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Westport SALMON reflections 2025 - Where did the Chinook go?!?
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Jul 31, 2025
Last week, several folks were struggling with where to find the chinook. My last trip out there, we found some chinook, but not the bigger quality ones we were getting earlier. I talk through some of that while showing footage of an epic chinook double we got earlier in the month while trolling with the shotgun rod out that got tangled with our lines.
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0:06
Yep.
0:21
Yeah. Let's get that middle rod out.
0:23
Sometimes at Westport, the shnook bite
0:26
slows down and you're trying to troll
0:28
until you find that next pocket of
0:30
shinook, especially in the early season.
0:33
And this video here, we decided to put
0:35
our our shotgun rod out to try to pick
0:37
up and work on our hatchery coo limit.
0:40
And yeah, disaster basically ensued when
0:43
we found that next pocket of shnook and
0:45
we found ourselves in a shnook double.
0:49
That was that was pretty epic.
0:51
No, don't shake it. Guess
0:54
you have to
0:56
bring it in and clip the end of the
0:58
line. Oh, there we go.
1:07
Not
1:09
there. You go.
1:12
Cut the spoon too.
1:26
Westport has been interesting this year.
1:27
It's been really, really good. But
1:29
there's been times where a lot of folks
1:32
have reported trouble finding the
1:34
Chinook, and I'll include myself in
1:36
that, too. The last trip I did last week
1:39
out to Westport was certainly one of the
1:41
most challenging. We kept hooking sand
1:44
dabs, you know, on the 220, 240 foot
1:46
line down at Chinook depths. So, I'm not
1:48
even sure how long our gear was
1:50
presented to Shinook because we just
1:52
kept uh hooking into sand dabs.
1:57
One of the key issues though is is you
1:59
know people who go out there regularly
2:01
are pretty dialed in to to intel and and
2:04
you know they have their network and you
2:06
see where the the the trwlers are. You
2:09
see where the charters are a lot of
2:11
times and a lot of other boats. Get on
2:13
the radio channel 68 and listen for the
2:17
coordinates. Right. and and and you can
2:19
look and see what depth line they're
2:20
fishing. That usually where the fish are
2:22
at. Although it's not always completely
2:25
reliable as a way cuz sometimes everyone
2:27
else is struggling to find the shook as
2:29
well.
2:42
Hold on. Hold on. Let me get recover
2:44
some
2:47
like that.
2:48
Yeah, that's not a good
2:53
The last time I was out there was kind
2:55
of like that. And you know, there was an
2:57
early morning bite, but the bar
3:00
conditions and my boat, we didn't get
3:02
out there till more mid mid early
3:04
morning. And you know, my instincts that
3:08
I didn't follow up on, but I think would
3:10
have produced is just go just go deeper.
3:12
get off that 240 foot line, go to 300,
3:14
315, and go back. You know, again, on
3:17
the wire, we're fishing 100 to 150 most
3:21
of the time. I know they can be higher
3:22
in the water column, but what's been
3:24
most reliable for us is just down at
3:28
that depth, find, you know, on on uh on
3:31
a particular depth line and then troll
3:32
until you run into them.
3:42
That's a nice one.
3:43
Yep. And better fish that one.
3:45
Yeah. Again, I'm not complaining.
3:47
But also, when you're struggling to find
3:49
them, when you do finally find them, run
3:52
back up, right? Or turn around, troll
3:54
the other way. Like, you know, the uh if
3:57
they're if you're having a hard time
3:59
locating uh locating where the shinook
4:02
are, definitely turn around and go back
4:04
to where you last hooked up with with
4:06
Shinook.
4:09
It's chaos because of the middle
4:12
freaking
4:14
Thank you, Ash.
4:15
I'm gonna deal with you.
4:18
It doesn't look that much bigger than
4:19
the one you got there. You only
4:22
even in that last trip where we
4:23
struggled, we still hit a pocket of
4:25
shnook and caught several that we
4:28
released around, you know, 8 to 10 lbs.
4:31
Now, they weren't the ones we were there
4:33
for, so we just kept releasing them and
4:34
then eventually settled on some really
4:36
nice hatchery coho, but even a even a
4:40
tough day at Westport is still an
4:42
awesome day. Um, and if you decide you
4:45
can't you can't find the shnook and you
4:47
want to give up on them, just bring
4:49
everything up 35 to 75 ft and you'll
4:51
hook coo to your heart's content till
4:53
you find those hatchery co.
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