World’s Salmon Capital Singing A Different Tuna

This used to be “The Salmon Capital of the World.” But charter boats will soon head out for another heavily promoted season of albacore tuna fishing, and they expect to do booming business.

The tuna season runs from midJuly through October.

Albacore gained popularity as a sport fish among the town’s charter fleet last year, when government officials decided not to open the salmon season in order to conserve dwindling stocks.

There will be a salmon season this year. Westport recreational fishermen will be allowed to take 20,800 silver salmon and the charter fleet is glad for the business. But tuna fishery promoters don’t want to lose the momentum they gained during the salmon closure.

It wasn’t long ago that virtually no one bothered to fish for albacore, says Ben “Doc” Uhlig, president of the Westport Tuna Association that he helped form last year

“No one knew about the tuna,” he said, at least not as a serious sport fish.

“Albacore have always been there; you go out another 50 miles (beyond the salmon runs) and there’s tuna,” he said.

He described huge flocks of birds traveling with the fishermen, feeding on the schools of small fish attracted to the boat, along with a menagerie of whales, dolphins, sea turtles and sharks.Albacore has been called the “Ca dillac” of tuna, Uhlig said. That’s because it is considered the besttasting tuna, and can be cooked just about any way.

Yet, with the preference of salmon among Washington’s recreational fisherman, no one paid much attention to albacore. It took the lack of salmon fishing last year for people to notice, he said.

In years past, as salmon quotas were reached, the occasional Westport charter boat would take folks out for tuna, but they fished for them like commercial fishermen would, using frozen bait and jigs, Uhlig said.

Jigs are large, multi-hooked metal lures used in conjunction with thick, club-like poles.

Uhlig says the way to fish for tuna - if you’re looking for excitement - is with live bait and single hooks.

Live bait made Westport’s tuna season a big draw last year. Grays Harbor has a natural supply of anchovies, which Doug Cornman, owner of the Westport Seafood Exchange, collects and sells to the charter boats. That makes Westport the only charter location on Washington’s coast with live bait.

Uhlig’s optimism for this tuna season springs from a $25,500 marketing campaign launched last year by the tuna association.

The city of Westport, which stands to gain significantly if tuna fishing catches on, provided $10,000 of those funds.

“If we did our full potential, it would be a $3.5 million business,” Uhlig said.

Uhlig expects the season to be

better for several reasons, including a warmer-than-usual spring and the continued ban on drift nets in the Pacific. Last year, working for Coho Charters, he took out 350 sports fishermen.

“That was the only thing that saved me in a year when there wasn’t any salmon fishing,” he said.

This season he has scheduled at least 35 two-day excursions to catch the fast, harp-finned fish in his 65-foot boat “Outer Limits.” The first trip is scheduled for July 14.

The boat holds 22 fishermen, and with Westport charters charging between $300 and $390 for the two-day trip, Uhlig and his peers expect to bring a lot of money to Westport.