Epic Slaughter on the High Seas

AngleThis · 08-20-2001, 08:14 AM

Girlfriend Nancy and I arrived at Warrington Sat afternoon, put out for a couple of hours, then went looking for a place to crash. Ended up sleeping in the truck under the bridge behind Tackle Time. Woke at 4, launched at 4:30, over the bar by first light, and before the -1.9 low tide. It was rough going out with 4-6 foot swells, but with small craft winds expect in the afternoon, knew we would need an early start.

We arrived at Bouy 1 about 40 minutes later, and started trolling. The swells made it difficult to keep the lines down. Two hours later we were biteless and I was about ready to call it a day. But with the low tide at that time, I was unwilling to risk a bar crossing, so we ran 10 miles north and kept fishing.

Then I realized...I forgot the traditional offering to the Fish Gods! So I broke off a small piece of the blessed smoked chinook from a month ago, and returned it to its native waters. Two minutes later, we got bit. Within an hour we had 4 fat coho in the boat, we were mighty far away from port and a hint of wind blew in, so we ran back to Bouy One.

As soon as we arrived, we got bit again, and again and again and again. The bite was so fierce, four times in a row I put line down 15 pulls, then stood up to take a leak, but got bit before I could get my fly down. I lost count of the take downs over the next couple of hours at 30, and boated fish at 15, including two Chinook, which of course went home with us (one was a tule-albino).

At one point, I put my line in the water and then realized my rod tip was wrapped, so pulled it up to unwrap the line. The herring was skimming the water right in front of me, and with diver in hand, a fish came up and nailed it three feet in front of my face! That tured out to be the big fish of the day at 34" and currently is residing in my fridge on brine.

We fished until about noon, and from 8:30 until then, it was one fish after another after another, after another. Of course, the biggest ones are now dead. We went through all the bait, the reserve bait, and then the old frozen and thawed three times mushy bait; so mushy I had to use elastic string to keep it on the hook..it didn't matter, they hammered everything!

During this time, the swell dropped from 4-6 to 2 feet, and the small craft winds predicted never transpired. The ocean just layed out like a sweet young lady on a king sized water bed. At noon, with aching arms, we ran out of trolling fuel, and headed for home, with the bow up at 28 kts (in my pewney 18 ft runabout, no less).

Bouy 10 was insane combat fishing with at least a thousand boat fleet. I saw there was a good bite there too, but most of the fish I saw netted were not nearly as large as the ones that were making my boat list. The water there was boiling from all the activity. I transmitted "ahoy Bouy 10 Fleet; you guys are blowing it!. Bouy one is flat and much calmer than here, and the bite is red hot". I then watched about 100 boats with larger gonad skippers finally head out.

What an awsome day!

[ 08-20-2001: Message edited by: ********* ]

Bait O' Eggs · 08-20-2001, 08:31 AM

Did you get any photos of these fish? or are they on the same roll of film as the 19 foot sturgeon photos? [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

08-20-2001, 08:38 AM

LOL Roy!!! You and I have the same type of sarcastic humor!
Stew

08-20-2001, 08:48 AM

BOTH of you beat me and took the words right out of my mouth! Numbers are climbing, water temp is down, rain is coming and the NETS are in! [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

08-20-2001, 09:01 AM

I sense an outraged Albino Rhino getting ready to charge!

[ 08-20-2001: Message edited by: BIGSTEW ]

AngleThis · 08-20-2001, 09:19 AM

Anyone who would like to see the photos of 8 fat fish slung across my boat, or the 19' sturgeon, bring on the email addresses!!

DC

Firedog · 08-20-2001, 10:23 AM

guess my question is, how many people in the boat. Sounded like only two from your post and you kept "4 fat silvers" and kept on fishing. [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] Just wondering? Sounds like great fishing otherwise.

[ 08-20-2001: Message edited by: firedog ]

08-20-2001, 07:00 PM

Do you cut into every fish that you put into your boat? How would you know if this fish was an albino tule unless you cut it. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

Good point about how many people were in the boat, firedog. 6 coho + 2 chinook = 8 fat fish. Divided by two people = 4 fish a person.

Krome Brite · 08-20-2001, 08:48 PM

Naw he took 4 fish for the two of them and 2 more each for his dog and cat at home. That's legal, isn't it? [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

Chris Nordling · 08-20-2001, 10:31 PM

What state allows an 8 fish limit for two people? If it were me, I might think twice about advertising the fact that i have evidence against myself committing game violations. Just a thought. Anyways it sounds like you had a great time, and released a FEW fish for others to catch

Chris [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

Next time carry the regs.By the way you're not allowed to combine limits for 2 states either.

DF · 08-20-2001, 10:57 PM

[img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Fish Hunter · 08-21-2001, 09:51 PM

Spent last Thurs. to Mon camping in Hammond and fishing my brains out. Different buddys showed up to fish with me for different days during this trip. The weather, ocean and bar conditions were excellent. The fishing was incredible, especially in the ocean. Our total keepers for the boat for five days was 37 keepers 3 of which were chinooks. We may have released more wild ones than we kept, we stopped counting. Stopped keeping any coho 5 lbs or less. Most coho kept were 7-9 lbs. Largest was probably 12 lbs. When the ocean was open we would troll SW from b-2, get two out there, then head for bouy ten to get the third. Yes B-10 was a zoo, the wake chop was the worst and some puker skippers think they own the river. We had some talented hands on board that kept it fun. Yesterday's (Mon) bite at the can really picked up. When we found some space further south from b-10 we would use 5 oz banana wgts instead of the diver and got some cohos near the surface, was much more fun to feed them line and hook them.

Out in the ocean we fished this rip out there and rarely spent more than 2 hours. Found many immature or jack chinook, had to drag up and move away from one location to get away from them.

Good to meet STZ-II at Hammond!

Now all I need is a 50 lb upriver bright and a branch bull during bow season to really make my year. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]