Sekiu Blackmouth Season Begins April 14, 2025
Spring salmon fishing in the far western Strait of Juan de Fuca
Way out west is the bayside burg of Sekiu, which happens to be one of the most epic places to fish for salmon in Washington State. Early season Chinook always draw a crowd to Sekiu, and if you’re interested in fishing for salmon along the rugged coastline of the Olympic Peninsula, you’ve got your first chance of the year starting on April 14!
Sekiu & Marine Area 5 Early Chinook Season for 2025
Marine Area 5 – April 14 opener – 7-days a week until quota
Sekiu and Marine Area 5 will open for Spring Blackmouth fishing on April 14 to April 30. The daily limit is one hatchery-marked Chinook over 22” per day.
This fishery is continuously monitored and we will be allowed to fish until we get close to reaching the guideline of 2,168 sublegal Chinook encounters, so you’re going to need to reference the MA5 Emergency Rules prior to your trip.
Fishing for Sekiu Blackmouth
Sekiu’s attraction is it’s remote location paired with some great salmon fishing. During fall and summer, the entire area is a transit zone for salmon who are migrating home to Puget Sound, while in the winter and spring months, many of the resident Blackmouth will congregate here in Marine Area 5 and take advantage of the abundant schools of herring and candlefish.
And you don’t need to travel far from Sekiu to find good salmon fishing
Sekiu is a draw for many salmon fishers with small boats. When you cruise past the breakwater, immediately to the left is an area called The Caves (once you get there it will be obvious why it’s called that). Fishing here can be great at times, on an outgoing tide you can start right here and troll westward towards the mouth of the Hoko River and the Marine Area 5 boundary. We like fishing here, but our favorite area is to the east past Slip Point.
If you head out of the harbor and turn right, you will pass the Slip Point green can. On an incoming tide you can start here and troll east towards Pillar Point.
If the tide is outgoing, run past Slip Point a ways and troll back towards Sekiu. Fishing at Pillar Point can be good as well! It is a run to get there and we have lost a few downrigger balls there due to the rocky nature of the bottom, but it does hold Blackmouth and is a popular place to fish!
Trolling Sekiu with downriggers gives you the advantage
Most of our success with Sekiu Spring Blackmouth has been downrigger trolling, we usually try and key in on a contour line. If we find bait concentrated at a certain depth, that will be our focus, but in general we are looking at 80’ to 180’ depths. Picking a specific depth to troll along will allow you to really get your gear down near the bottom, and for the most part that will be where the biggest concentrations of salmon are this time of year.
Neah Bay’s spring lingcod & rockfish options
If you happen to have a great morning, limit on Sekiu Blackmouth, and want to keep fishing, you can drop your salmon catch off at the dock and head back out for some bottomfishing in Marine Area 4. This area opens in March for Lingcod and Rockfish, so it’s a good option if the weather and seas are fair. Just be aware that you can’t have salmon on board fishing in area 4, and can’t have lingcod and rockfish on board fishing in area 5, so a stop back at the docks to drop off your catch is a must. Check out the MA4 Bottomfish Seasons Here.
Seattle Fishing Co. has you covered for Sekiu
We have a few favorite Blackmouth fishing setups that we want to share here, as well as some tips to get geared up for Neah Bay if you decide to peak out into Marine Area 4 and spend a little time catching Lingcod and Rockfish during your trip.
Sekiu salmon trolling gear
Our trolling gear has become simplified over the years, and we definitely have our favorite setups here at Sekiu. You can have good success at Sekiu on a wide range of tackle, but we will share three of our rigs to give you an idea on what we use.
1. Pro-Troll Lighted Flasher with 36” of 30 lb P-Line Fluorocarbon and a Gibbs Skinny G Herring Aid Spoon.
2. Gibbs Highliner Flasher with a 42” - 2/0, 3/0 hooks - 25 pound herring leader, a Rhys Davis Herring Aid Anchovy Helmet and a Red Label Herring or Anchovy.
3. Oki Tackle Big Shooter Flasher with 36” 30 lb P-Line Fluorocarbon and a Silver Horde Kingfisher Spoon.
Neah Bay lingcod & rockfish gear
Nearby Marine Area 4 will already be a full month into the Lingcod and Rockfish season by the time Sekiu opens for Blackmouth, and it’s a pretty good option if you want to get in on some bottom-fishing. You can be pretty successful with a simple assortment of soft plastics and metal jigs.
Lingcod tackle
For Lingcod fishing, we think that the best lures are a bullet jighead 3-10 ounce and soft plastics, either a P-Line Twin Tail 7.5-9”, Pitbull Tackle Swimbait or a Kalin’s Octogambo Grub. We do have some pretty good success on Lings with a Copper Pipe Jig 8 ounce, P-Line Laser Minnow 2-4 ounce and Mustad Moonriser Jigs look like the perfect jig for Neah Bay.
Rockfish tackle
For Rockfish we use smaller soft plastics, either a bullet jighead 1-3 ounce with a P-Line Twin Tail 4.5” or Kalin’s Mogambo Grubs. A double shrimp fly rig or a P-Line Twin Tail rig can be great Rockfish getters as well. We also always have an assortment of P-Line Laser Minnows 1-2 ounce and Mustad Tracer Shot Jigs for our lighter tackle jigging.
Sekiu is worth the drive, get out there!
It’s by far one of our favorite places to fish for salmon, we always have a great time out in Sekiu regardless of how epic the fishing is. It’s a unique place to spend a couple days, and while there are definitely some unique characteristics to salmon fishing the area, it’s a pretty great place to be!