Little boats near B10?

[Gus Orviston]

Okay, no I am not very interested in going to B10 but I do want to learn the best places to put in a boat to fish inside of B12-ish, safety tips for that area etc for a boat with a 8HP motor. Therefore put in and fish close to the put in....

I have seen David's comment about fishing Chinook to the Bridge and that seems fairly reasonalbe thing to do... ... ... of course my sample size is small.

I see drift boats throughout the columbia and to my surprise quite a ways out. Even more to my surprise 12 foot fishing boats with little free board. I have a low threshold for risk, and would like some of your thoughts/tips when/if I give it a go.

[Bait O' Eggs]

Gus, I know you got that new shiny boat from The Rouge. I feel kind of sorry for the boat being it is on death row now with a short time before it sees it final demise.

I would recommend you stay inside of Hammond in your driftboat as a driftboat wont get up on plane and run like a small open boat like a smoker craft with the low sides you see out there. The motor wont hold you against a strong outgoing tide. I would guess your max speed is around 8 to 10 MPH which dont cut it IMO at B10 or B12 or B14 or.....

Have you thought of a name for your new toy. I would recommend "The Ang" since it will be rolling down the bottom of a river soon. :wink: Maybe you ought to freshen up on your swimming skills your gonna need it. Not to stack the deck against you, but have you ever noticed your initials are the same as Angle This. :tongue:

[Flatfish]

Gus,
if you have a low threshold for anxiety,maybe a charter would be a better idea on the lower Columbia.There is no freshwater in Oregon that can get so big so fast as that area.A springer trip last year above the bridge, a friend almost sunk his 20' sled with high sides.He commercial fished the ocean for years.Probably the only thing that saved him.If you insist try in front of Hammond.Short run if something gets weird.Weird is not 5-6' chop on a 7 second split.That is normal
The guys in driftboats and smaller boats you see are statistics waiting for the right moment.Don't join their club.A charter is 70 bucks or so.
Good Luck.
Mark.

[Miss B Haven]

Oops- musta hit the button - see below

[ 08-13-2002, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: Miss B Haven ]

[bigshark]

Gus
I have fished B10 for quite a while and started out in a 15 ft wooden Bryant. It had a 35 HP Johnson for power. If you watch your days and use you head you can go in a small boat. That said I want to tell you I would not take any boat out there that does not have enough power to move me out of trouble quickly. 8 HP is not enough power. What is good water can change pretty quickly out there. A boat without
enough freeboard to be in chop is a ticket to the promised land. So is one without enough power for that swift and unpredictable water.
What others do is not good enough reason to take the same chance. It only takes one mistake to be fatal for you or someone in your boat. It is easy to start fishing in close, then move out just a little more, and then a little more and all of a sudden oops, how did the water change go fast, and your caught. You are smarter than that or you wouldn't have had the smarts to ask!

[SlabQuest]

On a typical August mid-afternoon, the wind picks up from the west. It is usually WAY easier to travel east (upstream) during the afternoon than beating into the west wind.....

[Phish_on]

How about right outside the Skipanon (Warrenton) - some big fish get caught there and the "sawdust pile."

Hammond can have a LOT of current going past the entrance, sometimes its nice to have a bit of power to sort of blast through that.

I dunno ... my 35hp Merc seems a little wimpy on occasion. graemlins/1zhelp.gif

[fishbait]

Gus,
IF you really need a fish or two that bad, PLEASE make sure that you will is updated adn make sure you life insurance is paid up. Wrong boat, wrong place.......... Try this... there are lots of IFisher that have the right boat, but no drift boat. Offer to trade trips with them.......... I know people do it and most survive, but it;s really just not worth the chance............

[Miss B Haven]

Gus - the Bouy 12-14 area as or more dangerous than 10. You've got the widest part of clatsop spit to worry about. The bridge can be one of the roughest wind chop area's on the river too. I've had spray clear up over my top coming through there at 5 knots (my top is 15' off the water. You don't say what yur boat is but an 8 horse may not even keep up with an outgoing strong ebb.
Bottom line is there is no "safe" place in that river if it's the wrong conditions. Watch the weather, the tides, the afternoon wind and stay on the same side of the channel as your port. Up current from launch point is always a plus.
Yes - there are lots of folks out there in small boats. I saw a 12-14 footer 3 miles south of the spark plug (CR Bouy) last time I was there. It was a nice day out there but there was no one out there but him and me. It had a single outboard and a foot of free board MAX. Two guys on board. I don't know if they had a radio/compass or anything. Sometimes they get lucky and sometimes they make the evening news.
I got caught in front of Ilwaco once in a 15 footer with an 85 on it. It had been dead calm the entire drive over and while we launched and ran down. A big (4 or so foot but fairly flat) swell coming up the river when we got there. No one around. We decided to head back to Hammond and await the incoming tide to see if the swell would flatten out. By the time we got the gear put away, the big motor fired and the boat turned around a 30 mile an hour wind was blowing from the South (across the river) and by the time I got back over to the red side there was about 2 foot of chop coming 90 deg to the swell. I could do nine MPH (water speed) without taking water in the boat so that was my speed. All of a sudden a red bouy goes swimming up the river beside us !! I had to kick it up to 12 mph to make headway. I was taking water/spray over the starboard bow, it was crashing down on us. I'll never forget it going down the neck of my raingear and running out the bottom of my pantlegs (good thing it was warm).
It took an hour and 1/2 to get back to hammond, the bilge pump running the whole time. We didn't dare stop and put the top up, woulda been like an umbrella in a hurricane. (Hay ya - lets put the sail up :hoboy: ).
By the time we got tied to the dock in Hammond the wind had to be gusting to 50. We had to walk leaned into it and croutching to get down the dock. Guess what, the US Flag was still flying (cracking actually), no Small craft flag (let alone gale warn), there's a cop standing in front of the office shooting the breeze and there's boats launching and heading out.
Two guys died out there that day after their big motor quit. The incoming pushed them up on the sands. THey were taking water in the boat, shot all there flares, didn't have a VHF and couldn't reach anyone on the CB. THey decided to leave the boat and swim towards Chinook in life Jackets. Two of them died on the way, the third had to let go of his buddies body (he had one of them) and made it.
Sorry, I would not be any where on the lower river (or most of the upper) in your boat.

[Tacklebuster]

Gus,
Fish a flood tide directly out from the skippanon river and hang the shoreline. That stretch between the mouth of the Skippanon and the sawdust always kicks out some fish. I caught some really nice silvers and a few nooks in that area last year. Fish early in the morning and be off the water before the NW winds start blowing. You still have to pick your days though.

[Killertraylor]

I'm not sure if Marty posts over here or only on the salty dog page, but he's got a good story about swamping his driftboat up by the bridge about 5 years ago. You'll notice that Marty now drives a 24' Seasport....nuff said.

[Gus Orviston]

Picking my days, hours definitely, probably will stay away from the bouys too. What I saw Sunday was that it was calm, but I assume that it does/will change in a blink so thanks for the confirmation. no matter what will alway work the tide to my favor. Needless to say my sphincter factor is too low for the bigger water I am sure of that.

What I was looking for were those opportunities like the near the sawdust pile. ??? need more research for that area.

[Hogmaster]

Hey Gus -

Another option for small boaters is to go into Fort Stevens State park and launch right off of Social Security beach down there. You need a 4X4, but if you have one you can easily launch there and troll around that area. The water is shallower and tends to be protected with much less current than the main river. The area is quite large and generally is about 20 -25 feet deep.

The good news is that it is good crabbing water too, so if you have traps you can make a multiple species jaunt out of your trip. The bad news is that there will be lots of traps and you have to watch where you are trolling.

I have known many people who have done this with 12' and 14' boats, as well as drift boats. We have just slammed the silvers over there, especially late in the year.

Happy fishing! :cheers:

[Pilar]

Here's another vote for the Oregon shore by the sawdust pile. Hey, Bill Monroe fishes there so it can't be all bad.

The big problem with the lower river is all the boat driving required to reach the primo spots. In a small boat you are very vulnerable to the rapid changes in the river this area is famous for. Long boat ride + small boat + sporty conditions = close encounter.

Fish the sawdust pile and it is a short boat ride no matter Hammond or Warrenton you launch.

Hogmaster, SS beach is way too close to the breakers at Clatsop spit for my taste. I guess you could just beach it if you had to but you only have to go a mile or so on the ebb and you are in the washing machine and then in the Oregonian.

[Hogmaster]

Pilar -

No argument about the sawdust pile, it is probably as good a spot as any. It is just I have seen loopy waves come up there, sometimes it seems the wakes of the larger boats coming in and out of the harbor creats a large amount of wave action.

But as far as SS Beach being (too) close I have never seen anyone over near there get sucked that direction. Certainly staying out of that area on a strong ebb is advisable, but the inlet basically functions as a huge eddy and does not take things to the spit. Instead, I have noticed debris gets sucked into the beach area itself.

And since big craft don't generally go over there and the eddy is protected, that is why lots of small boaters find it a good place to be...

[TundraIII]

Hey Gus, I have caught many fish around the mouth of the Skippanon and around the Sawdust Pile. I have also seen many small boats fishing this area. I see drifts boats in this area all the time. Never heard of a problem there.

[Miss B Haven]

Tundra and PhishOn - You must have the wrong spot. Trust me, I moor right there. There are no fish to be had in that area. Besides, that sawmill dumps all kinds of toxic waste into the water and the seafood processing plant up the waterway has competely contaminated the area for miles. I would not advise anyone to fish this area or keep anything they catch if they do. :grin:
It's almost as bad as fishing near that dangerous bridge up there. :rolleyes: