Lingcod Opener

Anybody fishing the Westport area this upcoming weekend for bottom fish? I'm looking to try the jetty if weather works out. Let me know.

weather's going to have to drastically change for the better for it to be fishable

weather's going to have to drastically change for the better for it to be fishable

No kidding.  Swell forecast starts at 10ft and goes up from there.  That is well into my no-go zone, even without a surf launch to worry about.

ETA: Just looked at the winds.  10-30mph is also a no-go situation for me.  I've battled steady 15-20mph headwinds.  It's doable but it ain't any fun.  And forget fishing in that kind of wind.  That's just a steady grind to get back off the water in those winds.

That's a good point about the weather. It got me thinking about what are suitable water conditions for floating near the jetty. I've trolled for salmon inside the harbor and south of Westport along the beach and I've fished the jetty on foot, but I've never actually fished the jetty from my kayak.

In your experience, What is ideal water for you guys? When does it become unfishable (jigging)?
Thanks.

Steady winds over 10mph, gusts over 15mph is my limit for the kayak.  More than that and you are spending more time fighting wind than fishing. 

For swells it's a combination of height and period.  The bigger the swell the longer the required period.  General rule of thumb is you want the period in seconds to be twice the height in feet.  So for a 4ft swell you'd want the period 8 seconds or longer; 6ft swell you want the period 12sec of longer.  When the swells get much over 6ft it gets hard to jig.  I've done it in 7'+ swells, but the fun factor goes down exponentially as the swells get bigger than that.

Ok thanks...that's the same rule of thumb I use for trolling and mooching.

Another big concern fishing the Westport Jetty are the tides. The ebb tide (going out) is definitely to be avoided, the combination of the outflow from the Chehalis River (and the other rivers emptying into Grays Harbor) plus the tidal flow being shoved through the channel can make for some extremely strong current.

http://www.deepzoom.com/ is a good link to get an estimate of how strong the tidal flow will be.

Good luck!