Grayland Beach State Park

Last night, we returned from our latest adventure to Grayland Beach State Park.  Conveniently located about 10 minutes south of Westport, Washington this park is on the Pacific Coast, with a short walk to the beach.  The weather, although somewhat lacking, was considerably better than on our last trip here in December. 

Probably should have put sunscreen on.

Anyway, the highlight of the trip was the, apparently now annual, deep sea fishing expedition.  Last year featured Dakota, Colton, and me going salmon fishing on a charter boat out of Westport.  Followed by me going bottom fishing a couple of days later on the same charter boat.  I had so much fun bottom fishing that I decided this year, I'd take the kids to do that instead of salmon.

 

 The ride out was a bit wet going over the bar.  The kids were not exactly happy when they found out that we would be going out about 2 1/2 hours to the fishing area.  But that didn't last long when it was found that we had to stop part way to catch live bait for the Ling Cod fishing.  We used squid chunks to catch flounder which were collected and placed in the live bait well.  Colton broke his salmon jinx from last year, catching 8 or 10.  Stocked up for Ling Cod, we continued the journey.  We eventually arrived and rigged up for Ling Cod.  There was quite a current over the rocks and the captain was trying to hold us over them.  With 19 anglers dropping tackle over two hundred feet to the bottom, tangles were horrendous.  I did get a bit frustrated, spending it seemed 90 percent of the first half hour or so tangled.  But my last tangle occurred as I hooked up with my first Ling of the day.  Once I got untangled, the fight was on.  It was apparent to me that it was a big guy (at least by what I've caught in the past).  He made me realize that 300 feet down is a long ways.  Finally got him to the boat.

My largest Ling so far...

Mikee caught two, and Dakota caught one as well.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of Dakota with his.

Mikee's Biggest Ling

 Once we had hammered the Lings, we took a short break while the deckhands rigged up our gear for rockfish.  The rockfish were actually kind of a letdown.  They came on board so quickly that it only took about 20 minutes for the boat to limit out with 200.  Rhett knows his stuff out here!  They were all yellow tail rockfish, with a couple of yellow eye rockfish thrown in.  Unfortunately, the yellow eyes are a protected species, and you can't keep them.  They are beautiful, as the photo below of Rhett trying to decompress one shows.  Unfortunately, they usually don't go back down, dying on the surface...

Yellow Eye Rockfish.  It did die despite Rhett's best efforts...

Yellowtails stacking up on the starboard deck!

Holy cow!  And on the port!

 The trip back to the dock was fairly uneventful.  Mikee helped me with seal-a-mealing most all of the fish, and then she and Dakota took the fish home in the Saturn the next morning.  Unfortunately, some water must have spilled out of the cooler, because now the car smells like fish!  And, the freezer is full!
The rest of the trip was mostly just hanging out, and hitting the beach for some sun.  Although, we did see mostly cloudy and rainy weather.  Oh well.  Next week we'll go back to Grayland Beach State Park.  This time, we'll have the Saturn with us the whole time.  So crabbing and touring Westport are on the agenda...