Try throwing a multiple-fly rig with krill patterns.
Several hundred thousand ought to do it.

I’ve heard that Starbuck is involved somehow as well.

 

All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.

 

Damn, gave me a scare and thought you were talking about my porn name!

I was fishing down by the Narrows Bridge one year, staring out at the railroad tracks on the other side of the water and saw a whale surface and blow! It was awesome and I was surprised it was so far south in the sound.. love cool nature stuff when it happens!

 

Love seeing whales in the sound.
I was fishing a beach last year when one breached not far off the beach.
A spectacular sight to see.
SF

 

Graboid leech?

 

I suggest a mud shrimp pattern. I can't help you with the tippet size though.
Gray Whales are unique among the baleen whales. All other baleen whales (humpbacks, blues, etc.) feed on schools of organisms, like krill and herring, that form tight aggregations in the water column, often via "lunge feeding". And gray whales can do that. But gray whales are specialists on mud-dwelling invertebrates, especially the dense aggregations of mat-forming amphipods and burrowing shrimp (Neotrypaea (formerly Callianassa) californiensis). The whales turn on their sides and skim into the topmost layers in which the little critters are burrowed. At the right locations, you can see where they have been feeding because they leave little depressions in the mud that you can see at low tide. The whales then force out the mud and water through their baleen plates and the crustaceans are caught on the baleen and swallowed.
Steve

 

So you're saying that gray whales are dirty bottom feeders, and not worthy as targets for high minded fly fishers like us?

 

I was fishing for coho last year when humpback came very close to shore, definitely within casting distance of the buzz bait guys. @mtskibum16 posted a video of it in the Puget Sound thread I think. The whole beach stopped fishing it was so close. Saw another (maybe the same) humpback off a different beach in the same MA about a week later. I have definitely had porpoises come within casting distance from shore too and have seen orca's fairly close as well. Along with gray whales further out. The critters that freak me out the most on occasion are the big sea lions that pop up sometimes. Insane how big some are (assuming stellar sea lions? ) and they have a tendency to sneak up closer than the other big marine mammals in the area before showing themselves. Pretty cool place we get to fish to be able to see these animals fishing from shore!

 

Those sea lions are formidable. I was surf kayaking off the So. Columbia R. Jetty in light fog. Had just caught a nice mellow wave when a big bull lion surfed up next to me, snorted, bared his teeth and gave me some major stink-eye. Didn’t know if he wanted to fight or fuck so I got the hell out of there...

 

One year I was fishing my favorite spots on the Colvos when a whale breached maybe 50 yds off the beach. Suddenly the rezzies around me started jumping like crazy and fishing was lights out for the next 15 minutes. It was such a magical moment, both seeing the amazing site of a whale and the stellar fishing right afterwards. Anyone else experience that before? Any plausible explanations about why that would have happened? Or just true true and unrelated? Either way, super memorable.

 

An awesome set of lifetime memories. The unexpected things are perhaps the best reason to go to the beach or the riverbank.

 

Leland Miyawaki's Beach Popper of course!

 

Hunting adult migratory striped bass out of Oregon Inlet off NC's Outer Banks on a slicked off and fishless January morning in 2002, a humpback breached a couple hundred yards off my bow. The wake/bubble trail it created proceeded directly toward my boat. As I watched in awe, it tilted onto its side and slowly slid under my bow, its saucer sized eye examining me within a rod's length.

Incredible.

Standing slack jawed and speechless, I observed as its entire length slipped past. Directly behind its flukes I saw several dark shapes following in tow. I pitched the 3oz spoon I had rigged into the trailing boil and instantly a shadow carved off. Gills flared as a 40+ lb striped bass engulfed the spoon.

It was the only fish of the day, a pattern we couldn't repeat.

This is, for me, a most vivid and treasured fishing memory.

 

Always a treat to witness the creatures out on the Sound. I was out on my boat one day just down wind of a couple of Gray Whales. I wouldn't have needed to see them to know they were there though. The putrid stench that emits from that blow hole is unmistakable and unforgettable!

I'm seeing a lot more Harbor Porpoise in the Sound recently, especially down south. Intersting article about them here;

https://www.eopugetsound.org/magazine/is/harbor-porpoise

 

Harbor Porpoise are definitely on the rise. As a kid I only recall seeing them in the north sound, and only occasionally. Nowadays I see them often in Areas 10/11.

 

A friend invited me out on a kayak trip out of Neah Bay a while back. The fishing was great and the experience as a whole was awesome. The highlight though was a whale encounter. I saw it coming from a distance on a straight line right at me. It got closer and closer until it was clear it was going to go through me or under me.
I remember a couple things vividly. The feeling that something much larger than I was very near to me. Not quite fear, not quite awe, but a nice mix. Of course when it surfaced it spouted, but I was so close I could distinctly hear it inhale as well. Lastly, it had horrible breath. As it surfaced behind me and exhaled I was bathed in a stanky fishy mist. Hands down the highlight of the trip. Sobering to know you’re just a small being out there amongst giants.

 

Hey @Nick Clayton - last time we fished with you, you had whales greet us in the bay when we came back to the launch at dusk!
Can we do that again on Sunday?

 

Haha This thread very much made me think of our trip last year! I haven't seen south sound whales since that day actually

Drifting as the sun went down while watching those whales cruise around and feed was one of my highlights of the year.

I'll do my best to order some more up for Sunday, but no promises lol

 

Have had Killer whales come scratch their backs on our boat as a kid, watched a pod of killer whales training the young on a small porpoise near Sitka for an hr. I kinda felt sorry for the porpoise as it was basically tortured to death. Had a gray whale go between my boat and the beach one time while fishing cutthroat, never would have thought they would go that shallow.

 

Had a gray whale go between my boat and the beach one time while fishing cutthroat, never would have thought they would go that shallow.

I saw a video recently that showed orca (I think this is both singular and plural, does anyone know?) preying on gray whales and the narrator said that grays will sometimes move into extremely shallow water to avoid orca.

 

These types of threads and these types of stories are why WFF maintains such a high level of intrigue and respect from many contributors out there.... thanks to the OP and now of course must attest to my own story of being at sea level and the jolting sight as a humpback breached a few hundred yards out and that skin slapping against that deep black water of the B.C. sound was so unspeakably impressive and also scary as shit in that moment..... thanks @5weight and tight lines

 

I saw an orca on the west side of San Juan Island between the kelp and the shore. I was scuba diving and that orca was between me and the beach. No record of an orca attacking a person but, with the wet suit on I kinda looked like a seal. Back a few years the divers in Alaska put yellow stripes on their wet suits and hood so the fisherman wouldn't mistake them for a seal or sea lion, and shoot them. At the Lime Kiln we had killer whales very near us, we didn't see them. But people on the beach saw them and could see our bubbles. Those things happened in 1965 or 66. Great diving, just a beautiful area.

 

I had an encounter with a gray whale while diving off Santa Barbara in the mid-80's. I was swimming along a sand flat between two arms of u-shaped reef. Out of the 15' visibility, I saw a giant eye appear out of the gloom in front of me. The very first thought through my head was "great white shark", followed by "I'm a rock, I'm a rock...". Then I saw the fore-flipper and realized that it was gray whale on its annual migration. I stopped, just stunned, as I watched the whale pass by me seemingly forever. And in the end, those giant flukes powered up and down and kicked up paired vortices of sand off their tips.
I realized that, as a diver, my sensory world is extremely limited. In a wet suit (or dry suit), I can't smell or feel anything. It is very hard to hear anything. And your vision is limited to a very narrow window in front of one's face. I spent the next three dives that day continually spooked and looking over my shoulder. Great memory.

Steve

 

Gregory Peck's leg?

 

Last month, my pilot’s name on an Alaskan Airlines flight was Captain Ahab.

 

Chapter XXX, the Pipe

When Stubb had departed, Ahab stood for a while leaning over the bulwarks; and then, as had been usual with him of late, calling a sailor of the watch, he sent him below for his ivory stool, and also his pipe. Lighting the pipe at the binnacle lamp and planting the stool on the weather side of the deck, he sat and smoked.

In old Norse times, the thrones of the sea-loving Danish kings were fabricated, saith tradition, of the tusks of the Narwhale. How could one look at Ahab then, seated on that tripod of bones, without bethinking him of the royalty it symbolized? For a Khan of the plank, and a king of the sea, and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab.

Some moments passed, during which the thick vapor came from his mouth in quick and constant puffs, which blew back again into his face. "How now," he soliloquized at last, withdrawing the tube, "this smoking no longer soothes. Oh, my pipe! hard must it go with me if thy charm be gone! Here have I been unconsciously toiling, not pleasuring,-aye, and ignorantly smoking to windward all the while; to windward, and with such nervous whiffs, as if, like the dying whale, my final jets were the strongest and fullest of trouble. What business have I with this pipe? This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up mild white vapors among mild white hairs, not among torn iron-grey locks like mine. I'll smoke no more-"

He tossed the still lighted pipe into the sea. The fire hissed in the waves; the same instant the ship shot by the bubble the sinking pipe made. With slouched hat, Ahab lurchingly paced the planks.

(probably my favorite chapter by far)

 

Chapter XXX, the Pipe

When Stubb had departed, Ahab stood for a while leaning over the bulwarks; and then, as had been usual with him of late, calling a sailor of the watch, he sent him below for his ivory stool, and also his pipe. Lighting the pipe at the binnacle lamp and planting the stool on the weather side of the deck, he sat and smoked.

In old Norse times, the thrones of the sea-loving Danish kings were fabricated, saith tradition, of the tusks of the Narwhale. How could one look at Ahab then, seated on that tripod of bones, without bethinking him of the royalty it symbolized? For a Khan of the plank, and a king of the sea, and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab.

Some moments passed, during which the thick vapor came from his mouth in quick and constant puffs, which blew back again into his face. "How now," he soliloquized at last, withdrawing the tube, "this smoking no longer soothes. Oh, my pipe! hard must it go with me if thy charm be gone! Here have I been unconsciously toiling, not pleasuring,-aye, and ignorantly smoking to windward all the while; to windward, and with such nervous whiffs, as if, like the dying whale, my final jets were the strongest and fullest of trouble. What business have I with this pipe? This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up mild white vapors among mild white hairs, not among torn iron-grey locks like mine. I'll smoke no more-"

He tossed the still lighted pipe into the sea. The fire hissed in the waves; the same instant the ship shot by the bubble the sinking pipe made. With slouched hat, Ahab lurchingly paced the planks.

(probably my favorite chapter by far)

I know how Ahab feels. I've wanted to do the same thing with my phone on more than one occasion.

 

While I have seen whales numerous times on the ocean the only time I had a close encounter was up around Hakai pass when a pod of Orcas swam under us and surfaced on the other side of the boat as they continued on their way..... it made me feel like the whaler I was piloting was a little smaller than I would like.... strange thing was is that we continued to catch cohos while they were around.......

 

I was on the Goodtime boat out in Elliot Bay with 90 HS biology class kids when the same happened. Skipper spotted them and got on the horn for everyone to be quiet and look over the starboard rail. We could hear them exhale just before they went under the boat. Definitely one of my most memorable teaching moments.

 

The Grays will come in extremely close to shore to feed, sometimes nearly beaching themselves in the pursuit of the delectable sand shrimp.

 

My first year trying to fish the salt of the north sound i had an unforgettable experience. One of those foggy days where you can barely see the end of your cast. I was watching this sea lion head bob with the currents along the beach out in front of me for an hour or so while fishing, and blaming him for the lack of fish. All the sudden he goes down, then porpoises out of the water, about 30 yds in front of me an Orca porpoises out behind him. I got to watcch the orca chase that sea lion for what was probably 5 to 10 seconds back and forth on that beach. Ill never forget that morning, or how big both of the creatures were coming out of the water. The crazy things you see when you arnt sleeping in...

 

Hi C&C,
Sweet, that would have been one of the "transient" killer whales. They travel in much smaller family groups than do their chinook- (and chum-) eating cousins, the Southern Resident Killer Whales (which are only resident for a few months in mid-summer and fall by the way). The transients are far less vocal so that they can sneak up on lunch, like that sea lion.
Steve