and we were permitted 2 kings both of which had to be of hatchery origin. Supposedly, people had bee doing well at Swiftsure bank so that's where we headed. We caught several wild kings and one really nice coho but all went back in. The bite was a bit slow, and the young man (now nicknamed mumbly Joe) was getting bored. We picked up and ran to Cape Alava where we filled out a bottom fish limit in a couple of hours. Joe reeled in plenty of fish on Sat.
On Sunday we did pretty much the same deal only now we were permitted to keep only one king but it could be wild and we could also keep hatchery coho. With the Neely allowed wild king opportunity, we did much better. Joe reeled in a 20# king, Brad got a 16# king and I settled for a 13# king. Then we ran to Table Top to search for coho. We had the occasional bite and landed about 5-6 wild coho all of which were released. Then I hooked into a 20# king which we landed and released. Too bad I had punched out earlier. Joe was begging for more bottom fishing so we ran down to Cape Alava again. We put about 20 rockfish in the boat and called it a day around 3. Then it was a 1 hour run into the dock. By the time the fish were cleaned, the boat loaded, the engines flushed and the brakes rinsed it was 6 pm. With the 1.5 hour Kingston Edmonds ferry wait, I got home around midnight.
Al in all, a successful trip. Joe caught his first fish, and many, many more. The 8 year old reeling in a 20# king was awesome. He had a little assist from his dad to keep the rod tip high but he did all the reeling himself. He loved the trip. We saw Dall porpoises, multiple whales, tons of bald eagles and reeled in about 7 different species of rockfish and caught 2 species of salmon.
Here's the abbreviated report from Saturday and Sunday. On Sat, we couldn't keep any coho and we were permitted 2 kings both of which had to be of hatchery origin. Supposedly, people had bee doing well at Swiftsure bank so that's where we headed. We caught several wild kings and one really nice coho but all went back in. The bite was a bit slow, and the young man (now nicknamed mumbly Joe) was getting bored. We picked up and ran to Cape Alava where we filled out a bottom fish limit in a couple of hours. Joe reeled in plenty of fish on Sat.
On Sunday we did pretty much the same deal only now we were permitted to keep only one king but it could be wild and we could also keep hatchery coho. With the Neely allowed wild king opportunity, we did much better. Joe reeled in a 20# king, Brad got a 16# king and I settled for a 13# king. Then we ran to Table Top to search for coho. We had the occasional bite and landed about 5-6 wild coho all of which were released. Then I hooked into a 20# king which we landed and released. Too bad I had punched out earlier. Joe was begging for more bottom fishing so we ran down to Cape Alava again. We put about 20 rockfish in the boat and called it a day around 3. Then it was a 1 hour run into the dock. By the time the fish were cleaned, the boat loaded, the engines flushed and the brakes rinsed it was 6 pm. With the 1.5 hour Kingston Edmonds ferry wait, I got home around midnight.
Al in all, a successful trip. Joe caught his first fish, and many, many more. The 8 year old reeling in a 20# king was awesome. He had a little assist from his dad to keep the rod tip high but he did all the reeling himself. He loved the trip. We saw Dall porpoises, multiple whales, tons of bald eagles and reeled in about 7 different species of rockfish and caught 2 species of salmon.
Captains Cat
New member
Roger, sounds like a wonderful trip. How did the "new" boat perform?
Charlie
Charlie
Captains Cat":3aff7jky said:
Charlie,
It was quite nice. We could run out against the 3-4' swell quite as fast as I was hoping for but it was still much faster than in my 22'. On Sun, the water was pretty flat and the swell period a bit longer so we could cruise from fishing spot to fishing spot at 30+ MPH. It's a great fishing platform with lots of space. The rail mounted Scotty down rigger mounts are so-so. I need to modify them slightly when I have a chance to make them more secure. I'll also need to get some "rocket launchers" designed to hold fishing rods on the roof. I'll design those up this next weekend once I have the dingy on board and know how much space I have left up above. I'm thinking I might also design some starboard/plastic boxes to fit in the flat area on the bow on either side of the anchor windlass. That will allow me to store a crab pot and a shrimp pot up there without damaging the fiberglass.
For sleeping and cooking, it was nice. I slept on the table which was pretty comfy especially since Roy (the previous owner) had a custom trapezoidal cushion made that fills the table top better than the std. cushions. Brad and his son slept in the berth which is VERY comfy with the fancy mattresses I had custom made for the boat. I also took my first shower on the boat (or on any boat for that matter), and was pleased to have a clean place to do that (the Neah Bay marina leaves a little to be desired in the restroom cleanliness factor).
Since this was the first trip, I still need to get the storage organized and figured out. There's a lot of stuff to carry when you're fishing, crabbing etc. + the three of us brought along way more clothing than we really need. Plus there was some stuff on board from the previous owner and from my previous boat that I can do without.
This coming weekend we're doing a four day, 3 night trip to Princess Louisa with Brad, mumbly Joe and my wife Joyce along. 4 on board will make things way more challenging. Brad will be sleeping in the cock pit and we'll be using the slant back cover for rain protection (a camper back in our plans for purchase/rigging after this fishing season). I'll be spending time this summer figuring out exact how to make the best use of all of the available storage space, how to trim down to just what we need and nothing more etc.
