Salmon Heyday's.....The Way It Was

[AL WORRELLS KID]

Remember when the Fleet numbered in the Hundreds and the town of Westport, WA never slept, with the Bars closing at 2 AM and the Restaurants open for Breakfast by 3:30 AM.
Salmon Charters Big Yellow Boats were then a colorful presence at Dockside.
My first Skipper, Del Fender on "Drifter Too" (Charter Boat fishing back in the 1960's), went on to take charge of Salmon Charters and his Son, Harold "Bud" Fender took over for Dad, after he retired.
 
What good times were had by all, thanks to these hard working Folks.
We traded a lot of Fresh caught Salmon for "Smoked", back in the day.
Doug

[Camo]

Definitely the good old days.
Very cool, thanks for sharing.

[Bullkllr]

  Lot's of great memories from Westport. Still creating some as well.
The Sugarfoot; now there's an old one.
My brother ran a boat for 10 years or so. We spread his ashes down there.
I think the Comanche's still around. Phil Anderson's still, last I heard. I think he ran a few trips after retiring again.

[Sr15]

Wow talk about memories.  I was on the Top Hat a few times. The skipper, Bob Vaughn was friends with my dad and would come pheasant hunting on our farm in the basin every fall and we salmon fished with him. Sadly he passed away from a heart attack on our farm on one of those hunting trips he so dearly loved.

[206]

Woke up this morning with the VH song, "Where have all the good times gone"  don-don-dont   don-don-dont. Still can't get it outta head.  Thanks 2many. grrrrrrr

[AL WORRELLS KID]

Great Job for a 9 Year Old Kid during the Summer, working as a Deckhand on the Charter Boats (if you didn't mind getting up and being on the Dock before 5 AM. Of course $5.00 for washing down the Boat afterward was a lot of money back then. (Oh, but you would get .25 taken off for every Fish Scale you missed on Deck!)   
 Sometimes after limiting out on Salmon we would head over and clean up on Sea Bass (if there were not too many Customers still Seasick) and if you were good at Filleting, for .25 each you could make a little more on the way back in.
Doug

[2MANY]

Being a past deckhand I will offer the following...........................

Bottom fishing trips sucked!!!!
Standing in the back of the boat filleting pokey fish the whole run back in was the worst.

The only good part was taking a couple of fillets to the burger joint where they would whip you up a killer batch of fish and chips. Then headed back to the rental dive duplex and partying the night away.

Where have all the good times gone?

[AL WORRELLS KID]

2MANY,
I hear ya, on those Marathon Filleting Sessions at the back of the boat. Always well attended by Flocks of Seagulls and the Onlookers just waiting for your knife to slip. 
The first year I had so many cuts on my hands and they got infected with the "Creeping Fish Crud". Pretty scary when it started to spread up my arm. 
The Skipper told me to show the Pharmacist in town and he will give you some kind of "Horse Lineament" that will burn like crazy but will kill the stuff right off the bat. (As usual the Skipper knew what he was talking about.)
I learned a lot back then and grew up fast, thanks to him. 
Doug

[Alchase]

Cool picks!
We use to sit at the Olsen dock fish cleaning station in Sekiu, and wait for boats to come in. We would make $2 a fish to clean and filet. On a good day, I could pocket $100 easy. Not bad for a 12 year old kid!

[AL WORRELLS KID]

I think the Comanche's still around. Phil Anderson's still, last I heard. I think he ran a few trips after retiring again.

Last I heard "The Comanche's" running out of Ilwaco.
Doug

[Skillet]

Great video of a Westport in the above video.  Can anybody make out the name of the troller coming in over the bar? 

Also, the Sea Spree, shown at about 0:25-ish, is currently up in Ketchikan serving as a transport boat for a kayak guide company.  One of my fishing partners up here used to run it for them before he bought a troller. Pretty cool to see it in the video.

[2MANY]

Is a good video.

Man it was soooooo good for soooooo long out there.

Cue the tears.

[Katmai Guy]

Doug, 2many, yes, it was a wonderful time and place for kids to learn to work, grow up and fall in love with fishing, boats and the elements.  Deckhanded for my Grampa on the original Lucky Lid (40' wood hulled boat) and on his second boat of the same name (62' Blanchard design glass hull) in the early 70's. Loved it, saw lots of fish and lots of big fish come in..we will never see the daily derby regularly won by 50lb kings or the season long derby won by a 70-80lb fish ever again.  Dumped my gpas ashes crossing the bar years ago and I still have to go fish with him each season.

[Backstrap]

Wow talk about memories.  I was on the Top Hat a few times. The skipper, Bob Vaughn was friends with my dad and would come pheasant hunting on our farm in the basin every fall and we salmon fished with him. Sadly he passed away from a heart attack on our farm on one of those hunting trips he so dearly loved.

With all due respect, sign me up for that program....

[AL WORRELLS KID]

Great video of a Westport in the above video.  Can anybody make out the name of the troller coming in over the bar? 

Skillet, Looks to me like we might be watching the Troller "DEVOTION" crossing the bar. 
Doug