ILWACO — The reels are spooled and the crews are ready.

Over the past few months, fishing charters from Chinook to Westport have been busy preparing for the recreational season ahead, with many converging at the Ilwaco Boatyard for everything from annual maintenance to significant vessel overhauls and upgrades.

In just a few days, Washington fishing charters will officially commence on the 2025 ocean season, beginning with bottom fishing on March 8.

Ilwaco-based Pacific Salmon Charters, including the F/V Westward, F/V Katie Marie, F/V MARR-B III and F/V Westward, will be the earliest local fleet offering trips beginning March 8, followed by Sea Breeze Charters on April 12 and Coho Charters on May 1, starting with halibut.

Local charter offices have reported strong bookings leading into the season ahead, including Coho Charters owner Butch Smith, who reported a surge in reservations that eclipse last year at this point.

“It’s a good sign. It’s been better than last year,” said Smith, who operates a fourth-generation, family-owned charter business while serving on the Pacific Fishery Management Council as the Washington Charter representative since 2002. He also serves as a Port of Ilwaco Commissioner.

While the official ocean recreational salmon season quotas for Washington are still being determined and could be announced in the coming days, Smith is hopeful for a strong season based on the anticipated Chinook and coho returns.

“Looks like a fairly good chinook run, [while] coho is still up in the air. It should be a fair season, lots of Chinook and hopefully enough coho to go with them so we don’t close down early this year,” said Smith, noting that the charter added new side scanning sonar to help find the fish once the season starts.

“We’re looking forward to the season starting,” he said. “Come on down and go fishing out of Ilwaco.”

Halibut

The recreational halibut season won’t start until May 1, but there’s plenty of excitement about the season ahead, particularly regarding a change to the permitted fishing days.

“In the past we’ve been given three days per week to fish for halibut, and one of the days was a Tuesday. So we were going Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday for the past several years,” said Sea Breeze Charters owner Steve Sohlstrom.

“Well, Tuesday is not exactly the best day of the week to get working people to go fishing. So what they’ve given us this year is Thursday, Friday and Sunday. So they’ve taken away a Tuesday and given us a Friday, which is a much better day. A lot of people can take a Friday off, but a Tuesday is a tough day to get people in here. It’s a big win for all of us.”

“The season will run from May 1 through June 29, all the way through three days a week, so we have a very robust halibut season planned and we’re really excited about it.”

Going electric

The Sea Breeze charter fleet — including the F/V Sea Breeze, F/V Salty Dawg, F/V Legacy, F/V Dolphin, F/V Four Sea’Sons and the F/V Bluefin — invested roughly $40,000 combined in outfitting the entire fleet with new Diawa electric reels, aimed at improving the speed, comfort and success of halibut fishing.

“It’s an industry first,” Sohlstrom said describing the Daiwa Tanacom 750 Power Assist Reel, which features an LCD display and a 12-volt system capable of automatic stop and jigging features “to make power assist fishing easier than ever,” according to the company website.

“We’re the only charter office in the Port of Ilwaco — maybe Westport, too — that offers an all-electric halibut fleet,” Sohlstrom said.

“Our team of captains, owners and I have all gone out and purchased electric reels. Any guest that comes on one of our halibut boats will have a $1,000 rod and reel combo — a beautiful electric reel with a lithium battery and braided Dacron (fishing line). It will enhance their ability to fish for halibut quite significantly.”

Customers have been increasingly requesting electric reels for halibut fishing, which requires fishing in deep water with heavy weight.

“When we fish in deep water — and you’re just cranking up to check your bait or picking up to make a move to another drift— it just takes so much time to manually bring them all up, whereas now they can just hit the lever and everything comes up and we’re back moving again,” Sohlstrom said. “You can flip over to manual and reel in the fish if you would like as well.”

Ilwaco, Westport fleets finish final prep

On Wednesday, Feb. 26, F/V Fury owner and captain Mike Harris, of Westport, stood astern on his 1964 50-foot Drake Craft, the final day of a three-week transformation inside one of the covered buildings inside the Ilwaco Boatyard that included repainting the bottom of the boat while “redoing the woodwork,” including fixing and refinishing the bulwark, as well some as fiberglass repairs on top of the cabin.

“Basically a new roof, that kind of stuff,” said Harris, who also hand-sanded and refinished the ironbark railing.

“I’ve been running this boat since 1999, but I started [running boats] in 1985. I began as a deckhand in 1976,” explained Harris, who has “fished all over the ocean from the Aleutian Chain all the way to Panama,” including 13 winter seasons of commercial fishing in Alaska and more than 36 years sport fishing off the Washington coast.

Today, Harris is part of the Westport-based Mutineer Charters, which includes the F/V Fury, F/V Goldrush, F/V Reel Electric, F/V Hot Pursuit, F/V Stardust and F/V Slammer, offering fishing trips for salmon, halibut, tuna and bottom fishing.

The F/V Sea Breeze, F/V Salty Dawg, F/V Legacy, F/V Four Sea’Sons and the F/V Bluefin each went to the Ilwaco Boatyard for repairs and upgrades in preparation for the upcoming charter season as well.

“Each boat underwent significant upgrades in either equipment or restoration work, including the deck, hull and interior. With the F/V Four Sea’Sons, the entire cabin was completely stripped down and repainted with custom paint,” Sohlstrom said. “The F/V Salty Dawg had the entire forward deck redone as well as stern, with all new carpeting and pilot house seats. The F/V Sea Breeze had several improvements.

“The boats are better now than we’ve ever seen them.”