By Wayne Kruse
For The Herald
After a slow start to the season, boats out of Westport are now enjoying great weather and good fishing for both chinook and coho. Wendy Beeghley, coastal salmon manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said chinook numbers are holding up and coho are increasing. Chinook are being caught in a wide range of sizes now, Beeghley said, from 8 pounds up to a few in the high 20s, while coho are averaging around 5 pounds.
“And even better,” she said, “is that many of the chinook are being taken right on the beach. That means a short run for the charters, something we haven’t seen for a while.”
Most of the kings are probably fall chinook now, Beeghley said, from a so-so run headed for the Columbia.
Rules have changed out of Westport, allowing up to two chinook, hatchery or wild, instead of the previous limit of two salmon but only one chinook.
Ilwaco is coho city this time of year and will only get better, Beeghley said, while Neah Bay can boast about the 46-pound king taken there recently.
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