Westport Meat Trip

SteelHeadDave

SteelHeadDave

treasure hunter
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Two of my friends and I have a ling/rockfish meat fishing trip booked on Sunday out of Westport. This is something I’ve never done and I am not sure what to expect. Honestly gear fishing for rocks/lings with a guide doesn’t quite have me stoked. That being said I’m gonna bring a 6wt and 8wt with a floater and a fast sinker in hopes that the captain is cool with that. I’m mostly thinking of opportunities with black rockfish.

Any advice for someone in my position? What lines would you bring? Also I’m a total newb when it comes to ocean stuff in a boat. Never done it before. I’ve spent many hours hoping rocks on the jetty back in the day but it sounds like we will be going offshore to some degree. Any recommendations on anti sea sickness stuff? Can you mix Dramamine with beer?
 
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For rockfish I like an 8 wt with a line setup of an intermediate running line with 25-30' of T14 as a head. Any sort of fast sinking shooting head would be my choice. There is not a ton of shallow water spots out of Westport, but there are places to find rockfish in 20-60 FOW. The downside is most of those places require a fairly substantial run north, which may not be in the plans of the skipper considering how many spots are available much closer, but quite a bit deeper. I've never caught rockfish on top out of Westport, but I have encountered scenarios where it would be possible a few times.

As far as sea sickness goes, the only thing I truly believe in is the Scopalamine patch. Probably too late to pick that up since it has to be called in as a prescription from a doctor. Dramamine has a lot of placebo effect I believe, but personally I've never seen it really work well. At this point I'd recommend no drinking the night before, a good night's sleep, and a decent breakfast the morning of. Dramamine if you want, your call. Seasickness sucks ass, and the ocean is the worst place to discover whether or not you are susceptible.

Wear rain bibs/pants and boots, and don't be too disappointed if you find yourself fishing rockfish in 180 FOW or deeper. Unless it was previously discussed with the captain when booking, fishing the relatively few shallow water spots for rockfish may not be in the plans. Especially considering the afternoon south wind I'm seeing in the forecast. Running a long ways north knowing the wind will be out of the south the whole way home isn't super fun.

Good luck and have fun! Who ya going with?
 
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Gear fishing for bottomfish is one of my favorite things to do in my own boat. I tend to run lighter tackle than I see the charters use, but either way, they are VERY satisfying trips if you're open minded. For the type of water you're likely fishing, a fly rod wouldn't even cross my mind, personally.
 
Fuzzytugger said:
Honestly gear fishing for rocks/lings with a guide doesn’t quite have me stoked
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I would choose bottomfishing over watching a bobber or trolling a leech any day. I think you'll be surprised how fun it is, particularly if you can hit a spot with a mixed bag. If you take it seriously and try to get a feel for how your lure hangs or how far off of the bottom you are you'll be surprised how important it is, even at 180 feet. It's not luck that one or two people on the boat tend to catch most of the fish.

As for sea sickness be sure and get sleep. If you are able and fit enough standing when running rather than planting yourself in a seat in the cabin can help a little, besides that's when you see cool things.
 
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Evan B said:
Gear fishing for bottomfish is one of my favorite things to do in my own boat. I tend to run lighter tackle than I see the charters use, but either way, they are VERY satisfying trips if you're open minded. For the type of water you're likely fishing, a fly rod wouldn't even cross my mind, personally.
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What Evan said! Personally I’d leave the fly rods behind so as to encourage myself to fully embrace the type of fishing best suited to the task. Seems stressful to try and cast flies from the crowded deck of a rolling boat full of people fishing conventional gear at depth.

Better yet, tie up some flies and soak them on conventional gear for rockfish. That’s how Nick did it when we bottomfished out of his boat. Good times!
 
For me, Dramamine does stave off motion sickness, but it makes me so drowsy it is barely worth the trade-off. It’s not a fun drowsy, it’s like a weight dragging me down, and it makes it hard to fish and enjoy fishing. I got a virtual appt with my Doc’s PA and she wrote me a script for the scope patch, easy peasy. Came with 2 to a pack for $50 I think.
 
longputt said:
As for sea sickness be sure and get sleep. If you are able and fit enough standing when running rather than planting yourself in a seat in the cabin can help a little, besides that's when you see cool things.
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I agree with this and add to it: focus on the horizon rather than the guy across the table in the cabin. And if you do get the pukes, don't puke on your buddies' boots, do it over the railing. Good luck, hope you get some lings.
 
I write this every time there’s a thread that mentions scopolamine, but be wary of side effects. They can be truly nasty. I have seen it happen more than once. If you start to feel weird, get tunnel vision, turn into a completely paranoid lunatic - take the thing off!. I had to terminate a trip because of someone tripping on scopolamine, who would not remove the patch, despite an absolutely glassy ocean.

These side effects are listed on the package as
  • confusion, agitation, extreme fear, hallucinations, unusual thoughts or behavior;
even bad sea sickness is not that bad.

I don‘t think that trying something as powerful as scopolamine for the first time, the first time you get on a boat on the ocean is an altogether smart thing to do. If you can try it out on land and see how it affects you first, you might do it.
 
Chucker said:
I write this every time there’s a thread that mentions scopolamine, but be wary of side effects. They can be truly nasty. I have seen it happen more than once. If you start to feel weird, get tunnel vision, turn into a completely paranoid lunatic - take the thing off!. I had to terminate a trip because of someone tripping on scopolamine, who would not remove the patch, despite an absolutely glassy ocean.

These side effects are listed on the package as
  • confusion, agitation, extreme fear, hallucinations, unusual thoughts or behavior;
even bad sea sickness is not that bad.

I don‘t think that trying something as powerful as scopolamine for the first time, the first time you get on a boat on the ocean is an altogether smart thing to do. If you can try it out on land and see how it affects you first, you might do it.
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Best to stay on a strict regimen of psychedelics prior to patch administration in order to keep the mind limber.
 
Nick Clayton said:
Interesting. Never seen anyone have any real side effects from the patch.
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Same. I heard isolated cases of it on cruise ships back when the first version of it came out, which is why it's a prescription now. But as far as I know, it's been trouble-free since they made some changes.
 
Evan B said:
Same. I heard isolated cases of it on cruise ships back when the first version of it came out, which is why it's a prescription now. But as far as I know, it's been trouble-free since they made some changes.
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I have seen two bad cases, one of which was extreme. Both were with prescribed patches. That’s out of 30+ people who I worked with who used them. Not enough of a sample size to say anything other than that it can happen, and it really, really, sucks when it does!
 
I've spent a large majority of my life on the ocean and am extremely fortunate to have never been sea sick, so I can't speak to any remedies with personal experience.

That said, I've taken thousands of people out on the ocean and seen all manner of sea sickness. Ive seen people use every type of remedy out there, from magnetic bracelets, eating ginger, various over the counter pills, prescription pills, the patch and other stuff I'm not recalling.
The two reasons I am a patch believer are that I've taken out countless people who have tried everything short of the patch with zero success and have come out for their last ocean attempt with the patch on. Suddenly these people who have been sicker than hell every other time do just fine. I have also, on more than one occasion, seen the patch bring people back from the dead. People so sick they are curled up on the deck in the fetal position vomiting all over themselves...someone offers them a patch and within 20 minutes they are up and fishing doing fine. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes multiple times. Nothing else I've ever seen seems to have any effect once the sickness kicks in.

That said I believe for some poor folks there is nothing out there that will totally save them. Some people are just going to get sick no matter what. As much as I believe in the patch it definitely isn't one hundred percent. I've seen a lot of patches hanging over the side chumming. Looks miserable and I have a ton of sympathy for those people.

Funny enough, the sickest I've ever seen someone was a doctor. It was his bachelor party and he had several doctor friends with him. They showed up fairly hung over, and the bachelor immediately produced a large zip lock full of all sorts of pills. Shit I'd never heard of. He proceeded to pop various pills all day, while getting sicker and sicker. He would reel in a fish while puking, then basically be dead until the next hookup where he would hop up and reel in another fish, puking the whole time. By the end of the day he was puking blood, couldn't really stand up, and was as deathly looking as Id ever seen. Still he just kept popping various pills. Didn't seem like a smart thing for a doctor to be doing.

The ocean does mean things to people. It's one unfortunate side effect of some of the amazing fishing the ocean has to offer. Personally if I was going out on a charter where I am paying my hard earned money to have a good time, I wouldn't leave it to chance. I'd take the patch. I have no doubt there could be side effects, and in some cases they might be dangerous I dunno...but from my own personal experience I'd wager a bet that its statistically much more dangerous to drive a vehicle to Westport than it is to put the patch on. Just my opinion.
 
Nick Clayton said:
Interesting. Never seen anyone have any real side effects from the patch.
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That because I never made it to the boat because I lost two days because of the patch, even after taking off the patch I was still messed up the next day. You may not remember that but I’ll not soon forget that trip that I was on, as Steve “says it was me and Timothy Leary on a trip that day/night”
 
Nick Clayton said:
For rockfish I like an 8 wt with a line setup of an intermediate running line with 25-30' of T14 as a head. Any sort of fast sinking shooting head would be my choice. There is not a ton of shallow water spots out of Westport, but there are places to find rockfish in 20-60 FOW. The downside is most of those places require a fairly substantial run north, which may not be in the plans of the skipper considering how many spots are available much closer, but quite a bit deeper. I've never caught rockfish on top out of Westport, but I have encountered scenarios where it would be possible a few times.

As far as sea sickness goes, the only thing I truly believe in is the Scopalamine patch. Probably too late to pick that up since it has to be called in as a prescription from a doctor. Dramamine has a lot of placebo effect I believe, but personally I've never seen it really work well. At this point I'd recommend no drinking the night before, a good night's sleep, and a decent breakfast the morning of. Dramamine if you want, your call. Seasickness sucks ass, and the ocean is the worst place to discover whether or not you are susceptible.

Wear rain bibs/pants and boots, and don't be too disappointed if you find yourself fishing rockfish in 180 FOW or deeper. Unless it was previously discussed with the captain when booking, fishing the relatively few shallow water spots for rockfish may not be in the plans. Especially considering the afternoon south wind I'm seeing in the forecast. Running a long ways north knowing the wind will be out of the south the whole way home isn't super fun.

Good luck and have fun! Who ya going with?
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Looks like it’s High Life with captain Nick Scafturon. Thanks for the input! I think I might just leave the fly gear at home for my first outing based on some of the other comments. It’s too late for a patch so hopefully I’m not one of those victims you’ve seen on your boats. Guess we will see 😬
 
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