Fished two days out of Westport with two top notch charter operations. Not sure if we can name drop on here or not but PM me if you want a name of the boats.

Friday 8/21 hitched a ride on one of the larger boats for a salmon only trip after my smaller boat had canceled due to bad weather. The whole fleet had scrubbed Thursday's trips but most had resumed fishing on Friday despite the windy rough conditions. My son who is home on leave and I along with seventeen other brave souls headed out at 5:30 along with several other of the big boats. Our guy headed north of Ocean Shores by six/eight miles maybe, while only staying a few miles off shore. Stopped the boat with no other boats in sight and started fishing. By then about four people had already offered up breakfast overboard and never even put a line in the water, maybe three more got sick but recovered and fished. Wave swells were big and rocked us all day long. Usual large boat style of fishing, six ounce sinker with four ft leader and fresh herring dropped forty feet down and reeled up somewhat swiftly to give that crippled herring look to the bait. All in all we limited the boat despite several folks too sick to fish, and back by 3 pm. Happened to see same charter boats coming in on Saturday around eleven so much quicker limits then. Biggest fish on the boat was 12 lbs maybe, but most were in the 8 lb range or so. All Coho and maybe only 3 natives released for all those hatchery fish.

Sunday 8/23 fished with my originally scheduled for Friday smaller boat charter company on a big combo trip. Ling, rockfish, and salmon were on the menu that day. My son and I joined another gentlemen on a well equiped comfy 36 ft all aluminum fishing machine. He usually takes six but today it was only the three of us, so we had lots of room. Again headed out at 5:30 with the fleet and again in less than ideal conditions. I think it was rougher then the first trip. Started the fishing day anchored up on rock structure using live anchovie on the black rockfish grounds. Had to keep moving north of Ocean Shores again to finally catch our rock fish limits. The weather and large waves made it a chore but we finally ended 15 miles or so North on a hot spot that filled the tote up with rockfish. Tried for Lings after that but the large waves and wind made it impossible to drift fish for them and the capt wanted to get us our salmon so we switched over to salmon gear. Trolling cut plug herring behind a diver just below the surface was the method of choice there. Fairly quick limits. Again Coho only, about the same size as before with maybe one for one nate to hatchery ratio. In dock about 3:30 again. High marks to these guys. They are a small but well known charter company that specialize in small groups and do things right. The Capt gave us a price break since we really didnt really go for Lings too much. Our deck hand Chance cleaned and filleted all the fish for us and kept us fishing the whole day. Top notch company.

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