Since I missed out on the Bamfield show, I started to search for alternatives before the warm water was gone for this year. I came across an old post on Bloodydecks about a charter out of Westport Wash. that WASN'T an overnite trip on a 50+ footer. (
http://allriversguideservice.com )
Turns out last Thursday he had a spot for a single and away I went...
We managed to boat 24 fish!!! AND only 5 fish came on the troll. Live bait stops are a BLAST!!!!!!
6 guests on the boat, as soon as a fish hits on the troll, the boat is stopped immediately ( no trying for multi hookups on the troll ) and except for the guest reeling in the troll fish, everyone else gets a live anchovy on a #1 hook w about 3/4 oz of pencil lead and 6' of 30lb. fluoro leader. On the slide, first guy baited, drops in the anch. and freespools his reel ( no casting! ), next rod steps ahead and does same until 5 lines are fanned out and the boat is drifting downwind. The take on live bait is NOTHING like a troll hit. It's like a very slow river drift thru a deep pool. You gently thumb the freespooled reel as the boat moves 2-3 mph down-wind, there's hardly even a bump, except the reel goes from 3, to 5, to 10, to 20+mph before you can jam your thumb down and lever on some drag.
We had several stops that produced multiple hook ups. Once the bite died, we would reset the troll gear and circle around until another troll fish would hit.
I don't know if the other guests were being considerate? or feared for an elbow in the ear? BUT they seemed more interested in the bait fishing, so I picked up 3 of the 5 troll fish (and still got 8 on bait!) Being a river fisher is a definite plus - the take is very subtle ( we all got bait stripped at least a few times)
The water warmed from 55 to 58 over about 35 miles, then rose to 59.5 about 45 miles out. I expected us to stop, but we kept going out until 60.2 degrees and 49 miles out of Westport. In the end, we got 57 miles out and the water stayed between 60.4 and 60.8
Left the dock at 630am, two hours of run time, 7 hours of fishing and 2.5 hours to run back in. ( BTW - Grays Harbour bar crossing is def something to RESPECT! )
For early season next year, I think its a trip worth considering