About Moon Island

Moon Island is an outer-exposed rocky drop-off off Westport, Washington, where the bottom falls from roughly 330 feet into depths near 1,300 feet. Chinook and Coho Salmon move through in the warmer months, both peaking from June through September, while Pacific Halibut hold over the deeper structure with a spring-to-summer peak from March through July. Lingcod concentrate on the rock earlier in the year, peaking February through April alongside resident Black Rockfish, Blue Rockfish, Pacific Cod, and Kelp Greenling. Salmon anglers work the water with trolling using whole herring, anchovies, spoons, and hoochies, then switch to mooching cut-plug herring or jigging metal jigs when fish sit deeper along the break. For halibut, drift fishing with herring, squid, salmon bellies, or octopus covers the deep flats near the drop, while jigging leadheads and swimbaits and drift fishing swimbaits or cut bait work the rock for lingcod.