The smell of the saltwater and all of its inhabitants is always a smell I look forward to. It brings me back to that feeling of being a young child and exploring the tide pools for signs of life. Being on the coast just feels right.

Recently my good friend, Josh McDonald, and I made the six-an-a-half-hour drive from eastern Washington to the Washington coast to test our luck at catching land-based lingcod and black bass. We pulled into Westport Washington around 10:30PM and quickly ate some leftover pizza, drank a tall boy, grabbed the camera, and headed towards the water’s edge. After a quick nighttime photo session, we headed back to the rig to bunk up for the night. Two six-foot tall dudes sleeping in the back of a SUV isn’t exactly comfortable, but who cares … we were here to fish.

The next morning we woke up with anticipation of experiencing the bite and fight of mean ocean fish. Boots were laced up and the rugged walk down the jetty began.

Josh and I began by throwing the Rodge Garage Baits ‘Skinny 4’ swimbait on a 2 oz. Warbaits swimbait head. This is a bait that had previously produced legal lings off of the jetty for me, and I was confident it would work again. A short while later, I heard Josh say “I’m bit!”, and as I looked over he was fully bent. I saw Josh stop reeling for a split second and so I shouted “keep winding!” … he did. Eventually Josh got the fish close enough to shore and bounced it onto the rocks. It was so rad to witness Josh hook, fight, and land his first land-based ling!

The first fish was out of the way and our spirits were raised knowing that fish were willing to maul the swimbait. We continued to fish our way farther along the jetty, fan-casting looking for agro fish, but the fish were fickle and several missed opportunities picked away at our spirits.

We made a move and I started slingin’ the new Warbaits 1 oz. spinnerbait. Fishing the bait low and slow, it didn’t take long and I felt a sharp thunk. I set the hook, and reeled in the first black bass of the trip.

The remainder of the day was spent throwing the spinnerbait, swimbait, and Square-Butt. Nothing connected, so after the sunset, we called it a day and made our way to a hotel for a better sleeping experience.

The next day I was on a war path to get a fish to eat the Square-Butt. After an hour or so I got bit and punched the hook into an unknown creature’s mouth with a determined aggression. After battling with the fish for about 20 yards, I saw the fish flash and immediately I knew it was a ling. I was stoked! I bounced the fish and said “Thank you Lord!”. I had wanted to catch a lingcod on a Square-Butt ever since I created it; I knew they would eat it, I just needed to place the bait in front of those gnarly teeth. I remember looking this fish in the eye and thinking “wow, your eyes are gorgeous, how dare anyone call you ugly”, but then again I’m a total fish geek.

Josh and I continued throwing Square-Butts and swimbaits for the rest of the day, but it just wasn’t biting for whatever reason.

With less than an hour remaining before we wanted to hit the road, I concentrated on making casts inline with as many rocks as possible for the swimbait to hit and drag over on the retrieve. Finally, I felt life on the end of my line so I reeled through the bite and set the hook. I bounced the fish onto the barnacle suffocated rocks, took a few photos, and tossed the pissed-off lingcod back into its native waters to live another day.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the massive amount of life that the ocean supports. From the barnacle and shellfish infested rocks, to the thousands, if not millions, of starfish and other alien-like creatures. The ocean is an absolutely stunning environment that absolutely deserves our utmost respect.

In the end, the fishing was less than desired, but the adventure was rich, and that is the memory we will take away from this excursion. The Washington coast is like many locations around the world where catch and release is NOT a well accepted notion. Many people will give you a strange look of confusion when you say that you let all your fish go rather than frying them up. Questions like “You drove how far to catch fish that you aren’t even going to eat?”, and “What’s the point of letting them go?” are common and frustrating questions for a passionate catch-and-release angler such as myself. I tell people to eat chickens because they grow much faster than most fish species and are insanely abundant, and probably taste better anyways. Sustainability is key here; if everyone kills what they catch we are bound to eventually catch nothing.

This is Jeff Rodgers encouraging you to consider catch and release fishing, if you aren’t already, and get out and explore new water and species!

OVER & OUT