LaPush Butts – New Management same Great Fishing

May 16, 2011 | Author Capt. Kerry W Allen

LaPush Saturday was a great experience. We were unable to get moorage because one of the local forums descended on the place like locust and gobbled up all the spaces before April. This was actually worked out well for me. You see, this way I got to experience first hand the launching ramp process. If you’ve never experienced a launching ramp on a one day opener or a derby it can be quite a cluster and historically LaPush is no exception.

Enter Billy, the new harbormaster at LaPush Marina. He had the whole thing running like a Swiss watch. When we pulled into town we were met by a guy that directed us to the line and told us it would be about 15 minutes (we were about 12 in line and I was sure it would be longer). Things got moving well, there was plenty of help on the ramp. Another guy took our fee when we were about third and we launched in about 20 minutes. That was great.

We made good time on the run out. We arrived at the Southwest Corner of the C in about two hours. I think my friend Brent could have handled about another ten minutes but not much more. We immediately started catching lings. We let two small ones go and kept two. My friend Kevin got tired of letting lings go so he handed me the rod and I immediately hooked up about a 40 pound Halibut. Then things sort of shut off for us. The current picked up a bit and we snagged bottom a couple times. we did a couple drifts in the next 3 hours and caught nothing. Listening to the radio I was able to interpret some cryptic info and we moved to a spot about a half mile from where we were and Wham!! we caught three halibut and let one go in about the next twenty minutes. We started in and stopped at the rock pile for another ling, and to give away a little more gear, and then we headed home.

When we arrived back at LaPush Billy had a system set up for temporary parking while we cleaned fish and got the truck. The retrieve at the ramp was another very smooth experience and we were on the road in no time at all. Funny story I was in line behind a blue Dodge pickup with a freezer strapped in the back. Yesterday I saw that same truck towing a trophy 2002 and crossing the narrows bridge. If I’d a known you were a local I would have said hi.

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