Had some work to do in Astoria on thursday and Friday and with my boat being down I had to rely on the ifish network to get some fishing in. I casted out for an open seat and got a response from the Codfather. Lucky me! He said he was game to fish as much as we could so we decided to stay for the weekend and fish sturgeon/lingcod/salmon. We fished friday after work was finished (it is amazing how much work you can get done when fishing is your reward when your done
)for some sturgeon. Things were pretty slow and we got one 43" and one 7'9". We made plans to go in the morning and we met the codfather at the dock around 5:00, ok we were late and we didn't make it until 5:15
. Not a good idea when your going in some elses boat, but Ray let us on anyway and we went out to try sturgeon again. Slow was the word of the day for sturgeon fishing. There was a derby going on and the there wern't many fish being caught. Ray, the codfather suggested we go try our luck on some lings, we were excited to give it a try as all three of us had never really bottom fished before. As we got out to the "Secret Spot" we asked the Codfather to give us a lessonal on how you catch lings. Well he said you just let your "Secert lure" down to the bottom and let it just kind of slide across the rocks like this...and wham!!! ziiiiiiinggggg. Boy my eyes lit up and I couldn't get my "Secret lure" to the bottom fast enough as the Codfather reeled in a 20# ling. We now know why they call him the Codfather
. Well after several passes we were limited out on lings and caught several Cabazone and some sea bass. I was very surprized at how hard lings fight. I was using my keeper size sturgeon rod and it was bent to the hilt and I was thinking man I must have a monster on, to reel in a about a 15# fish, I was pleasantly surprised at the fight these fish offer. Well back to the dock, cleaned some fish and back to the hotel for some rest as the Salmon opener in the ocean was in the early am. We left out of Ilwaco at 5:00am we weren't even late this time
! Another great guy named Steve joined us as we headed out to the CR. We deployed a variety of gear and with in a few minutes a drive buy with no hook up....a few minutes later another drive buy that snapped my line and took all of my gear. After the fastest re-rig in history I was back in the water and within minutes fish on....I landed a small chinook that was around 15#. We were thinking this was probably the first ocean chinook landed by sportys! Shortly after that the Codfather was next and landed a Nice chrome chinook that went around 20#s. The salty dog network went into effect immediatly and the Most Excellent came down and got into some nice immedialty! Ncie work guys!
Overall a great weekend of fishing, learned a ton stuff and met some great people. The codfather or "Papa Cod" as we jokingly reffered to him as, was great. Nice guy, full of knowledge and very willing to show us Salty pups how it was done! Steve was also very willing to show us this and that and get us up to speed. Thanks guys, it was great fishing with you. Just also wanted to say that it is great to be a member of Ifish and meet guys like this who are good people and more than willing to show us "Secert spots", secert lures and take us out in their boats, which buy the way the Codfather is a stud of boat and a fishing machine. Just over all a great expierence and a fun time. Ray thanks for taking us out, can't wait to run tuna this summer!
Tailwalker out!
The triple threat in Astoria with the Codfather
CATCH AND EAT
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