Gotta See It

[Fishplay]

We're headed down there to see for ourselves. A fella at work tells me they've been overpredicting all week. He reported fishable water all morning yesterday. May end up a close in trip...... but who knows? I'll tell ya how it was upon our return.

[Mr. Fisherman]

Thanks Fishplay,

We are gonna make the call after the update at 3:00 and with a little info from our friends.

Hope everyone is safe out there...

[Pilar]

The bouys are showing 3' sea and 5' swell right now and the wind is dropping off, about 15 now. But the waves are very short and choppy, 5 to 6 seconds. The wind is from the north and this whole deal reminds me of the First Saturday in May when we got the crap beat out of us.

Having said all that todays forecast was upgraded from 5 and 7 in yesterdays 1530 forecast to 5 and 5 this am. Tomorrow's prediction has also been improved.

This may be a good weekend to go there and then hope you get lucky and it lays down.

Watch the bouys and wait for the eyewitness report, 'Puffin' was going for it today.

[Fishplay]

Well it was a BIG ocean for sure! We left port at 05:30 and it was a long slow ride 12 - 15 mph according to the GPS. By 08:00 we were fishing. Here's how it went. Wayne drops his first while I bait another rig. As I'm ready to go down Wayne says something about 8 to 9 hundred feet out and he can't feel bottom. I request captain Marcos put the boat in reverse and I find bottom no problem. Wayne is using 80lb dacron so I tell him to reel up and swap over to my spare rod. The look on his face.. It was so damn ruff you could not stand up. We were being tossed about on the deck like a loose 4oz cannon ball. Then it happened! Things got very fishy at end of my gear. Oh ya gotta be a nice one. Come to the boat baby. NOPE!! It's gone. So I reel up. A task much easier for me than for Wayne with my 612H electra-mate. I make the surface and find my hook now has taken on a new shape. At some point in this early melay Wayne wrenched his back and he's done. While Marcos baits up my spare rod I"m determined not to loose another fish on cheap hooks so out come the 16/0 circles. I touch them up once again with the file. Squid on top and sardine at the bottom. Down we go and it's me and the Captain workin the bottom now. I find bottom and throw some extra slack to account for the Theme Park ride we're on. Things get fishy again......couldn't have been a full minute. Oh Ya....this is a goodun! Man can I fish. Wait a minute this is a really good one! Jeepers .... I've hooked Moby's offspring!!! Between the ride I'm on and the fight this fish is putting forth a thought creeps into mind [img]graemlins/idea.gif[/img] This is more work than play :depressed: Now Marcos hollers fish and he's thrashing around at the rail now too. Wayne comes to my rescue with the fighting belt and things improve just like the weather in March. Muscles begin to cramp in my left leg and lower back. I've been thrown to the deck countless times and I really want this over. I'm getting close. I can tell by the pile I'm building on the reel. Yep there's color.....but what the hell? Huh?? That's not A halibut!! Nope.......IT'S TWO halibut. :shocked: Holy Moly no wonder. While slightly dissapointed I hadn't caught a barn door. I found comfort in the fact that my days work was done. Marcos wrestled his to the surface shortly after me. Another nice fish. Wakem-bleedem-stackem and were out of here. It's 09:20. :tongue:

The conditions were less than favorable but not dangerous in a boat the size of the Navajo. It's a 24 ft SeaRay and I wouldn't have wanted to be in any less. We saw too many overly confident boaters today. There were a couple 18-20 foot sleds out there that in my opinion were out of there league. Simply comfort wise if not safety.
The last 10 miles the ocean layed down for us and I got too relaxed. If I had been paying closer attention I would not have run over top of that cotton pickin crab pot. When I did notice it, I looked to my right and sure enough the bouy came sailing at the boat. It reminded me of logging with the Old Christy carrige. Luckily we were able to get free with little trouble, but that crab pot line is about 12 feet shorter.
All in all a good and productive trip. The bite has improved to what I remember and expect at the Ranch. Anyone going tomorrow please be safe and don't push your limits. Good Luck! [img]graemlins/hearton.gif[/img] D

[shakerfish]

Man great play by play! I loved reading this you just made my night! I don't get out there with you guys but I feel like I was there right next too ya ! :grin: Good Job fishplay ! Thanx 4 sharing! ....shakerfish!... :smile:

[craigc]

Lou, two guests and I thought we'd try to make it to the halibut grounds out of Manzanita yesterday, but it was a no go... the weather looked nice from the dock, but we could see waves breaking way out from the jetties, as we hit the bar at 6am.. there wasn't white water across the bar this time, but there was clearly white water on both sides of the bar, and Lou had to pick our way out through the bar... the incoming swells were large enough that we had to closely manage the throttle to maintain control over the helm... there was one swell that looked like it was going to break right in front of us, even with 19 feet of water under us !.... we also had low hanging, dark clouds, and the wind was strong enough to create some decent chop with out a 'comb' being created.... so, Lou decided, wisely so, that we were not going for the halibut grounds today, it would have been unsafe and miserable by all... we ended up going NW to the Red Canary Reef and picked up our limit of 4 Red Canary fish, and we probably had to throw just as many back.... but, no lings were caught this time... we did bring in 21 crabs,with the largest being 6 3/4" across the top, and in only 4 hours soaking at 30 feet... we're also noticing that my cheap box traps are catching more than the round traps... we speculate that the reason may be because the crabs don't like crawling up the wire mesh, and through the opening of the round traps.... does anyone have any other observations or opinions on this topic ?

well, I'm glad we made it back safely with fish and crabs... I didn't loose my cookies this time, but came fairly close... I'm coming to the conclusion that my body doesn't like marginally unsafe weather conditions. I hope everyone else that went out, made it back safely... I'd hate to read about another fatality in the papers..

you can read about our day[ in a few days] at

http://geocities.com/crcfishing04/index.html

or the main page is

http://geocities.com/crcfishing04/index.html

[Deepslayer]

Glad to hear you did so well1 :smile: Sounds like you really had an "E" ticket ride at Disneyland. I guess I am glad I didn't have a ride out to the ranch this weekend.
,Ed