Fish-a-thon 2002

Pilar · 05-19-2002, 10:46 PM

Hi!

Back from some of the hardest, most awesome boat driving and fishing in recent memory. Sooooooo .. tired, off to bed.

400 miles, 120 gallons of gas, bucket of fresh herring, boat repair list, 4 days, 9 fish (flat), Bottle of Tequila, big smiles :grin: and good friends.

I'll tell the story tomorrow.

Sweet dreams

BUGLEMAN · 05-20-2002, 10:29 AM

I did get a piece of that. No fat flatties though. I took the 23' Searay for a short trip out of Garibaldi on Sun. Winds were calm, the swell was 4' and low tide was at 1:00 pm. (That is a rough bar at low slack and somewhat unpredictable.) S0, I made weigh for three Arches. I bagged 1 Cabizon 20", 1 Ling 28" after bait fishing for 1 hour, then to switched over to flies. 5 Sea bass is enough for me to eat fresh and so I called it a day at that. Out at 1:00 and back at 5:00 with dinner. :smile:

Pilar · 05-20-2002, 01:13 PM

How much gas did you burn Bugleman?

Hey Jen, I really hate the way this post editor erases all your typed words when you accidently hit the esc key. Can you fix that?

I'm going to type this in notepad and then post it. It really ****** me off when I spend 20 minutes typing something and then it dissapears!!!

We had an awesome weekend of fishing at Newport. I went down on Thursday night with my crew, Mr. Fisherman and Baitboy. The idea was to get the boat into Moorage (thanks Mike) and be ready to roll in the morning. The forecast was discouraging but we decided to see it for ourselves.

We got there too late to get any bait. The ocean looked ok and the wind was minimal. We were thinking about the calm before the storm.

On Friday morning we looked again and saw a swell with no wind and hardly any chop. The decision was made to go out and look at it. Cap't Dan gave us some fresh bait at the dock, thanks Dan. 'Puffin' beat us to the bar and reported, 'Nice ocean, no worries'. His idea of 'nice ocean' and mine are somewhat different. We ran the bar and found it to be pretty nasty at full ebb. Any conditions like that at Garibaldi would have corked the bar for sure. Since we left crab gear on the beach we rolled on out. About a mile out and all that was left was big swells about 11 seconds apart. The weather radio reported Nw 10kt wind at the Rockpile and a 9 ft swell. Driving on a big slow swell is interesting to say the least.

Still skeptical, I set a course for the Chicken ranch at 240 degrees and began to speed up. We got up on step at about 17mph and held that for a while. About 2 miles out we decided to run for the hole and I called home to let my mate know we were Halibut fisherman not Herring jiggers.

What a nice ride out to the hole. The further we went the smoother it got.

We fished hard all day. Baitboy jettisoned the polecat with a fat 40" fish. I followed a while later with it's twin. 'Puffin' bagged a limit by noon and went in to the pile for a shot at some kings. He gave us some grief for being such weak fishers and non catchers too. Well I can count the number of times he has left me out there on one hand, it always goes the other way.

About 1400 we found out what we were waiting for as Mr. Fisherman tore into the YTD big fish for 'Pilar', a fat 4 footer weighing abut 50 lbs. I had to give Mr. Fisherman the missed gaff routine, just so he would feel loved. The butt only ran about 50 feet and soon flopped on deck.

We bugged out and just cruised back in to do some herring fishing. It is nice when the ocean cooperates and you can do something besides give a hundred percent to driving the boat. We bagged some herring in Yaquina and made ready for day two.

Saturday was a nice day, better than Friday. We did crab gear with our halibut trim for perhaps the last time for me. If I want crab, I'm going to Tillamook. If I want a beating I'll crab at Yaquina.

The swell was bigger Saturday, but the ocean seemed calmer and easier to drive on. We got out there about 0800. The polecat was flying from the mast and we fished our ***** off to no avail. I stopped counting at 30 drops on 600 ft of water. My boat full of farmers missed strike after strike. 30 drops!, that's 18,000 ft of line to reel in with 3 or 4 pounds of lead on it.

'Puffin' left us with our stinky black and white friend and went exploring. He had 2 fish and we had none. He kept reminding us of this fact. Maybe if I had not spent so much time answering my friends taunts on the radio, we would have caught at least one.

We gave up about 1 and went in to the Rockpile. There we caught some Canary Rockfish and one ling cod. No flat fish. We went in and tried to get our crab gear. It was in the surf. We recovered it all but one of the expensive protoco traps. 2 crabs! What a beating.

Sunday was a rest day. But I did take my mate and her 2 kids fishing for herring. I love the look of kids that are catching fish. They had a blast and I have some prime baitfish for this summer. I hope you all had some fun on the four days. I was fortunate and fished all 4 of them. Just wait till next time.

What's the next date? :grin:

[ 05-20-2002, 05:01 PM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

Beer Waggin · 05-20-2002, 01:15 PM

Well the weekend started for us, myself, George Taylor (Taylor's Viewpoint) and Larry (Wernergonefishin) Thursday afternoon. After a nice drive to Newport and a tricky piece of backing down a narrow drive to the cabin, I realize that I have left my wallet, including my license and tag, in my pick-up in Albany. So I call my little brother and get him to drive from Hillsboro to the coast via my truck. He wasn't even planning on going fishing, but had a good time anyways. He must have been pretty tired to sleep all the way out to the Ranch and all the way back, even with the delightful ocean conditions.
So Friday morning brought us some fairly rough bar conditions for Newport, but nothing George's 24' Duckworth couldn't handle. The crab pots went down north of the jetties and west we headed at 20 mph into a moderate west swell. What a perfect morning for a boat ride.
Arriving at the Ranch, I have George punch in some numbers for a drift that we've done very well on before. First pass leaves us with one fish in the box and a short one going back down for a swim. We're thinking it's going to be a good day right from the get go. We then proceed to fish and not catch for the rest of the day. Lotso boats with no fish on Friday. Lost more gear and left more lead on the bottom than any trip I've ever been on. Seems like every rock we bumped grabbed onto our rigs and held tight. We left the Ranch at about 2 thinking the wind had to kick up any minute and make for a choppy trip home. The wind held off until a couple miles from home, not sure as my eyes were closed for some of this trip. Crab pots produced loads of female crabs that all went swimming again.
Day two brings no wind and bigger west swell that almost seemed smoother than Friday even though it was bigger. Back to the same spots as the day before. First drift resulted in two missed fish, once again we had high hopes. Same results in the end, except George popped his cherry and reeled in a nice 35"(?) fish that he happily put in the box. He had thought he'd lost this fish, which would have been his third or fourth missed fish? I looked over the back of the boat when I thought he was close to the surface and &^#*&^@%$! Get the GAFF! He was close in size, so he didn't get the sharp poke, just the big tug on that 170# leader and onto the deck he went. As soon as he hit the floor, out comes the hook! Whew, just in time. Actually the hook was good in his lip, but had wore a pretty good sized hole that I could stick my finger through. He was one of those fish that just swam right to the surface with very little hassle, not what I wanted George to experience for his first fish, but he now knows for sure what that funny little feeling in is rod is. We took one more drift over the same spot that produced nothing, so we reeled then up and called it day.
Back to the dock on another smooth ride.
All I can say is I'm glad NOAA was wrong on their predictions. I only think two boats were hauled back, and one made it most of the way. On our first drift, we hear someone hail the CG. It happens to be the boat about a hundred yards to our east. We hear of his troubles getting his out drive into gear, or something along these lines. The CG gives him a few things to try and he works on it for a bit. Nothing doing, and I hear the CG guy ask him if he wants to stay out and fish for a bit. ????? Sure! I would have at least asked to be dragged to the top of the drift somewhere. I'm sure they would have said no, but it couldn't have hurt.
Another season in the bag. It'll be interesting to see the results. Hopefully we'll get days in August and September again this year.

George, thanks for the great weekend. Your a great Skipper. If any of your guys get the opportunity to fish with George, do it. He's a heck of a guy and loves to fish, but who wouldn't with a boat like his.
Larry, we'll do the Cowlitz thing when it gets going this summer/fall.

Drifty · 05-20-2002, 02:23 PM

Well Pilar,

Sorry about the bad advice but we limited in three drops right through the drift I set you guys on I just knew you were going to catch fish there. Anyway we ended up catching 7 flatties on the first day 4 keepers out at the ranch the biggest at 44 inches 2 at 40 and one at 34 inches. After the ranch we decided to try for some salmon mooching at the pile that is where we cought 3 more butts on was of keeper size the other two just under. The next day we got to the ranch and had all four fish by 11:00 to 11:30 this time heading in to the pile for some bottom fish. We ended up with one keeper out of 15 lings and two yellowish brown looking rockfish and one yellow eye turned back.

seasquid · 05-20-2002, 02:34 PM

My question is -- just how much do you folks get hung up on the bottom at the Chicken Ranch? The reason I ask is I'm considering fishing there at the next date -- I have never been snagged out of Garibaldi, but I also have never seen it as slow as it was out there for the four days.

thanks

ss

Drifty · 05-20-2002, 03:19 PM

Seasquid

We lost 7 full rigs and 3 4# weights for the weekend. I dont know if that is normal or not since it was the first time I have been out to the ranch.

Pilar · 05-20-2002, 04:04 PM

Drifty, no worries. Glad you did so well. We have to take a bad day once in a while to remind us of how spoiled we really are.

I lost more gear than ever this time. I imagine the ocean looks like a dental floss ranch with all the busted off gear down there. I hooked up on stray gear several times.

James on 'Puffin' actually handlined a fish up after snagging the line.

Deepslayer · 05-20-2002, 04:09 PM

Seasquid we lost about 8 or 9 setups for both days. I even reeled up about a forty pound rock with a yellow eye on the second hook. Boy it sure felt like a monster flattie with that yellow eye shaking the line every now and then! :shocked:
Last year we only lost one or two set ups, so I think this was an unusual year for snags.

Ed

Threemuch · 05-20-2002, 04:22 PM

Seasquid, we lost zero rigs to snags on the first weekend. I had one guy throw one over board unattached to a line, but none lost to snags.

sturgn · 05-20-2002, 04:25 PM

lol Deepsleeper faught that rock hard to, made me get out the gaff when he said " I see Fishy colors!" I had a great time removing the 6" bass with the 20lb rock below it

... (Sorry Ed) The week before I brought up a big wad of tuff line with a Mitten crab wrapped up in it he was about 6" across the back I've never seen one before then.

Taylor's viewpoint · 05-20-2002, 06:24 PM

Thanks to NorRivDave for going out with two absolute novices. Dave provided all the gear complete with instructions. Sorry about missing the fish, but I've got the idea down now, just keep giving it more line until you think he has enough and then give him some more. Start reeling and the butt will follow. Nothing to it.
This was a new experience for me but it will not be the last. I had a real blast until I woke up Saturday morning and hurt all over. I didn't know if I wanted to do it all over again, but I did. You could not have asked for a smoother sea or a better day. I am not sure which hurts more, the sunburn or every muscle in my body. I got back to Scappoose about 10:00PM Saturday night and immeadately went to bed. My wife woke me up at 10:00AM on Sunday or I would have slept all day.
I owe this trip to the ifish network of people. Without ifish.net I would not have had the opportunity to meet some nice people like Dave and Larry and go fishing to a spot I had never heard of prior to this time. Before this I thought a chicken ranch was something like herding cats. It is great to go 33 miles out and find people willing to help another ifisher find the sweet spot. Thanks Pilar for pointing out a spot. Even though I still hurt, I really had a great time. :grin: :grin: :grin:
TV
Team duck-n-out

bait boy · 05-21-2002, 08:12 AM

Well, I had a great time on the mighty vessel Pilar and with good company as well. The food as usual was exceptional. Thanks to Pilars mate for the chili. Mr fisherman and his wonderful breakfast burritos and the sandwiches each day were wonderful.

I was really surprised by all of the folks that went home without fish but as I heard as the seasons progress it gets harder to find those fish. It killed me to hear on the radio that folks had their four fish and were heading home while we were blanked on the second day.

That kind of hit and miss fishing really makes you wonder what in the heck you're doing wrong. so then comes the bait switching, the hook switching, the stinkum goes all over the place and then after all that... nothing nada zilch almost made me cry.....

But then I knew that the crab pots wouldn't let me down... ever wonder what an 8 ft swell does to a short crabpot line? :shocked: believe me you don't want to know....

A wonderful weekend with good folks, ah who could have asked for better.

Capin' Dan · 05-22-2002, 12:41 AM

Friday resulted in the hardest fishing for us we finally got a double hook up at almost noon and baoted a 40" and a 53" fish. Ran back to the rockpile and put a nice ling in the boat. Saturday started off a little rocky we had some spurtering on the way out and it seemed to be getting worst. At about 20 miles we stopped and took a look at the fuel water seperator and sure enough it was full. We emptied it but I think the damage was done we turned around and headed in. As we went over the south part of the rock pile we noticed a charter and a couple of other boats fishing a spot so we jumped right in. I rigged for mooching salmon close to the bottom and the first pass produced a nice 40" flattie Second pass 2nd flattie. I then heading over to a spot that has produced lings for us last year and pulled a nice 28" ling off that spot a small shaker ling. Boat sputtered again and we emptied out the water seperator for the second time. That was it so we headed in. We were the first boat back to the pier the fish checker ask if we had those things tied out there from the day before we just smiled and considered our selves lucky and headed home. Great weekend over all. I have a few words that I will be saving for a certain Texico station next time I am in that area.