Fishin'

After the trips to Forks and vicinity, we got down to business.  We took about a week to go to the Westport area for some fishing and hunting.  The last time I went salmon fishing was in the late 1980's with my crew from Boeing and my ex-wife.  That was a good trip, with the boat limiting on Silvers.  Unfortunately, salmon fishing on the Washington coast has gone downhill since the early 1970's, with reduced numbers of fish and quotas allowed to be caught.  I had read that this year and next were to be the best King salmon seasons in 40 years due to ocean conditions.  So, we decided to head to the coast for Chinook.  Jana found a nice private campground in Tokeland, right on the water.  Dakota, Colton, and I got up way to early (as far as the boys were concerned), and headed into Westport, and Deep Sea Charters.  We had booked spots on the charter boat Slammer.  We headed out and started catching some fish.

Not too sure about getting up when it's still dark...

The seas were great.  No one got sick.  Would have been great at that point.  However, turns out that Dakota and I both limited on Kings.  Colton had one up to the surface that threw the hook.  In the end, the boat limited out, allowing all three of us to take home 2 Kings.  Not too shabby

Nine Kings

That's a funny looking plant...

 

Lots o fish

I enjoyed myself so much, I decided to book a bottom fishing trip two days later.  This gave me the opportunity for some bear hunting on the day in between.  Saw a couple of deer, but no bear.  I did stumble into a marijuana grow, which I reported to the local narcotics task force for eradication.  The next day, I got up bright and early for bottom fishing.  The boys got to sleep in.  I'd never been bottom fishing, and didn't really know what to expect.  Expect FUN!  Wow!  You are allowed to take ten rockfish and two Lingcod.  What a blast!  We started out a little later than we left when salmon fishing.  It was actually less work than the salmon fishing, and I think that it would be a little easier for Colton.  It was a pretty steady stream of fish coming over the gunwales.  Early on I had a problem with catching a prohibited species.  They are a prohibited species due to being overfished.  I just kept catching them.  You can't keep them, and must throw them back, where they normally die floating away from the boat.  You can't keep them.  I was actually getting quite frustrated, but eventually started catching black rockfish.  I even managed to catch my two Lingcod before we went fishing for Lingcod.  I'd never used live bait before.  We used anchovies for the rockfish, and halibut for the Lingcod.  Will definitely be taking the boys next year for bottom fish.  I spent a serious amount of time processing and seal a mealing fish.  We still have plenty of fish in the freezer.  Next year I'm getting Jana to go.