Weather honesty
If the bar forecast is ugly, we call you the night before and reschedule or refund. No pressure to "give it a look." A miserable trip is worse than no trip.
About
Three generations on Grays Harbor
The Hovlands have fished out of Westport since 1954. Curt is the one who finally let other people come along.
The skipper
Curt Hovland
Curt's grandfather Arne came down from Ballard in 1954 and put his first Dungeness pots off Damon Point that winter. Curt's father ran the same grounds through the 70s and 80s, and Curt grew up baiting jars on the back deck before school. He ran his own commercial crab boat, the Vesla, for 14 winters, until a January bar crossing in 2009 convinced him there were better ways to make a living on the same water.
He bought the Marta Jean in 2010, spent a year refitting her for passengers, and ran his first paid charter in May 2011. He still fishes the same tide book his father kept, a habit he will happily show you in the cabin, coffee in hand, while the pots soak.
Ask him about the 2013 season, when a broken hydraulic line meant he pulled 40 pots by hand for a week. His forearms have never forgiven him.
Everyone works the gear
You pull pots, band crab, and net fish if you want to. Guests who just want to watch are welcome too, but nobody pays charter money to be a spectator by default.
The tide sets the schedule
Departures move with the slack. It might mean a 5:15am dock call one week and 7:40am the next. It also means full pots, which is the point.
Kids are crew
On bay trips, kids get a pot of their own to pull. Arne put Curt to work at seven years old, and the tradition stands. Life jackets in kid sizes live aboard year round.
Clean fish, sealed cold
Crab is cooked at the dock. Fish are bled the moment they land, iced, and filleted while you watch. What goes in your cooler is dinner, not a chore.
Straight prices
The rate on the website is the rate at the dock. Fuel surcharges and surprise fees are how you lose a customer who would have come back for ten years.
Where we fish
Westport, and the water around it
The Marta Jean ties up at Float 8 in the Westport marina, 2371 Westhaven Drive, in the shadow of the tallest charter fleet on the Washington coast. Bay trips work the flats between Damon Point and the Johns River. Ocean trips run the nearshore reefs off Grayland and, in salmon season, the blue water west of the bar.
Guests come from Aberdeen and Hoquiam twenty minutes up Highway 105, from Ocean Shores across the harbor, and from Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle, and Portland for weekend trips. If you are staying in Grayland, Tokeland, or anywhere on the South Beach, you are ten minutes from the dock.
Directions & parking info- USCG-inspected vessel
- Licensed WA charter operator
- CPR & first aid certified crew
- Fully insured to 6 passengers
- WDFW licensed guide
Come meet the boat. She photographs better in person.
Check the calendar, pick a tide, and bring a cooler. We will handle the rest.