Westport on The Opener

Anyone else going out of Westport on Sunday?

Eye.... I mean, aye!

You can bet FishNg1 will be out there too.

Hail the "Audrey Anna" on VHF 16 and/or 72.

The seas look very friendly at this point

We are planning on fishing Monday as well.

I am going to pass on Sunday, but plan to go on Monday-Tuesday before the monster tides kick in. Forecast 4ft swells at 9sec as of this morning.

Good fishing,
Hans

Will the fish be in? Last year I waited until mid-July, but I'm really anxious to get out there.

The ocean conditions look terrific!

no doubt about it, look boat named "TRUST ME"

Ther should be some fish there. A few years ago I picked up a 20lb chinook on July 2 while waiting for the bar to settle down around low slack ( -2) near the red line (Bouy 6 I believe.)

The fish will be there. The commercial trollers did excellent... finished their quota in about a week, I heard.

You bet, I 'll be out there, may stay the night and fish Monday. I'll have "Mavrick" from the board with me, and will be looking forward to having the reel scream again! Will be staying in my Shasta Camper in the float ?? parking lot. I have heard that they are not letting us moor there this year, we shall see.

Call "FishNg1" on 68

Looks like all the usual suspects will be present.

I expect excellent fishing....but maybe no monsters yet.

Can anyone advise if I would be completely stupid to visit westport in my 16 foot Arima. Bought the small boat as I often fish solo and i LOVE the kings but never fished WPort. Thought I would go on a 6pack first, hate the party boats, and then decide. Any advice or good guides running 4-6 people?? Thanks in advance.

This might help ya's decide if'n ya want to go or not. I think it's right near GH bouy.

fp

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.phtml?=46041

Thanks, any general idea on timing tides to get to open water etc...?

Check out the SalmonU website for good info on Westport and the bar there.

Summerun, coastal bars are always the at their worst when the current is ebbing. The stronger the ebb the bigger the seas when crossing the bar. I wouldn't cross the bar in a 16' boat unless the winds were essentially calm, the swell height was less than four foot and the bar was flat. I've seen way too many people get caught on a rough bar and not live to tell about it. I've also seen people go out over a relatively flat bar and then have it go to hell in a handbasket quick. Be careful is all I can say.

Thanks, thats about what I thought. I will stick to the sound and straits. I will hook up with a guide or a westport vet with a bigger boat. Tight Lines

I think I will wait a couple of weeks. Check out this article that I wrote for the PSA website about the Westport bar.

http://www.pugetsoundanglers.org/Fishing%20Info/Westport.htm

Great info Leroy, I will let you know how we do out there next week. BTW, i have not seen you at the GH meetings lately, heard you had been busy with the state boards etc.

Steve

the Machinist, I read your article and I don't think you could've said it better when you spoke of God looking after fools and angels on both shoulders. It seems that many people throw all caution to the wind when it comes to catching nice fat chinook. I thought your article was well written and contains great information.

I plan on being out there for the opener, I'll be in my 14 ft livingston w/ a 9.9 Hope to see some of you guys out there. I'll be in my 23ft fiberform blue and white. Will also be running channel 68. Good luck!

Machinist,
I read your article and it brought back lots of memorys of fishing with my dad when he had a "Kelpers" Licence.
We had a 28' Tolleycraft Sportsfisher with twin 233 hp mercs.
We fished out of Neah Bay in the mid seventys, I was 17 or 18 years old and got quite an education on fishing.
I remember having to get up before daylight run out and fish all day and then Clean up the fish scales and slime off the boat boat every evening. (while the skipper My Dad went back to the trailer popped a cold one and started dinner.)It was always dark before I got back to our 5th wheel where we stayed.
I remember our best day was close to 100 silvers We couldn't keep them off the girdies, we would drop one side run over to the other side Net the fish, rebait, drop down, run over to the other side and start the Process again.
Dad also had a Charter Licence and on the weekends we would take people out, with me and my brother playing the bait boys.
It was a fun couple of summers but one thing does stand out in my mind. One evening we heard on the radio that an older gentleman who was disabled had taken his grandkids out fishing and was over due. I believe they found the capsized boat the next day I don,t recall if there were any survivors but we found a huge oil slick a couple of days later with some debris and a dead puppy floating on top. Very sobering experience and something I will never forget.
I guess what I learned is you can get into trouble anywhere not just the bar so safety first.
Ramprat

anybody who was out past bouy 3 after 4 pm on Sunday: if they didn't know before, they know now, how quick it come up & get ugly ...

Yea....It got a little soupy!

DOGOFF!

I was out Sunday about 17 miles from the buoy...came back in at 23knots average but lots of water spraying everywhere. Good fishing and generally excellent water. Going out there were alot of smaller boats who had not problems but I saw some of them shadowing the charters on the way in.

You guys should have been there today (Mon) , the wind came up and it was snotty. Made the run in yesterday seem like a lake. It was tough fishing too, heard the charters talking on 79 and they only had two or three fish that were keepers, some boats had none. We came in about 1:30 (max flow on the bar) and it was not pretty. Lots of chummers out there today. Oh, Mavrick did put a 20 pounder in the boat plus our silvers and today I managed a 21 pounder, a buddy of mine also got a 30 and one smaller king. Jamie if you read this, give me a call.

Steve

Steve

Steve...We were moored on the same dock as you but out on the end. I saw your boat go out this morning but my crew (two boats) all bailed on me as they thought it would be too roughl. I looked over the breakwater at 9am and the bar was as flat as I have ever seen it. Seven of us limited on Sunday. We lost a couple of real large Kings and released a couple around 15# thinking we would cull through and only keep fish over 20#. Well I kept one at 16# and a friend on my boat got another 16# twin brother. We released dozens of wild Coho keeping limits of hatchery fish that all were similar size at 8#.

It seemed like the smaller boats were going out this morning while the larger boats were sitting at the dock including mine. Weather was a pleasant surprise and was sunny and hot. The derby winner at the charter docks for Sunday was 33# I think.