BOUNTIES OF RED AND WHITE ON THE BLUE

By Jeff Holmes

After several years of salmon slumber due to mostly unprecedentedly bad ocean conditions coupled with blah outmigration, salmon fishing in Westport is back on the upswing. Once hyperbolically branded the Salmon Capital of the World, Westport is rounding back into form with excellent Chinook and coho fishing predicted this summer. The same oceanic and atmospheric conditions inspiring a Pacific Northwest salmon revival – a cold, enlivened ocean and storm after storm after storm – have led to fantastic summertime bottomfishing conditions out of Westport as well. The rockfish and lingcod grounds received very little pressure this spring due to the scarcity of days that boats could safely get out of port and over the bar. On those days when charter and private boats could make the trip, fishing was lights out.

This lack of pressure on bottomfish and early salmon results up the coast in Alaska and on Vancouver Island point toward an awesome July in Westport, Washington’s most accessible ocean port, which is just a couple hours from Seattle and an easy drive from anywhere in the state. Families and solo anglers alike looking for bounties of red and white fish flesh can find what they’re looking for this summer

in Westport, home to a very large and very excellent charter fleet with lucrative options in terms of crafts and fishing options.

Whether it’s the classic big-boat experience – such as that offered by Deep Sea Charters, Ocean Sportfishing, Tornado Westport, Captain and Crew Charters, and more – or the sporty six-pack experience, popularized by All Rivers and Saltwater Charters and others, July is primetime for salmon, rockfish, and lingcod, and is also the beginning of albacore tuna fishing.

A NEW KID on the block in the charter game is Anglers Edge Sportfishing, but its salty crew has long dedicated itself to the ocean. Owned by Bill Cheser and operated by Captain Mitch Coleman, Anglers Edge has put a hurting on the Chinook over the past few years, even in lean salmon times. They are very much looking forward to improved forecasts and improved ocean and environmental conditions that seem to signal not just a current but a future uptick in Chinook fishing. The outlook for July 2022 is strong, and they offer a unique combo trip that results in big chrome Chinook slabs and limits of the tastiest retainable rockfish off our coast: yellowtail.

“In July, before we go hot and heavy chasing albacore, we offer our ‘red and white’ combo trips for Chinook and yellowtail or black rockfish,” says Cheser. “These are long trips that typically leave the dock around 5:30 a.m. and return around 3:30 p.m. What we target first depends on where we will be salmon fishing that day, but we will at times start out with getting our rockfish limits and then will spend the remainder of the day hunting Chinook. If we are fishing salmon south of the bar, we will target yellowtail rockfish that are very abundant in a few areas and are usually quick pickings so that we can really focus in on salmon for the remainder of the day. Finding those yellowtails, which can occur throughout the water column, can be tough, but we have finding them dialed in thanks to our Raymarine Axiom Pro electronics system. Mitch is excellent at finding yellowtails and making short work of them.”

In recent years, 75 percent of the total Westport rockfish catch is comprised of black rockfish, which are amazing table fare as well, but yellowtails are even more special to eat, with sweet, firm, snow-white flesh that lends itself to whole-roasted Asian approaches, as well as standard fish and chips.

“There’s plenty of coho around, but in the early season they are not as numerous and still have some growing to do. Meanwhile

we have really big Chinook in the area in July, so we really spend time targeting quality kings in July, and Mitch does an excellent job of putting people on Chinook.”

Coleman fishes deep, out where the migratory kings headed toward the Columbia River stream past Westport. The result is a larger-thanaverage class of Chinook hitting the deck. With the emphasis on kings, most of Anglers Edge’s red and white trips focus on kings and yellowtails. But as they get later in the summer and the coho get bigger, if they’re not fishing for tuna, Cheser reports, “There is little better than stacking rockfish like cordwood and then transitioning into the coho rodeo on a hot mooching bite.”

A LONGTIME FORMER deckhand and a

commercial fisherman, Coleman, and his deckhand Kyle Hoxie, operate a lean, mean fishing machine whether it’s for albacore or black rockfish. They have their lingcod and rockfish combo trips totally dialed in and will run them until the end of July.

“Our typical bottomfish program consists of getting live bait (sand dabs, aka flounder) and hunting lingcod, followed by hitting the inshore rocks for black rockfish, which typically are easy biters,” says Coleman. “However, during the spring time we battle large amounts of crab spawn and shrimp species, as well as fin bait like herring, that can complicate how easily it can be to get these schooling fish to commit. In summer, however, they bite like crazy.”

“Although the shrimp fly is an old standby and an effective profile, my new favored way of targeting both rockfish and lings at once is a 6-inch Big Hammer swimbait fished below a dropper loop and shrimp fly or soft plastic, all on light tackle spinning gear,” says Coleman. “By fishing a medium-sized swimbait in the rocks while hovering a very-low-profile lure a few feet above it, it narrows my search for biting rockfish, which tend to be the harder of the two to acquire. These rockfish will either snap at the swimbait if they’re feeling extra aggressive or will nip the smaller lure above.”

“If we don’t get a good response on the bass, I can assure qualitygrade lings will attack that swimbait. The inshore and offshore ling fishing has been red-hot since the opening in March, with an outstanding amount of incidental lingcod taking shrimp flies while we pick away at our rockfish limit. This spring was a rough and spotty season with ocean conditions being rather nasty. I believe that has presented a lot less pressure on our fish,” says Coleman.

“STARTING JUNE 25 in Area 1 and July 2 in Area 2 we will start hunting

Chinook, and as the months progress, bigger coho will start to show and will be a great add to the mix,” says Cheser. “We typically run two Scotty high-speed electric downriggers, which allow us to target the fish wherever they are in the water column. We fish off the downriggers with 10-foot-6 custom-built rods built by Prolite Rod Technology, along with two 9-foot-6 Prolite customs off the stern on Delta divers.”

“One of our go-to setups is a Gold Star Ace High Fly. We also run a variety of different spoons from Gold Star/Silver Horde in a multitude of their awesome color variations, and then sprinkle in running a whole herring behind a triangle/rotator flasher. When the coho get thick and on the chew, it’s the perfect time to

In December 2019 Bill Cheser saw retirement on the horizon after 38 years of Federal Civil Service at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, including his current role as Nuclear Operations Manager at the giant facility. He and wife Saddie started looking to upgrade from the boat they had been fishing the salt out of for 20 years, and along with son Conner and his wife, the family considered running a charter outfit out of Westport. Conner and Bill had talked about taking out clients almost since the time Conner could hold a rod, so that winter when they found a Defiance Guadalupe 290 on Craigslist, the gears started turning.

“We knew from the jump that we wanted Anglers Edge to be a family operation,” said Bill Cheser. “With retirement still being a couple years out and my son being in the middle of his career at PSNS, our initial intention was not to run full time, but only on weekends and when our work schedule allowed.”

That changed when Bill and family met Mark Coleman, the owner and operator of All Rivers & Saltwater Charters, and when Bill expressed his family’s intent to buy a charter license.

“When Mark sold us the boat, he encouraged us to run it as much as possible and mentioned that he may have someone who would be interested in running the boat when we couldn’t,” said Cheser. “This is how we met Mitch Coleman. When we asked him how much he was willing to run the boat, his answer was simple: ‘As much as you can book it.’ Being the new kids

on the block and an unknown entity in a busy port full of awesome charter boats, there was some skepticism as to how much business we would get starting out. But as the season approached, Mark and Merry Coleman began calling with more and more overflow bookings from ARSC, and Mitch started putting big catches on the deck right out of the gate. We got very busy, very fast.”

“But before we even hit that water, as we planned and prepped for that first season, it became immediately apparent we had an absolute stud in Mitch. His entire approach to everything from day one has been all-out 100-percent flat-out effort and passion. Fishing is not a job for him. It is not just a passion either. He puts his whole entire being into his craft and that is what sets him apart in this industry. We are very proud to have him skippering our boat, and we are thankful to the entire Coleman family for what they’ve done to help the Cheser family realize our dream.” –JH

break out the mooching gear for some fun nonstop action.”

“But it’s the Columbia River Chinook that are the backbone of our ocean king fishery, and this year’s forecast is calling for numbers to be similar to last year’s run, which made for some really good days targeting kings,” says Cheser. “The big news is the coho forecast for the coast and Columbia, where those runs are expected to double the 10-year average. The daily limit this year is two salmon. Coho must be marked (hatchery) and no more than one Chinook (marked or unmarked).”

“Chinook in the 20-pound range are common,” he adds, “with fish in the 30-pound range being less common but not unheard of. Early coho are typically around 6 pounds and that average goes up as season goes on. August coho are commonly over 10 pounds, and these fish have a reputation for a quality fight and putting on an air show by the boat.” NS

“However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt.” –Herman Melville, Moby Dick

The whole situation in front of me would have been a lot more awesome had I not been so seasick. I was hardly able to stand, could not conceive of the idea of food being “good” for me and fishing was out of the question. But there I was, four hours out from Newport and looking at blue whales breaching the surface.

The trip had started off well enough. We had planned an 18-hour tuna fishing expedition with a local charter and had been looking forward to the adventure for nearly six months. My father, my buddy Ryan and I had talked this up for a long while. The recipes floated back and forth

as we planned what we’d make with our tuna haul. Ceviche was a universal, grilled on the barbecue, sushi – all the things food-related were talked about. By Randy King CHEF IN THE WILD It was the type of text message stream that happens when you have two former chefs chatting. It devolves into food fanaticism. We had rented a house for our respective families to share and arrived at the charter’s prescribed 2 a.m. departure time. Below deck was sleeping quarters and coffee was in the pot. I could hear idle conversations on the radio about how choppy the sea was that day. I could sense the deckhand’s nerves getting a little spooked – not worried, but just on edge. He also smelled of the bottle, and I thought everything was just fine. AS WE STARTED motoring out of the harbor the captain came onto the ship’s intercom. In typical seafarer bluntness he stated, “I ain’t going to lie; it’s rough out there. Much rougher and we would not go out. But the weather report says we have a good shot at this. But if we have to turn around, we have to turn around. This tuna ain’t worth your life.”

I was on a swaggering seafarer adventure. Rough seas be damned! Time began to pass; it was six hours to the tuna. One hour, then another, until about three hours had gone by. To the tuna! Then the first big wave hit the boat and I felt my stomach drop to the floor.

It was an odd sensation. At this point in my life, I had never been seasick before. It was an illness I had seen, but never experienced. So when my flesh started to feel cold and the feeling of “I just rode too many roller coasters” started forming in my stomach, I became a little nervous. People around me were losing whatever breakfast that they had eaten. My joyride to the tuna was turning into a torture. Then the wave

Chowder has a long history across the world. In the US, we have several regionalized styles – the most famous being New England clam chowder. And it is that style that is served in every diner and greasy spoon on the Northwest Coast. I love this style. Naturally, when given the opportunity, I eat at Mo’s, the iconic seafood and chowder restaurant on the Oregon Coast. It’s a tradition at this point.

Dungeness crab has a long West Coast history of just making things better. From helping halibut not be bland to the ubiquitous crab cake at restaurants, Dungies have been making food better for time immemorial. They were a standard part of Native American diets and became a recorded/regulated commercial fishery back in 1836.

They have a natural cycle of ups and downs, but when managed, they are a great sustainable seafood option.

CRAB CHOWDER

1 tablespoon butter 4 bacon strips, raw, sliced into thin strips 1 medium onion, diced 2 medium russet potatoes (about 3/8-inch cubes) 1 celery rib, diced 1 carrot, diced 4 cloves of garlic, minced 1 can corn, drained 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 3 1/2 cups milk (or more) 1 cup heavy whipping cream 1 tablespoon “Creole” seasoning 6 ounces Dungeness crabmeat, picked and cooked (feel free to add other seafood too – clams, salmon, rockfish, etc.) Salt and pepper

OPTIONAL

Sourdough bread “cannonballs”

In an 8-quart stock pot, add the butter and bacon. Cook on medium until bacon is crispy and rendered. Next add the onion and “sweat” them – cooking until translucent, about 3 minutes. Then add the potatoes, celery, carrot, garlic and corn. Cook mixture until hot.

Next slowly add the flour into the pot, stirring the vegetable mix often. When the flour is coating the veggies and incorporated, add the cold milk, cream and creole seasoning. Bring to a simmer and adjust with salt and pepper. Check the thickness at this point. The soup should be a mild corn chowder at this point. Not bad, but a little lacking.

If you are adding other meats, like salmon or such, this is when you would add them as small, diced hunks of fish. Let simmer until just cooked, about another 4 minutes.

Add the crab meat at the last moment before serving. This will make sure the crab flavor stays as fresh and bright as possible. Stir the crab meat in. Simmer for a minute and then serve.

For more wild game recipes, see chefrandyking.com. -DJ

We also offer specialty smoked products MADE IN HOUSE:

•Old Fashioned Jerky •Summer Sausage •Hunter Sausage •Pepperoni Sticks •Teriyaki Sticks

of nausea came. I bolted for the head, and out came my stomach contents.

Over the PA I heard the captain announce that whales only 100 yards off the starboard side of the boat were breaching. They looked like a National Geographic commercial: Giant bodies erupted from the water right in front of us. I was awestruck; this desert rat had never seen anything like this before.

But then I vomited again and firmly locked the memory of the only time I’d seen a whale breach with that of chocolate Pop Tart and coffee being returned to sender.

“Sorry, folks,” came the captain over the speakers. “We have to turn around. The whole tuna fleet is coming back in, it is just too rough, and by the look of you all, I don’t think we are in fishing shape anyway…”

I WASN’T UPSET by this news. But I knew we were close to the tuna grounds, so to suffer this indignity was heartbreaking. By the time we returned to port I had spent six hours on the water and not even wet a line.

With shaky legs, we all left the boat. All guests were told that an afternoon rockfish/crab combo was still an option if we wanted. Otherwise, refunds would be issued. We had about an hour to decide.

Back on dry land, I downed a bottle of water, took some Dramamine and slapped myself a few times, trying to “walk off” the seasickness. It worked! Soon I was right as rain, starving – and seeking revenge. The smell of lunchtime chowders and sourdough wafted from Newport’s bayfront restaurants. One – I can’t remember which – was selling “crab chowder” made with local Dungeness meat. I was in.

The chowder was New England-style in many ways. It had a thick, white and creamy base with bacon, onion, celery and carrots for vegetables. But this one boasted corn too, and I thought that was a good sweetness contrast. The crab was an “add on” to the chowder and came as a lump pile in the middle of a bread bowl full of chowder. It was perfect for the hangover feeling I was having. If I could not get tuna this day, it was going to have to be crabs … and rockfish.

I watched as the deckhand baited the crab pot with yesterday’s tuna and dreamed of reeling in an albacore. Instead, I caught a limit of crabs. Not bad, not bad. NS

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