I awoke in Seiku, Washington, from the quarter berth of Hooked Up, a highly customized 37-foot Voyager luxury sport fishing boat owned by avid angling couple Pete and Elizabeth Donnelly. If you’ve never heard of Seiku, I don’t blame you. The dot-on-the-map angler’s haunt is on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula, the American side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Besides the floating docks and their loitering sea lions, the Breakwater Restaurant a mile up the road that serves a mean prime rib is probably the main reason to stop. The Gut Hut, a shack by the marina office, is run by a kindly old man with a long gray braid. The filet knife wielding artisan can process and vacuum pack your fish with the practiced grace of a priest donning his garments before mass.
I spent a comfortable night aboard this North River Boats build, the Oregon company’s first major play into the mid-sized, aluminum sportfisher-yacht hybrid space. Pete, Elizabeth and their daughter Morgan joined me. Coffees were passed around as Hooked Up roared to life. The purple of night gave way to the soft gold of dawn. Fishin’ time.
“We’re going to shoot to The Prairie, which is on the outer edge of the fishing closure,” said Pete. The closure he referred to is a designated bottom fish—namely threatened rockfish species like yellow eye—sanctuary off the coast of Washington. The Prairie is a favorite fishing area for those with the horsepower to get free associated in my mind when talking about the promise of The Prairie, except where we’re going it’ll be halibut (“butts”) and lingcod (“lings”) who roam instead of buffalo.
