WESTPORT -- Once this town billed itself as "the salmon capital of the world" and every summer morning by 5 the docks were buzzing with eager anglers carrying rods, reels, rain gear, sack lunches and cameras.
On the sterns of the charter boats that jammed the Westport Marina -- 250 at the peak in 1979 -- groups of anglers drank coffee, smoked cigarettes, joked and set wagers on the first, the biggest and the most salmon.
In the pre-dawn darkness, as skippers warmed up engines and deckhands rigged rods and cut bait, the air was filled with diesel fumes, the smell of herring and fishing talk
By Greg Johnston | August 26, 1999
