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Oak Bay
 Chart courtesy of Captn. Jack's www.capjack.com Click on chart for bigger view
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Oak Bay
Mats Mats Bay is perhaps the best known as the least known salmon area in Admiralty Inlet by top salmon anglers.
While Mid Channel Bank just to the north in Port Townsend receives all the limelight, anglers venturing just a little south can find excellent winter blackmouth fishing near Mats Mats with half the boat traffic thats typically found on the Bank.
| Where to
fish: |
On my last trip here it was a choppy, rainy November morning. I found the bait holding right near bottom, so trolling the riggers through the bait would be the key to scoring on these fish. I engaged my TR-1 Auto-Pilot on my kicker motor and set an automatic course along the 120 ft. ledge. Before I even had the third Scotty 1105 rigged we had a dynamite take on the HotSpot flasher/Coho Killer setup. This turned out to be a 12-pound blackmouth; one of 4 salmon caught that morning.
If the bait moves and you dont produce fish here, there's a good troll from Olele Point to Liplip Point along the shelf that forms here. This can be a very productive troll, working the bait that stacks up on this shelf. An "S" trolling pattern works best as this is a long troll. If you score on a fish, circle around and work the same area again until it plays out. This spot has saved my bacon many times on salmon charter trips when fishing slows at Mid Channel.
Oak Bay offers another good spot located along the breakline on the western shore where the bottom drops off from 8 fathoms (48ft) to 14 fathoms (84ft). Again, keep your gear in the bottom 10 feet of water.
Sometimes you will also find the bait stacked up in Ludlow Bay located south of Mats Mats near Port Ludlow.
Ludlow Bay has an oblong bottom with a fairly uniform 50-foot bottom depth and can be hot fishing when the bait moves in. Since the bottom is only 50 feet deep you will need to prospect around the bay, as the herring will move at will and the salmon will follow.
Watch for feeding birds, they can be a dead giveaway if the shiny purple eating machines are present feeding on baitfish.
| Tackle: |
My standard blackmouth downrigger tackle consists of G. Loomis SAR1265C rods with Penn International 965 reels spooled with 20-pound Ande test.
Top producing hardware fished off the Scotty downriggers has been a HotSpot flasher in the glow colors with Zak squid combinations in regular and needlefish sizes. Run these 37-40 inches with 50lb Ande leader with 5/0 Mustad Hooks. Silver Horde Coho Killer and Kingfisher spoons are a good bet when there are candlefish in the area.
Any time you see scratches on the gill plates of a blackmouth its a sure sign theyre feeding on candlefish. Coho Killers are devastating lures when this is taking place.
Give all the spoons a good application of Smelly Jelly scent for that extra attraction.
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You can tell a fish has been
right on the bottom feeding on candlefish when you catch one and it has scrapes
on its gill plates like this one does. |
| Boat
ramps: |
| Seasons: |