Getting back on the ocean today felt oh so good! I drove out to Westport yesterday to fish with my friends who have a boat stationed in the harbor. It was well worth the drive, with great company and even better fishing!
With the current situation and the recent reopening of the coast, the harbor was as empty as I’ve seen it. Westport was pretty quiet. Hopefully for all those local Westport businesses, that will change now that the recent “Stay at Home Order” has been lifted for Grays Harbor County.
We met at the boat at 8am to rig up the gear. It was great to finally see my fishing buddies after a couple months of fishing hibernation. The Westport Bar crossing was pleasant, and the Ocean was calm.
Our target was Lingcod, out in the deepwater beyond the 180′ line, which is open until June 15. Deep water usually holds the biggest of Sea Dragons. We stopped at a spot at about 150′ deep to fill the live well with flounder. Live bait fishing for Lingcod gets pretty intense when they are on the bite! Once we loaded up with about twenty flounder, it was time to push onward and deeper.
After a few exploratory drifts in the zone, we found them! On the start of our third drift, we all dropped down and instantaneously had 3 Lings hooked up! Fishing was hot and heavy for the next few drifts. We ended up releasing anything under about 8 pounds. While every fish landed was a beauty, we kept only the high grade Lings. It was the fastest Lingcod fishing I’ve seen, and we wore ourselves out hauling in fish from the start to finish of every drift.
After keeping our limit of 12 Lingcod, we deployed the shrimp flies and targeted Rockfish. They were a little sparce but we ended up with about two dozen before we decided to call it a day. It was going to be a long drive back for me, and the haul was more than I had expected!
It was a phenomenal day out in the deep blue!
How We Smoke and Can Rainbow Trout
