Newport - 8/23 & 24

[Phil Layer]

Minimal fish but Incredible time

Headed out of Newport Saturday morning with my 10 year old, AJ. I don't think I've ever seen him so focused. He makes a great first mate.

We dropped four crab traps in the bay and made the run to the Rockpile. We dropped our lines down and spent the next few hours listening to Stoyjun Princess catch fish after fish including a nice sized halibut. [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] We chatted with Corrirod, Capn Dan, Baitboy, Hookem, and Gregotis a bit who seemed to be having similar luck to my boat until Corrirod got into the salmon. AJ got a couple ling and a canary rock (released). He was fascinated with the stories of sharks circling Stoyjun Princess' boat.

We gave up on the halibut and wished we had enough fuel to make it to the ranch where limits seemed to be guaranteed. Around 2:00, we ran back into the bay and pulled the four traps. The first trap had lost it's bait but the next three yielded 18 keeper, hard shell males. A few were huge! :grin:

On Saturday, we returned to the Rockpile in the thick fog after dropping the four pots. My wiper stopped working two weeks ago when I took some splash over the top so my visibility was severely impaired. I was not too worried as I got a late start and figured there would be little traffic at that hour. In addition, my boat has a fog horn and, I took it slowly. Nevertheless, I saw 39 ghost ships through the fog that magically disappeared after I got off the throttle. What smooth seas...maybe the smoothest I've ever experienced.

At the pile, Captain Dan put AJ into ling city and he brought up a copper colored rockfish as well. I heard of no halibut at the rockpile that day and switched to trolling for salmon for the last hour. We didn't get bit but I did have the opportunity to shake down my trolling motor and newly installed EZ steer. No doubt about it...I'm ready for kings now.

Back in the bay, I dang near blew out my back pulling the four pots. These puppies were stuffed! But unlike the day before, almost all of the crab were females. Go figure. We ended the trip with 26 keeper males, three lings, a copper colored rockfish (name?) and one happy young fisherman who wants me to register him on ifish with the moniker, "Killemngrillem."

All in all, it was a rewarding weekend although I had hoped for more fish. But, my son had a weekend he will not soon forget and that is all I really wanted from the weekend.

Thanks to all for the coordinates and advice, especially Capn Dan. Way to go tuna chasers!

[tag-a-long]

Sounds like a wonderful weekend of fishing. Sorry I had to miss the calm seas. It figures, I spend all halibut season over the side and this weekend was smooth...

Aj can't complain with the monster he took earlier in the year. We have the makings of the future of ifish in our kids for sure... :smile:

[Capin' Dan]

Moby, Once Sea swan gets her new deck under her surely by next year you should come out with us and invite killemngrillem. We will make it to the Halibut grounds and let him put a hurtn to the hali's. Its funny jsut two weeks before it was hot halibut on the pile.

Dan!

[Phil Layer]

Dan,

I'm markin the calendar.

Count us in!