Going to the Westport area and need some Help

[schatzi442]

Hi all I live on the Idaho Washington border. The wife and I are going to be takeing a trip to the Westport area from Aug.31 to Sept 4. We would love to do some fishing for Salmon we are both from the mid west and have never done it before. We live close to the Pend Oreille River so we do some pike fishing and go over to the Upper Columba for Walleye.
Could any of you nice people help us out where is a good spot to go is the Willapa River good or the Westport boat bason. Also what type of gear should we have and type of bait, lures,etc.
We also have been thinking of trying to get a charter and go are Tuna if they aren't all booked any help with charter names would be a great help


Thank you all
Steve

[G-Man]

If your after salmon and will be in Westport, take a salmon charter. The fish are sitting 3 to 12 miles offshore and getting fat on the bait in preparation for their spawning run. The boat basin can be a zoo when the fish are in and they may or may not be on the bite. Fishing for surf perch can be fun, check out the previous threads related to Ocean Shores and also jetty fishing for details.

[Maury]

Spent last weekend out there with three on the boat. limited both days. We were running downriggers @ 25 - 45 feet down. could have used deep six divers but I don't own any. We were pulling flashers and coyote spoons or hootchies and had a blast. went thru a bunch of nates to get limits of hatchery silvers (1 king on sat) ranging from 9 - 14lb.
Maury

[gpc]

A charter would be the way to go. There are a ton that run out of westport, but I cant really give you any suggestions, its been a while for me.

But Westport has a huge "artificial" salmon run. They raise the salmon in net pens in the westport boat basin. Every fall these salmon come back to the boat basin to spawn. But there isnt a place for them to spawn so they just kind of mill around in the boat basin until they get caught. They have a derby too. I am not sure when the run starts, but I was there last mid November and there was enough left to get me excited. So I would imagine it gets pretty exciting at the peak of the run. If you do take part in this event I am very interested, so let me know how you do.

[fishing collector]

Here is a list of the most popular Charter Business's web site... http://westportwa.com/business/charter.html I have used Deep SeaCharters and they have always been good....Good Captains and boats and have been in Business for 58 years. Also Ocean Charters Happy Hooker.....Nice boat Have fun .... you will see other companies when you get there. They are not all booked up, so you may want to try another company.