Westport Halibut ‘Not Shy To Bite’ Over Opener; Round 2 Coming Up

Editor’s note: The following blog was written and submitted by Northwest Sportsman reader and skipper Dave Anderson.

by Capt. Dave Anderson

Last Friday afternoon Capt. Brian Bare and myself made our way south to get ready for the Westport halibut opener for Offshore Northwest. Sunday morning we headed out to the halibut grounds where we found halibut that were definitely not shy to bite!

Best setup I found was a Berkley Power Grub slid over a Gamakatsu 10/0 big river hook with a piece of tuna belly tied above it.

The next day I ran out with Capt. Patrick Walker of Tailwalker Charters to do a little recon mission for black bass. With our Raymarine electronics it wasn’t hard to find school of eager black bass to eat our shrimp flies. We grabbed 30 sea bass for Capt. Patrick, his deckhand Daniel and myself.

Tuesday morning Capt. Brian and myself were greeted by an absolutely beautiful sunrise on our way out to the halibut grounds where we had fished two days prior.

We found the halibut using the same exact set-up as Sunday and filled up in about an hour, marking everyone’s punch card. We made a run and picked up all of our lingcod not far from our halibut spot.

All in all a awesome weekend for all of charters down in Westport! It’s always great getting back together and having a great time fishing.

The west coast of Washington definitely doesn’t disappoint! I for one can not wait to get back on the grounds!

Editor’s note: Westport and Marine Area 2 reopens for halibut Sunday, May 8, and Tuesday, May 10. Ilwaco, Marine Area 1, reopened yesterday for four days through this Sunday. La Push and Neah Bay, Marine Areas 3 and 4, open for the first time this season tomorrow, Saturday, May 7, which is also the first day that Marine Areas 5–10 are open. For more, see WDFW’s halibut page.