Charleston Hali Report

tailchaser · 05-11-2008, 05:19 PM

Looked at the forecast for saturday and put together a crew. Reports here were not good on thurs. or friday for weather conditions but figured we'd give it a go. At 4:30 am I checked the buoys, 3 knt wind from the SW and 2.3 swell at 11 seconds. Not too bad.....until 9:30 or so. We were 5 miles from the high spot when it really started to turn bad. We toughed it out, got our fish and got out of there, but it was not fun even going with the wind on the way home. I could see swell and wind waves going in totally different directions making the trough of a wave extremely dangerous. When I got home I checked other buoys and the Arago station for wind. None of them told simlar stories. At noon, the PO buoy was still showing a 2.4 at 11 seconds. It was more like 5-6 at 3 seconds. Wind at the buoy was 5 knots but the Arago showed 18-20 knts, which were more realistic. Interesting difference.

I did hear some reports from Windy Bay however. Friday had 2 fish for 40 boats, ouch......

tc

Waytogo · 05-11-2008, 05:50 PM

Hey T C , where do you go for Butts out of charleston, is it closer than the banks out of Windy?I know the guy that got one of the butts out of Windy. 2 on the boat 1 -20lb. butt & 50 gals petrol. I guese they had some sporty weather on the return trip.I will try for some myself when conditions dictate, as we finished our Butt filletts, from last yr, a couple weeks ago. thanks for the report,Way to go . --Mike --Waytogo--

Weather or Knot · 05-11-2008, 06:14 PM

Good job on the fish! I hear ya 'bout the bouy reports. I stopped on the way out just east of the pile out of Newport and listened to the stonewall bouy report and it said 3 @ 11. It always roughs up because of the shallow water at stonewall so we Kept heading out. 3 @ 11....YA RIGHT! Glad you made it back safe.

Brandon

Mrduckman · 05-11-2008, 06:50 PM

Jim, Was it as confused as the day I fished with you and NR1 out of charleston back in April? That was pretty confused. Nice job on the butts!

northriver1 · 05-11-2008, 08:08 PM

Good job Jim. We spent Friday and Saturday at Windy Bay. All I can say is it was slow, oh so very slow. Hardly a halibut caught for the few boats that fished. We did not boat a halibut in our party of two boats and 6 fisherman for those two days. The high man was one halibut lost at the boat. One thing that did surprise me was the lack of fishing presure. The boat parking lot was almost empty. Asphalt alley where we normally camp was empty, zero, nada, no one was there. Kind of spooky.

We will give PO a try next weekend if the ocean gods are kind. See you out on the water.

exgamey · 05-11-2008, 08:29 PM

We left Charleston at 5:30. Nice quiet morning with good buoy reports. Bar was in excellent shape. As we rounded Baltimore Rock buoy we noticed a little chop already from the south. By the time we were 15 miles out it was just plain miserable. At that point decided there would be better days and scrubbed the trip as did a couple of other boats near us.

tailchaser · 05-11-2008, 08:37 PM

WTG, the halibut spot isn't really a secret, there's a high spot 18 miles west of Cape Blanco. From Coos Bay it's 28 miles, Bandon 22, Port Orford 19 where you can start fishing and goes further from there. It's a dead SW trip, so when the north wind is blowing (usually) it's a nasty trip home.

Was it worse than when we were out there, YES!!!! Especially when we got into range of Simpson's reef. Add a third dimension of blowback waves to the already nasty confused ocean and it was just a treat. Thankfully though, baltimore reef all but sheltered the bar and was probably 2' at 15 seconds crossing the tips. Nice change from the previous hour and a half.

tc

SouthCoastStu · 05-11-2008, 08:55 PM

I made the trip out of Bandon with the Bro' and Cuz'. Ditto on the nasty conditions, wish I would have stayed in bed

Very challenging piloting coming back

Did get three chickens (32, 37, 38), it wasn't the kind of day a guy could be picky about the grade of fish

Weather or Knot · 05-12-2008, 06:19 AM

Good job on the fish Stu ! I dont know though, I see 4 chickens in the picture.

Brandon

Waytogo · 05-12-2008, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tailchaser

WTG, the halibut spot isn't really a secret, there's a high spot 18 miles west of Cape Blanco. From Coos Bay it's 28 miles, Bandon 22, Port Orford 19 where you can start fishing and goes further from there. It's a dead SW trip, so when the north wind is blowing (usually) it's a nasty trip home.

Was it worse than when we were out there, YES!!!! Especially when we got into range of Simpson's reef. Add a third dimension of blowback waves to the already nasty confused ocean and it was just a treat. Thankfully though, baltimore reef all but sheltered the bar and was probably 2' at 15 seconds crossing the tips. Nice change from the previous hour and a half.

tc

thanks TC about the same distance as the haceta banks are from windy bay. Hope Tuna water gets here soon. Mike

MikeN · 05-12-2008, 05:32 PM

Nice job Stu!!

Still game for a tuna trip??

northriver1 · 05-12-2008, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waytogo

thanks TC about the same distance as the haceta banks are from windy bay. Hope Tuna water gets here soon. Mike

Just made the run to Heceta Banks on Friday and my GPS says it is 40 miles from Winchester. Yes people do pull up short and fish the high spot but that is 30 mile from WBay.

Per Map Source from Port Orford to the south end of TC's high spot it is 22 miles as the crow flies.