Tillamook or Newport for halibut

[Dynamite]

This is going to be my first year fishing halibut off of the Oregon coast. Was wondering what the differences between fishing out of Tillamook and Newport are. Was also wondering if anyone wanted to share some GPS #'s or wanted to team up for the trip.

Thanks

[Pilar]

Dynamite, I have not fished the Garibaldi flattie spot. All those I have listened to who have are not amused.

Garibaldi - 900 ft deep, small reef, pushy charter boats. Nice fish and you can count on crossing up with other boats and losing some line. The bar is often closed during ebb tides. Bring a spare rod and reel. 25 miles out?

Newport - 480 to 650 ft deep, a square mile of seamount, lots of boats but lots of room. You can get crossed with other boats but there is lots of room and you can avoid it. Also there are several other hotspots within a couple of miles. Heavily patrolled by CG and you will see some of them fishing from RIB boats. Yaquina (Newport) is one of the easiest and most accessible bars on the coast. Rarely closed for conditions. 32 miles out and Stonewall Bank (aka Rockpile)is about 1/2 way out for a stop on the way back for salmon or rockfish.

Depoe - longer drive to the place above. Nice little harbor. Make sure you shoot the GPS waypoints to return in the fog if you have to do that. This one is hard to find in low vis. conditions.

I vote for the Chicken Ranch or the Halibut drive thru as I call it.

"ummm, I'll have a 30 pounder and an orange soda to go .... wait, how about a super size, yeah, uhh, make it a 70 pounder"

E- me for GPS #'s for the Chicken Ranch and rockpile.

[seasquid]

Hey Dynamite,

You can look at some of my previous posts about the two...I grew up fishing out of Tillamook Bay, but I'm slowly getting into the Newport halibut thing.

Tillamook Bay --

1. Rather small area -- especially when the charters show up. Deep, deep, and deep (800+ feet). You break off (very unusual), or get tangled with somebody else and lose gear (more probable) -- you're done fishing. You absolutely have to use 48 ounces of lead, and be ready to be working the gears (reverse/neutral).

2. You will not get out of Tillamook the second half of the May season -- the raging outgoing tides will have the bar shutdown till slack -- you can almost guarantee that.

3.Positives of Tillamook -- it's closer than the Chicken Ranch, it's straight off the bar, which makes it nice in the NW wind on the return. I've had a lot of great times out there and some really nice fish, including huge lings, but be ready to reel, reel, reel. I will say this, last year was as slow as I have ever seen during the early season.

4. As for GPS numbers -- don't worry about it. Just follow the fleet, they are all going to the exact same spot. Traditionally there has been one really good drift and if you hit it just right -- you all could be hooked up. My GPS went down last year, and I don't think I have those numbers anymore -- I actually could watch the GPS count down the feet until it said "reaching destination" and it was fish on! If I have those numbers I'll send them to you.

Good luck -- be careful on that bar!

ss

[Threemuch]

Garibaldi is nowhere near as bad as Pilar makes it out to be. The spot is 700 feet, not 800 or 900, and 22 miles, not 25. I have seen this on multiple fishfinders. 700 feet. 22 miles! That is 12 miles closer than the ranch, an hour in nasty weather. And only a hundred or so feet deeper. Grade of fish is the same, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I personally have caught more incidental lings out of t-bay than at Newport.

Downside is the bar. Big swell? Go to Newport. Big Tide? Go to Newport.

So the perks of the tillamook hole are proximity based. Port is an hour closer to my house, and shorter run from the harbor to fishing. Downsides are bigger bar and no shallow spot like the rockpile. The spot is smaller too, and that can be a problem on a nice day with a big drift. I skirt the edges of the area and do just fine.

Another perk for me is that my bud has a house there I can crash at.

Seasquid-
Last year was slow everywhere on that second weekend. Wierd huh? We still got our fish, but it took all darn day.

[Pilar]

Kurt, thanks for setting me straight. Like I said, I've never fished the FB hole there. After I found my bottom fishing heaven off Newport, I had no reason to. The ocean off Newport is all reefs, all the time. From the jaws down to seal rock, 6 miles away to the south. You do not even need a GPS to find the reefs.

There is nothing wrong with Tillamook bay or fishing offshore there. Having said that, I hate when the CG shuts down the bar and it happens to me there more than any other coast port.

[corrirod]

Kurt must have a seperate spot out of Tilly cause the one I've always had was 26 miles out and 850ft. deep. There is some room out there but I think everyone trys to stay next to charter boats for some reason. The spot we fish usually only has 1-2 other boats in close proximity while the pile of boats is about 1/4 mile NE of us. We had trouble last year also but did finally get our limit. There are some nice lings out there I must admit.

Tilly vs. Chicken Ranch......I don't know which is better, but Tilly vs. Rockpile(when the flatties are there) and there is no comparison, I'd much rather go to the Pile and go for the buffet(hali,salmon,ling).

Next time I go out of Tilly I'm following Threemuch, that extra 150ft. is a killa'. [img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img]

[CrazyFish]

Dynamite

I have a place to stay at in Cape Mears and I still go after Halibut out of Newport due to several factors.
First last year was my first after halibut and my buddy that got me into it lives in Springfield, so Newport was the nuetral ground.
Yes the chicken ranch is 34 miles out but it never took us more than 4 hours to limit the boat (Some trips on the first drift).
Then there is the rock pile which is 17 miles out (directly on the way to the ranch) and seems to be real good for halibut June - August. We also pulled a lot of 15lb-25lb ling cod from the rock pile.
Then there is the Bar crossing, Newport is by far the easyier, safer, and calmer crossing than Garibaldi. Don't get me wrong here, I go across Garibaldi quite a bit but if your into minuis tides then the eb gets to be to much and the CG will close the bar and you can't get out. Last year when Garibaldi bar was closed we did not have any problems crossing Newport.
As far as finding the prawns, I'm still not sure yet. I've got some areas to check out out of booth ports, so we'll see.

[Dynamite]

Pilar, Seasqid, Threemuch, Corrirod, Crazyfish....Thanks for the numbers and the great information. If any of you end up without a ride E-mail me. I might have an open spot. Thanks again.

[Freezer Full]

Dynamite, We have taken halibut from both spots. I think the bigger fish are off of Tillamook at Halibut Hill but it is true that the spot is small and crowded. You will, however, probably have following seas for the ride back, which can be a 24 mile long roller coaster ride.

Off of Newport, in addition to the Chicken Ranch, there is the Rock Pile, at about half the distance. I really love this spot because I've had great multiple species successes there. One day last summer, we came back from the Rock Pile with 8 halibut

(edit, Hi it's me, this is in a 17' boat that can carry 8 people? can you say poacher?)

, a box of other bottom fish, and picked up two 30 lb chinook on the way back. In any case, I don't think I'll ever go to the Chicken Ranch again without stopping off at the Rock Pile; the course deviation is not that great. I'll share some coordinates with you if you want to email us.

Leaving this one up as a warning .... don't come back Ricardo Cabeza .......

[ 03-31-2003, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

[Dynamite]

Freezer Full

You havew mail,

Thanks

[Freezer Full]

A.M.F. :grin:

[ 03-31-2003, 03:38 PM: Message edited by: Pilar ]