Well gang, I did something I said I would never do....I moved out of Alaska. I can't believe it myself. With the chores of a new job, I haven't fished at all for the past 6 months. Now I am back again thanks to my buddy Ryo who visited from Japan to get me kicked started again.

I now live in Grays Harbor County in Western Washington State. The fishing opportunities are tremendous here. Almost as good as Alaska. You can still visit my website at www.Alaskafishinglogs.com but I am going to try this format for a while to see how it works.

My first fishing was actually several months ago when I took a charter out of Westport to try my hand at some bottom fishing. We hammered black rockfish and ling cod all day long. Unfortunately we were using halibut rods, mono, fishing 150 feet down catching mainly 2 pound rockfish. While the hits were fun, it was cranking up dead weight as far as the fishing part went.

Thanks to my buddy Ryo from Japan visiting for the past week, I managed to catch a variety of new species. This time of year is relatively dead for fishing. But we still manageed to try a few different things.

First we head out and try our luck at the Quinault River. Summer Steelhead and cutthroat were the targets. We only saw one steelhead that followed the lure but didn't strike. We did manage to catch several dozen cutthroat trout. While they weren't big at around 12 inches, after 30 years of fishing I was still able to catch a new species so it made my day.

Over the next week we hit several different locations. We fished Duck Lake out of a canoe on several days. The best we could manage was a pound and a half large mouth bass. We also caught crappies and perch. While nothing was huge, they were new species for me and Ryo so it was worth the trip. We caught them on assorted rapala, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and top water poppers.

The best fishing was at Roosevelt Beach for redtail surfperch. The first day out, we managed 20 surfperch with the biggest going 2 pounds. Another new species! We caught them surfcasting using clam necks for bait. We also caught a ton of undersized dungeness crabs. All of them on a single hook and clams for bait. Makes you wonder how many of them are out there when we catch more crabs than perch.

The final fishing trip was on the Westport Jetty where Ryo caught a 17 inch cabezon and I caught several small black rockfish and one small greenling. The most amazing sight were the massive schools of small baitfish (someone said anchovies) and the seal and porposes they attracted. The rockfish were caught on small single tail white plastic grubs and Ryo's cabezon came on a small lead jigging spoon. I may have to head back with a few sabiki rigs to see if I can't jig up a few of the anchovies if the schools are still there.

Well let's see if I can't do a bit more fishing now. The big fish don't start until late August but that's just around the corner. The fishing looks like it could be as every bit as good as Alaska. I'd say this area of the state is more rural than most of Alaska on the road system. I can't wait!!!!