Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Brian Hutton of Tacoma lands a king salmon with help from Tequila Too deckhand Tammy Drake during a Monday charter off Westport. The second day of ocean salmon fishing attracted about 300 anglers.

Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Tequila Too skipper Ken Culver sorts salmon after coming into Westport on Monday afternoon.

Most catch limit on second day of salmon season

Westport reels in brimming load of fishers, salmon

N.S. NOKKENTVED, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published July 3, 2001

WESTPORT -- The hooked coho had no chance. If the angler didn't get it, the 6-foot blue shark surely would.

Three lines were tangled, and jabbing with the landing net did little to discourage the shark. The angler frantically cranked his reel. Someone else cut the tangled lines.

The shark lunged -- too late. The salmon was pulled from the water.

That was typical of the action on the charter boats out of Westport on Monday, on the second day of ocean salmon fishing season. About 300 anglers pulled in two salmon each. At times it was chaos as several anglers tried to land fish on the rocking boat.

But nearly everyone caught their limit.

"I think the fishing was fantastic," said John Gatton of Gig Harbor. "There was action on the boat all the time."

Most years Gatton goes salmon fishing a couple times a year -- he's been doing it since the early 1970s. But this is better than it has been in many years, he said.

About 23 charter boats, in addition to about 100 to 150 private boats, head out of Westport early Monday. By 6 a.m., most of them were headed for the North Reef, about 12 miles out.

Some charter boats were back in port with their limit of fish by noon. In past years, boats have spent all day on the ocean without catching their limit, said Mark Cedergreen, spokesman for the Westport Charter Boat Association.

It didn't get away

The biggest fish of the day in the daily salmon derby was a chinook -- 21 pounds 7 ounces, caught by Kaleb Blackburn, 7, of Independence, Mo.

He felt the bite and the pull of the fish, but he had no idea how big it was. He started to reel it in until he got too tired.

"My arms started to fall off," Kaleb said. His grandfather, Jim Blackburn, of Mount Lake Terrace, helped him land the lunker. It was Kaleb's first time on the ocean, first time he caught a big fish -- despite a couple of attacks of the Westport flu.

One excited young angler walked off with the $400 salmon derby prize money.

For Gary Croteau of Kent, it's the excitement of the pull on the rod.

"It's that rod jiggling up and down," he said. "The excitement of not knowing what's on the other end of the line, when it takes off."

But it was his wife, Kathy, who caught the first and the biggest fish.

"It's the most salmon I've seen on the ocean in 20-some years that I've been doing this," said Kenny Culver, captain of the charter boat Tequila Too.

"This is going to be the best season we've had since I've been here -- about nine years," said Larry Giese, owner of Deep Sea Charters. He said he is pleased with the selective fishing system that allows continued fishing for marked hatchery fish, he said. It started four years ago in the Columbia River and this year will be the third year in the ocean.

Letting it go

Some fishers were disappointed that after catching a fish, they had to let it go, but most understand the importance of the selective fishing to protect endangered wild salmon.

Selective fishing -- targeting only hatchery bred coho and releasing the wild fish -- may be the future for the ocean communities that depend on salmon fishing, said Tony Floor, head of WDFW's Puget Sound Sport Fish Enhancement Program. Because of the number of hatchery fish returning this year, anglers will be allowed to catch 225,000 coho this year -- about three times the catch last year.

Out on the ocean, Phil Anderson's boat plunges into the steady swell of the Grays Harbor bar -- the throaty growl of twin 300 horse-power diesels. Bright sun sparkles on the water, and the breeze out of the northwest kicks up a choppy swell.

The depth finder showed a school of bait fish from about 60 feet down to the surface. The anglers started catching fish at about 60 to 70 feet in water about 200 feet deep. The salmon feed on sardines, anchovies and herring.

Anderson, 51, boat owner and former charter boat captain for 25 years, now works for Fish and Wildlife, is taking his boss, WDFW Director Jeff Koenings, and several others out for a first-hand look at what everyone expects to be the best salmon season in years.

It helps to know what the fishing is like when he has to talk to fishers and others involved in salmon conservation issues, Koenings said.

And coastal salmon fishing deserves more publicity, Floor said.

"If people want to try their hand at ocean salmon fishing, this is the year to do it," he said.

Koenings' first fish was a wild coho. He let it go. But he soon had another one on the line. For him, like so many others, "it's the thrill of getting the tug on your line, then reel in a fish like that," he said.

By 10 a.m. the seven anglers aboard Anderson's boat had landed 14 fish, and he turned for port.

"I think there's going to be good fishing for the next few years," Koenings said.

N.S. Nokkentved covers the outdoors for The Olympian. He can be reached at 754-5445.

Salmon fishing

- What: Recreational season for coho and chinook salmon.

- When: Sunday-Thursday each week through September or until quotas on each species has been reached.

- Cost: $75 per day, per person, for charter trips (more on Sundays), plus a license.

- Clothing: Dress in layers and have rubber-soled shoes to wear while on a boat.

- Extras: Take a lunch, suntan lotion and something to avoid possible seasickness.

- Information: Call the Westport-Grayland Chamber of Commerce at 800-345-6223.

On the web:

Westport-Grayland Chamber of Commerce.

City of Westport.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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