After the quick closure out at Sekiu scuttled our weekend plans, my brother-in-law Tom, Marco and myself headed to Westport for a try at the hot action.

We got into town on Saturday afternoon, put the boat in the water and walked around the docks. We talked to one charter office, and they laughed at us when we asked if they had current coordinates for the fish. I don't know if that response is typical or not, but it's not what the WDFW has been saying would happen.

We had a fairly rough trip out on Sunday morning. The bar was rough and I was reminded again why I don't like to fish in the ocean. My 17' Arima is a good, safe boat but the heavier and longer boats were having an easier time with the water going out. We fished about 8 miles off the buoy on the 210 degree heading, but we were following boats and charters the whole way, so not much navigation was required.

We started fishing with three poles but settled for two because the rough water and willing fish made the third pole a hassle. When we started, I had put one pole on the downrigger and let it down 40 feet to put the clip on for the second pole but I never got to it as our first fish of the day attacked the glo/green coyote I had on. We had brought herring with us to run in helmets, but quickly switched to the spoons all around after the first couple of fish hit the spoons. We caught fish from 40 to 80 feet down. We released one wild silver and two smaller kings and kept six kings from 10 to 14 pounds. All the fish were chunky and fought well. Had my tummy been feeling better, I'm sure we would have released some of the 10 pounders and held out for something bigger, but the guys took pity on me. We had two fin clipped fish which both had tags in them.

The trip back was with the swells and was much better. We surfed a couple of waves and were back at the docks around 11:30. The Coast Guard was doing safety inspections (check the date on your flares) and the Game Wardens stopped a couple of boats in the harbor as well.

Marco bought a fresh tuna from one of the commercials at the dock and shared it with me and Tom. Grilled that night with olive oil and garlic as recommended by the folks on the boat, it was excellent. Thanks Marco!

All in all a good trip! I think the fish will only get bigger as the summer goes on.

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