B-10 Boat

[cureless]

I have never fished the B-10 combat zone. what's the opionion of this BB on the minimum size of boat and motor needed to fish this area safely?

[Pilar]

Hi cureless. Thats a lot like asking how to pick your lifelong companion. All I know is that it took a lot of trips to the saltchuck for me to figure out what I like. The sad thing is that since no one makes what I like, I had to build/refit it myself. Two motors is good. So is high gunwales and transom. Open bow is bad (my opinion, sorry) for obvious reasons. Yet all that aside I see every kind of boat there is at B-10. Anything from a aluminum car topper to a 60 footer with everything on it. Go fish with a buddy and check out what he has. If you fish with enough buddies you might get a complete list. You can never have enough room for gear or people. The boat should be reliable and comfortable. And it should be lucky. Now go to your boat dealer with this description, it will drive him nuts! Good luck.
P.S. Some of us are still searching for the lifelong companion......

I love this guy's posts! Keep it up Pilar.

[Hook'd]

I am sharing this only for information and in no way would encourage you to try it. In the late 1980's when I was much younger and a lot more invincible I used to launch my boat off the sands near buoy #22. Armed with 17' feet of drift boat, 10 hp motor, a pair of oars, and 2 or3 other people we would head to buoy #14. If the visibility was good, the weather fair, and the flood tide had taken over we would head for #12 and onto #10. We floated like a cork and caught lots of fish. The worst part was the boat wakes that were kicked up when the larger boats headed back up to the buoy line. As this shows you can fish at buoy #10 with just about anything... just depends on how small a margin of error you are comfortable with.

Oh, did I forget to mention, we wore lifejackets all the time. O^O

Welcome Hook'd. I see you are from my neck of the woods, near Cedar Mill. I'll keep an eye out for a 17' driftboat on a sandy trailer. The most foolish boat I've ever run to 10, back around 1980 when I had that same 'tude you mentioned, was a small 15' sled with lower sides than a driftboat. We'd cram right into the action and have to bail the water out that the big wakes splashed in. One of the times we were one fish short of our limit and stayed over into the start of the runoff. Bad idea! We had a hard time plowing & tossing our way over the bar. And not too far off Clatsop Spit! By the time we finally reached 22, with a sigh of relief, we discovered that we had virtually no gas left, maybe a few teaspoons. Yikes! I headed over closer to shore on the Hammond side and eased our way up, planning to paddle with the oars, or even swim with lifejackets, to the bank if we ran dry. Didn't want the tide sucking us out into the Spit, or to Japan either. The motor sputtered dead about a hundred feet from the Hammond entrance and we were able to row in. Now that was a true close call! And stupid. - Steve

[Steve]

I have fished B-10 from a 60' Charter down to my current 20'Alumaweld Semi-Vee, In combat fishing bigger is better, Boats like the Santa Claus and CoHo have a problem with vision and have nearly swamped me on several occasion over the years. I liked fishing out of my 24' Dorsett tall sides and highly visible...bottom line watch out for tides and water conditions, other bigger boats...when in doubt move up river out of the madhouse. I seriously doubt that you will catch less fish also remember the fish come in with the tide and the tide moves up river..ie. fine to start at B-10 but the fish are going past that point and up river where there are less boats and less ocean influence. Tight Lines

[Pilar]

Hey, how can you tell if your boat is too small when you are on the Ocean? When you spend most of your time looking for a smaller boat instead of fishing!! Just kidding dudes. The bend is your friend!

[Scaup]

I've never had any problems. Here's a picture of what I like to fish out of at B10.
http://www.ussmissouri.com/vets/photograph_frameset.htm