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Fishing Reports for Local Area - Location |
    
Danielle (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2003 - 2:56 pm: | |
What a trip!!!
My husband John & I have been activily fishing here in Washington for about 5 years. We started out fishing trout in tons of lakes all over the state. A season or two of that and we had moved on to salmon. After a few years of Coho and Steelhead, we were set on catching our first Kings. Our first attemps in Elliot bay and on 14+ person charters out of Westport & Ilwaco produced lots of Silvers, but still no Chinook. So we decided to forgo the typical 14+ person charters for a small 4-6 person charter out of Chinook that we had found online. John found a couple fishing buddies, Rick and Dana, and we set up the trip.
Since we live 3 hours north of Chinook, we decided to head down the night before. So this past Sunday afternoon, we picked up the babysitter for our 1 year old daughter and headed south. We checked into our rooms, had a little Mexican food, and called it a night.
Rick and Dana Met us at 4:30 Monday morning and our party headed to Chinook. Due to my splendid planning, and perhaps a little over-anxiousness, we showed up at the docks at 5am sharp which was about 1/2 an hour before Captain Dan Heasley of 'Fishin Time' showed up right on time at 5:30(ooops, sorry guys).
Fishin' Times' "Storm Runner" is a custom built 27' aluminum boat with really big motor. You'll have to ask my husband or Dan about the boat details, but, I will say that it was an extremely smooth and impressively fast trip over the bar. *Note- even his rods are custom.
We hooked a few small Kings and some Silver pretty quick, then, around 7:45 I yelled, "Fish On!" and quickly realized I was dealing with something that I had never encountered. After at least 25 minutes, I landed my first Chinook- weighing an impressive 32lbs! I must say, I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS IN FOR!!! I thought my arms were going to fall off. After 10 minutes, that fish had been called about every name in the book- my antics clearly startly my husband.
We kept along- hooking quite a few silvers, keeping a few between 10-15lbs. Then about 8:30, I heard a few exclamations of disbelief as Capt. Dan anounced, "She's got another one on!". It took 15-20 minutes to land this 27lb beauty, but after my fight with the first fish, it might as well been 45 minutes!
Having a 1 fish limit on King, this one was decidedly my husbands. With that in mind, I almost made him take the pole to get this one in, although it was mostly because I wasnt sure Id be able to get this one in. He assured me I could do it- I think it was because he had so much fun watching me run around the boat, sweating, swearing, and reeling as if my life depended on it.
I will say, amidst the taunting, the laughing, and the overall entertainment the guys seems to be getting out of the whole scene; they did manage to holler out a few word of encouragement, which by the end of each fish I was really needing. Thats fine guys, laugh all you want, these were my first kings and I wasnt about to let one get away.
I wasnt the only one to snag a King, Dana had a 20-25lb'er at the boat that pulled its hook before it could be netted, which was really disappointing. Then around 10 my husband hooked & landed a 17lb Chinook that was a real pretty fish for a Chinook.
By 10:30 or so, we only had room for 1 more fish and really wanted one more nice Chinook, but after throwing back a few really nice size Coho, John pulled in one that was a little over 16lbs so we all decided to call it a day on the salmon.
We ended the trip by checking a few crab pots that Dan had set out for groups that might like to take home a few crab in addition to their salmon- talk about setting up next weekends barbeque!
I know most of the charters out of Ilwaco have been limiting by noon and are catching 90-95% Coho. They race out to the buoys around buoy 10 where the silver are pretty thick, limit as fast as possible and race back in. We went out on a bigger charter about a week prior to this trip and limited around 10:30 on a boat of 16. All silver between 5-9lbs. It was fun- nothing like this last trip though and not much more $ either.
We ended up docking with a well of 154lbs and an average fish weight of over 15lbs.
Not to shabby.
-Danielle Martin 8/26/03
*Fishin' Time:877-642-1100, <fishintimeguides.com>
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Capt. Ron Malast
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 07, 2001 - 6:26 am: | |
Subject: Ilwaco, Washington
Halibut opened this weekend in the ocean, weather was clear abit windybut fishing was good. Three charter boats limited Sunday, fish 20-40lbs. Many salmon seen jumping in the ocean already, several caught taking halibut baits.
Season in the ocean off Washington coast to open July 1st. Two fish limit, all hatchery on coho, one may be a chinook, wild. Quota is 135,000 fish, three times what it was last year. Buoy 10 opens Aug. 1st with two salmon and limit increases to 3 fish, Aug. 16. |
Mike Moore
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 12, 2001 - 7:37 pm: | |
Subject: Bounty 30
Can anyone tell me about these boats good or bad? might be looking at one. |
Capt. Ron Malast-Seawolf Charters
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 13, 2000 - 11:32 am: | |
Subject: Action Lower Columbia River - Ilwaco
Fishing restricted due to passage of all salmon runs into the rivers to spawn. Fishing out of Ilwaco limited to black seabass and other rockfish, drifting w/ herring and off the jettys. Recreational crabbing excellent for dungeness at this time. |
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