It’s August and although many things in life seem like the Twilight Zone, one of the great fishing scenes in the Pacific Northwest occurs up at Neah Bay on the very northwest tip of our state where the vast waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca meet the Pacific Ocean. It is here for centuries, big, bright coho salmon, ranging from 5 to 15 pounds and better, stack up like Interstate 5 traffic in Seattle around 5 p.m., preparing to migrate down the Strait of Juan de Fuca into Puget Sound and the streams of their destination. I dig history.

The town of Neah Bay, if for some reason you have not experienced it, is located just east of Cape Flattery, which, geographically, is the northwest tip of our state. The town, isolated from the industrial world, is the hub of the Makah Nation, one of several treaty Indian tribes located in our state. At this point in this writing, if you are thinking I intend to connect the dot between the Twilight Zone and Neah Bay, you’re on the wrong page.

Neah Bay, as I suggested above, hosts the gathering of coho salmon in August and September which I consider, a world class coho salmon fishery on light tackle. When I talk about light tackle, often, I am talking about fly fishing gear. During the past 25 years, as this fishery has developed for anglers who dream about catching a coho salmon on a fly, then Neah Bay is all-world and all-universe, possibly, the Twilight Zone for saltwater salmon anglers.

My mentor, Frank Haw, who I consider the greatest saltwater salmon angler in Washington of all time, taught me that Neah Bay is very unique for hooking big ocean-run coho salmon on a fly. Biologically, he argues, the coho salmon are feeding on or near the surface. While this is not a new revelation to science, the technique of trolling a coho fly, on the surface, at a fast speed, is very unique. Try this technique further down the Washington coast. Nope, does not work. Try this technique east of Neah Bay, about 20 miles to Sekiu along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Nope, does not work. Haw further argues that the behavior of coho salmon, at this stage of their life, in this graphical setting, feed on the surface, and it works. I can recall hooking about 50 coho salmon in a morning after locating large schools of these tackle busting fish in the Cape Flattery area. This fly trolling technique is referred to as “bucktailing.”

Here’s the strategy: tie your mainline of #15-20 mono directly to a small ball-bearing swivel. On the other end of the swivel, attach the leader which hosts the coho fly. I like sparse flies, not too thick, in green and white Polar bear hair with streamers of bright silver integrated into the fly. Now, let out about 40-50 feet of line, put the motor in gear and begin trolling at around 5 knots. The fishing rod must be vertical, allowing the fly to skim along the surface. Skimming on the surface is critically important to this technique. If the fly dips under the surface, turn up the speed. If it catches “air,” let out more line, or, slow down a notch. Now, here’s the fun part. Watching the fly, you’ll see a bulge in the water closing the distance to the fly. Then, the explosion! Line stripping, cart wheeling big coho salmon, sprinters, putting on a show. Oh yeah, baby, welcome to the Twilight Zone. Don’t forget, mid-August through mid-September, the show will go on, only at Neah Bay.

Speaking of August, there are plenty of choices. Another favorite fishery of mine beginning in late August is the Willapa Bay shallow-water chinook fishery. I am talking about 20 to 25 pound big saltwater chinook, hooked in 10 to 20 feet of water in Willapa Bay through mid-September. These fish return to the bay as the result of three major salmon hatcheries in Willapa Bay and remember the assignment of a hatchery-produced salmon: go get caught. The forecast for this year’s Willapa Bay chinook salmon return is around 30,000, a healthy number compared to other western Washington watersheds. My counsel is to stay away from the big minus tides as the bay can become unfishable with sea grass unleashed into the water column from the hard tide exchanges. Time of day means nothing in this fishery if you’re looking for a bite. Focus on the last few hours of the flood tide and the beginning of the ebb tide. Late August and early September... money!