by Jason Brooks, April 26, 2015

My first time out on a charter was almost fifteen years ago. It was a bottom fishing trip out of Westport, one of the many fishing town and villages along the coast of Washington. I was pretty excited to catch some black sea bass and back then you were only allowed one lingcod. The bar crossing was fairly smooth that day and luckily for myself and my fishing partner, Chad Hurst, the other group on the boat weren’t what you would call "fish savvy". While fishing in the salt water all on board continue to fish until the daily limit for everyone is retained. Chad and I hauled fish after fish over the railing and soon learned to drop our gear all the way to the bottom and catch the lingcod. It wasn’t too long until a deckhand came over to us and told us to stop doing this, as once the boat reached the lingcod limit they would have to stop fishing for them and the other customers wouldn’t get a chance to catch any. Satisfied that we had our cod we switched back to sea bass fishing.

Last Memorial Day weekend Chad called once again and asked if I wanted to join him and his middle daughter, Marissa, on another charter for bottom fish. He also advised that you are now allowed two lingcod. Jumping on the chance to take my son Ryan out on the open ocean for his first time and knowing we would be catching a lot of fish; we made our plans. This trip can be done with your own boat if you know how to navigate the ocean and cross the Westport bar. It is recommended that you don’t try it in a boat less than 20 feet long with a deep keel to cut through the rough waves. The U.S. Coast Guard Station is located right at the public boat launch and will give weather and wind updates, as well as close the bar. Since Chad and I don’t have a boat or experience to handle crossing alone, especially with our kids on board, we opted to use a charter service.

There are many great charters out of Westport and an internet search will give you phone numbers, reviews, and websites to look over. Also make sure to check out the services tab here at Northwestfishingreports.com as all of the recommended guides are ones that we use and know they are excellent at guiding people to a fun and safe fishing trip. Keep in mind that reviews need to be taken with an open mind and make sure you read through them to see why a charter received the rating that it got. I found several where people complained how the Captain cut their trip short or canceled all together when in reality the person didn’t realize the bar was closed due to weather or was about to close so the ship needed to get back to port. Also, this is fishing after all, and though sea bass are plentiful they do move around a lot and some days they are at one rock pile and other days they are not. A good outfit will keep moving around finding fish which also means a lot of down time inside the cabin and not actually fishing. Make sure to take along a lot of snacks and a few travel games, or a deck of cards to keep occupied while the boat moves to another spot.

The fishing is simple. This is jigging or mooching directly below the boat. All charters will provide gear including tackle, but on our trip I opted to bring my own as I wanted to make sure we had rods that would make the sea bass fishing a little more fun as most Charters use fiberglass rods that can be rested on the railings for anglers not strong enough to hold onto them while fighting a fish. I used a medium action 7’ 9" North Fork Custom rod and since it was made of graphite I could feel the fish bite and set the hook much quicker than those using the fiberglass rods. This simply meant I caught a lot more fish than others. For mainline I used Izorline 30 pound XXX, mostly due to the heavy weights and crossed lines that can occur on a charter. My mainline was tied to a stainless steel 100 pound swivel with a McMahon snap to a 5 ounce banana weight and a 20 pound leader, again, Izorline XXX.

Prior to the trip I broke out my fly tying vise and used some weighted 4/0 hooks and tied up some shrimp flies. Using UV enhanced flashabou for a tail. Then some light orange chenille, also UV enhanced, and a Hevi-Bead for the head, which I used a one inch piece of 100 pound monofilament line melted on the end to secure the Hevi-Bead to the shank of the hook. As I dropped the UV shrimp fly into the water for the first time I could see it glowing for the first 15 to 20 feet. A deck hand came over and asked what I was using and showed him my flies. The first thing he said was, "That is going to catch a lot of fish" and it did. In fact I put the first lingcod of the trip into the boat moments later, as I was lucky enough to get through the sea bass, let my weight hit the bottom of the ocean and slowly reeled up.

Lingcod aren’t known for their fight but more of a steady pull. At first I thought my weight was stuck on the bottom or in some kelp. I continued to reel and line continued to come in. As I looked overboard I saw the big brown monster and stopped reeling. I called for the deck hand to bring the net to boat the lingcod. These fish can be a bit tricky, as you need to keep them in the water until you are ready to net them. Once their head breaks the surface they thrash around and it doesn’t take long for their large razor sharp teeth to cut your leader.

Our first stop produced the one lingcod and a few sea bass but the captain wasn’t happy with the slow results and we moved on. It wasn’t until about our 4th or 5th stop when we learned why we had to keep moving. Once we found a large school of sea bass it turned plain crazy! It seemed everyone had fish on, all at once. I had rigged Chad and Marissa with some rods with 3/0 worm hooks that have an upturned eye. I then rigged up a Panic Minnow swim bait from Density-Tackle, a local Washington company. We found the shad pattern worked best and the sea bass attacked them as they dropped down into the dark waters. Because we were the only people on the boat using artificial baits we caught a lot more fish as we could get back to fishing faster. When we hauled the bass over the rail we unhooked them, then tossed them into a large plastic bin placed beside us, and dropped our gear right back down again. Others had to re-bait costing them valuable time.

Marissa dropped her swim bait to the bottom and hooked into a huge lingcod. After seeing her do this I told Ryan to do the same and he came up with a blue lingcod. Within a few minutes Ryan and Marissa not only limited out on their lingcod of two each, but also finished off Chad and my limits as well. Once the boat was limited on sea bass we once again moved to another spot. Unbeknownst to us the charter had a special lingcod spot where everyone switched over to super heavy rods, 10 ounce weights, and mooching rigs tipped with whole herring. Down they went and I hooked a nice fish but it was no bigger than the ones we already had so I gave it to another fisherman. Both Ryan and Marissa decided it was snack time again and went inside the boat. Soon we were on our way back to Westport, which was a two hour boat ride. On the way we spotted a whale and a few seals. As the rain began pounding the decks I watched the crew fillet our catch. Most charters operate with deckhands that only make tips and charge to fillet, usually about a dollar per fish. It is well worth paying them to fillet your catch since the daily limit is 10 sea bass and 2 lingcod. This meant between Chad, Marissa, Ryan and myself we would have had to fillet 48 fish!

Back at the dock each person hands the deckhand a well-earned tip and any fees for filleting and are handed back a big bag of sea bass fillets and another of lingcod fillets. In total Ryan and I have more fish in one day’s fishing than we could eat in an entire year. Forty sea bass fillets, and eight lingcod fillets, which when cut into dinner size portions came to about twenty four meals of lingcod. The ones that had done this before had coolers with wheels on them that they drug down from their cars. We had to haul our bags up the ramp and with our gear we brought along it took a few trips.

Sea bass and lingcod, as well as other bottom fish are found along the coast from Oregon up to Southeast Alaska. Popular places to book a charter in Washington are out of Illwaco and Westport, with a few near La Push and Sekiu. When fishing in the vast Pacific Ocean you can buy marine charts that show rocky areas and submerged islands which are the places that you need to target to find fish. Up around La Push, Sekiu, Port Angeles, and Sequim smaller boats can get in on the action by finding rocky areas just outside of the kelp beds. Make sure to read the regulations and each marine area has different rules about depth of water you can fish in, size of fish and amounts of fish you can keep. Kayak fishing is becoming increasingly popular and oftentimes you can reach really good lingcod and sea bass areas in these small watercraft along the shoreline. If you don’t have a boat or kayak you can fish off of the many jetty’s, such as the one at Westport or Ocean Shores. Mike Carey posted a recent report a few weeks ago on their trip lingcod and bottom fishing trip up north to Neah Bay; and as he put it "I can safely say this was one of the most epic and fun fishing trips I have ever had!" Sea bass and lingcod fishing, either from your own boat like Mike, or from a charter is simply one of the best fishing adventures you will have and is a great way to get someone into fishing. If possible take a kid with you and get them hooked on fishing.

After getting home it’s time to eat some fish. A co-worker of mine holds a neighborhood "fish fry" when he returns home from a weekend of bottom fishing. It helps that he has a big, sea worthy fishing craft and will spend his summer weekends out fishing the ocean. For Ryan and I we vacuum seal our fish in dinner portions and then bring it out about once a month as a treat and to remember our fun time we had out fishing. My favorite way to prepare these white fish, both the sea bass and the lingcod, is to drizzle some olive oil on the fish. Then sprinkle on a little seasoning (my favorite fish season is Harrod’s Cookhouse Recipe "Salmon & Trout" available at www.harrodoutdoors.com). Heat the pan to medium high and cook the fish for about three minutes on each size, a little more if the fillet is thick such as the lingcod ones tend to be. When it flakes with a fork it is done. One of the simplest fish to cook and with their mild flavor I don’t overdo it with sauces or marinades.