Live Bait at Mouth of Columbia

pkg40 · 11-11-2002, 04:57 PM

Any thoughts on how to get some live bait going next Summer. Any commercial folks interested in exploring this market. Right now all of the bait live and dead is coming from Puget Sound. Strange eh?

Peter

Tackle Time Bait and Charters · 11-11-2002, 07:13 PM

This coming year is our 19th. year in the fresh bait business. We have had a few good fisherman and friends try to get in to catching and holding live bait on the lower river. It,s not easy. Low salinity, warm water, big tides, small tides, to much bait not enough bait, and so on and on. Be open at 2 a.m. so I can pickup my bait and get it iced and packaged so I can open at 4:30a.m.
I have had the chance to get into it many times. One of my deckhands was an anchovy fisherman for a few years, he couldn't make it.
The thing that means the most to me is to have the best bait available and have it everyday in the amount that I need.
Thanks Gene

8knots · 11-11-2002, 08:26 PM

At Ilwaco this summer they opened the refurbished live bait concession in the harbor. They were selling live anchovies while I was there for the month of August. Everyone that I saw buying them was having them shocked to kill them and using them for fishig the Kings by the bridge. They weren't doing a big business so I don't know if they will try again next summer.

pkg40 · 11-11-2002, 09:59 PM

8,

Do you remember the name of the outfit running the concession? They may need some better publicity amongst the offshore crowd.

Gene,

I hear you. Have bought a ton of salmon bait from you to boot. I have benefited from your regular supply during the summer. That said dead anchovies don't put albacore in the boat eh? If they had live ones in Ilwaco, then someone is fishing them. Appreciate it if you keep your ears open for who it is.

Peter

[ 11-12-2002, 01:08 AM: Message edited by: pkg40 ]

Tackle Time Bait and Charters · 11-11-2002, 10:09 PM

Kevin has leased the pens over there.
The same company that I get my Anchovy out of Westport Wa. Gene

8knots · 11-12-2002, 08:01 PM

You can't miss them. If you were putting your boat in at the boat ramp you would see them directly behind you and across the channel. Or, if you are walking out to the end of the commercial docks you see them on the last dock to the left, by themselves. They painted the building on the dock bright yellow and had several pens of live anchovies. However, I did not see anyone keeping them for live bait. They were all shocking them to use them as really fresh bait.

I wonder if any of the charters were using them on their tuna trips like out of Westport. I fished
live bait out of San Diego many times. Sure is a great way to fish! Nothing but the bait, hook and maybe a slip sinker. Wooosh and set the hook.

pkg40 · 11-12-2002, 08:54 PM

Man I wish I had known they were there. Got bad info. I am set up for it and they might have been the ticket for the day we were surrounded by jumpers but got very few to bite.

Peter

Miss B Haven · 11-13-2002, 08:47 AM

pkg40 - still looking for that belated intro and story from you (see my and Keta's post under the "eye of the storm" thread). Really want to know more about you and that Blackfin! I think I'll send you this on e-mail. The skunk is lurking!

Miss B Haven · 11-13-2002, 08:57 AM

PS - This may be why folks were having their Anchovies killed (then again maybe not). Anybody know how to prove where those Anchovies came from? I'm darn sure they were purse seined from the ocean which would make them tecnically illegal in the CR estuary if they were alive. I believe this reg is to prevent transfer of fish species from one body of water to another, but since they can swimm from the ocean to the CR it seems pretty dang silly. [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img]
From ODFW regs:

2. Live fish may not be used or held for use as bait, except live nongame fish may be used in the ocean, bays and tidewaters when taken from the waterbody in which they will be used.

pkg40 · 11-13-2002, 03:03 PM

MIZB,

I doubt that is the reason they are killing them. Few people have the facilities to keep bait alive on their boats. Even fewer have an inclination to use live anchovies for salmon (but I do). In the Puget sound area there is lots of live bait for sale. The vendor dips them out of the tank throws em in a plastic bag, they wiggle, die and you use them as very fresh dead bait. Years and years ago I went on a tuna charter out of Ilwaco that was supposed to be using live bait, but their tank was broken. I never went with them again, so I don't know if their tank was always broken.

Peter

Miss B Haven · 11-13-2002, 04:01 PM

Peter - your probably right that legality is not the reason. Could be the reason it's hard to make a go of it as a business here though. Most (or at least lots) of the bait sold is used in the river and most of the bait comes from the ocean. If live bait got to be popular you can be sure that the wardens would be following up on that rule. Not attractive for a business venture trying to make a buck.
Folks just don't fish here like they do North and South either. Mooching salmon (real mooching, not trolling) is done everywhere I know of cept here (not much of it anyway)! Live bait would be just the ticket for that you would think. Man - I'm going to have to try that next year too!
Hmmm... just had a thought, I wonder what the WA regs on live bait in the CR are? Have to check! Most of the water is Oregon down there anyway, just a point of curiosity. Seems a little silly if WA can "import" live bait into the river and OR can't! [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img]
If that guys around next year I'm sure going to get some on the next Tuna run just in case. :grin:
PS - I've been on charters in dear old Mexico where the live bait tank was a garbage can (as in kitchen size) with the raw water washdown hose duct taped to the top. Just a cut out of the side provides the overflow. You get the deck washed down constantly as a side benefit. The bait didn't seem to know the difference between that and a $1000 livewell, they did just fine!

pkg40 · 11-14-2002, 03:12 PM

Sounds like my first bait tank. I have a kodiak now, but it mostly transports crabs and small rock fish I think a ling might like.

Miss B Haven · 11-14-2002, 03:54 PM

pkg40 - You're avoiding the story thing (still)! :blush:

Threemuch · 11-14-2002, 04:07 PM

My best bait tank was a garbage can, and we didn't have a fancy pump, we just 5 gallon bucketed it every 15 minutes or so. I could keep a whole scoop alive all day.

Fancy auto bait tanks are great, until they fail, because some little fishey plugged an inlet or some such nonsense, and all the bait dies. Kodiaks are great, but most built in bait tanks in boats are junk. BW, Striper, yech. One exception is a grady center tank that they put in their seafairer and sailfish too.

I got no tank on threemuchII, but if someone starts selling bait, the garbage can will do.

KB