Pilar, Flat ocean and flat...

Mr. Fisherman · 03-30-2003, 06:39 AM

Flat ocean, Flat fish and flat tires.

First blood, lings and more. No reported Chrome.
I heard that the pit crew was put to work. More on that when the crew returns and enlightens us all.
Congratulations on a beautiful day on the water. Good call on the weather.

rainrshine · 03-30-2003, 10:31 AM

Ray, I was over there yesterday and it was absolutly awesome. The bay looked like a pond

Go get em !!!!

Pilar · 03-30-2003, 10:37 AM

Thanks Ray. We had a ball yesterday and there are some pictures of whales and fish toothy and flat on cameras somewhere.

Edsr builts a pretty dang nice boat and we saw it go for the rockpile yesterday.

I have to go get it all back in one sock now so more on all this later. I can't even touch the Hogmasters ' As the impeller turns ' sagas but we have a story to tell about the first good salting of the year.

Maybe call it 'As the herring spins'

If anyone is wondering .... Yes there are biting Halibut at the rockpile.

corrirod · 03-30-2003, 05:01 PM

Oh man what a trip! I'll let Pilar give all the details later but here are some of the more fun events.

I believe Pilar's expression is "The Bend is Your Friend"
Here he proves it!

And you may be asking why it's bending so much, let me show you(by the way, that's about a 60 pounder boys and girls):

Here's some old friends we saw out in the deep. One actually breached but the camera man wasn't fast enough to react.

And lastly, let's not forget that beautiful new boat that Edsr created with his own two hands. NorRivDave had the privilege of driving her.

What a beautiful day on the salt!

[ 03-30-2003, 06:03 PM: Message edited by: corrirod ]

hound · 03-30-2003, 05:39 PM

sheeseee

supprised there no shots of you guys water skiing out there..

any nookies?

Hook-up · 03-30-2003, 06:03 PM

A bunch of us fisher types wanted to take a bunch of our non fishering friends out, so we went out on a charter boat (Juergen Turner on the Tacklebuster, Depoe Bay) so we could all go together. What a great crew and boat. They were so much fun. There were 13 of us (including 2 ten year old boys) and we all limited on a wide variety of bottom fish. Did I remember to say it was sunny, flat and just an all around awesome day (can you say teeshirts?)? We found some whales on the way back in and our captain stayed along side (yes it was far enough away not to disturb them) until the 4 whale watching boats in the area could get to our location. 9 traps soaked for about 6 hours produced 17 keepers (small bay type, no large ocean type). Skipper said the commerical boats picked them over good. Did I say it was flat. I must have said a 1000 times to my friends (they are not tunaholics) that this would have been a great tuna day.

skein · 03-30-2003, 07:32 PM

Huh? I leave town and head to the high desert and the ocean turns into a pool table. Where's the justice in that???

I know, I know, the sea is a fickle mistress who charms those at her feet, all in HER good time, and cares nothing about cowboys and sagebrush. So I zigged when I should have zagged. Story of my life.

But....what's with the halibut? I've been led to believe hali season opens May 1st, and here's Pilar with a 60 pounder mystically attached to his rod. Am I missing something VERY important?

Glad everyone had a great day.

Skein

bait boy · 03-30-2003, 10:09 PM

NAh you didn't miss nothin. that was bycatch on the rockpile from what I hear....

Phil Layer · 03-30-2003, 11:46 PM

Yeah, it was flat. Holy crap, it was flat.

What an incredible day on the briny!

Hope all did well.

This shot was taken Saturday at about 11:00

Pilar · 03-31-2003, 05:53 AM

Skein, you should have been here yesterday.........

It's an old story.

FB was sent home to his mama with a sore lip. We were exploring and prospecting for the most part. We caught a few fish but they were red and I kept moving to new spots to get away from them. For a fish that is in trouble the damn Canary rock fish is hard to not catch. There are some days when driving around at will is possible. If I ever get the chance I use those days to find out new things and places to go. Why not on a day when Chum king could have fished the rockpile in his driftboat.

I discovered that FB is on the rockpile 24/7/365 and if you are willing to risk missing him then fish the rockpile. Also we were working on some new baits and leader techniques. You could score black and white gold anyway on the derby days in May and skip the extra 35 mile round trip to the halibut drivethru at the Chicken Ranch. Last summer we got some halibut in the crack between the north and south reefs but that was June and later in the summer.

There's a fair chance you'll see Corrirod, Fishplay and Pilar on this little shale pile again on the derby days this year because the fish are there now. I'm betting they will be there in May.

bait boy · 03-31-2003, 06:54 AM

How about the rest of the story :depressed: ...Tired?

Pilar · 03-31-2003, 09:05 AM

Captain's log 3/29/2003

As the Herring spins ........

Friday night I went to meet a few of the dogs at Santanas to pick up a few burgees and hang out with the boys. As usual this ran a little long as it turned into instigation of a fishing trip and the lowdown evil tequila got things going. Edsr volunteered to run his boat and NorRivDav got hooked up with a ride on Ed's boat. After the party I was getting the boat ready for the shindig and cleaning up the gripe list from fishing on Wednesday. I like the new manifold but the collateral damage from installing it was pretty high. Seems like I had to change almost everything that was hooked up to it. Looks like I should replace the old rochester that has 600+ hours on it. It has an attitude problem, it can't see working right no moe. I quit and went to bed at 0100 3/31 when I was satisfied we would enjoy troublefree operation on Saturday.

Saturday morning ... whoa ... not enough sleep. Hitch up and head for Rods's place in Beaverton and found it no worries. Normally I have issues with finding anything (except a boat ramp) new at night. We had a little fun with the hitch pin for not the last time that day. I am so spoiled, my driveway is flat. Swapping rigs/trailers on a hill is a challenge. We headed out about 0530 and we're off to the rodeo. Not long after we are way ahead of schedule and calling Fishplay to tell him we'll be at Fort Hill about 0630, not 0700 as planned.

He still had crabpots to fetch and was able to get over a little after we showed up. We stopped at Otis for some breakfast. Dang that place makes a mean breakfast. We got down to the bad spot in the road just north of Beverly beach and I had the first of several bad feelings that day. Shortly after crossing the 'Warning Gravel' spot we heard the distinct sound of a tire going away somewhere behind us. Pulled over and sure enough the trailer tire is now landfill material. With some self satisfaction I remembered the spare in the back of Rods rig that I almost left home.

After a short delay we got into Newport and made preparations to launch. Ed was already in the water in his new home made dory and they waited patiently for the slackers. We ran out to the bar, what bar and looked for a place to station our crab motels. Ed ran right along with us and his boat looked awesome coming over the waves. I got the same feeling I get watching Ed's new boat that I get when I run with Uglygreen, you've all seen the killer photo taken by my mate.

We started a string of 8 pots running north in about 60 ft of water. I was driving and my very experienced crew did the rest. It is so nice to ride with guys that know what is happening. That is why I say 'Don't leave home without your baitboy'. Anyone who has fished with Rick knows what I am talking about. Rod and Greg were a pleasure to fish with Saturday, thanks guys. As always I hammered in a GPS waypoint near the start of the string and layed them out in a more or less straight line into the expected afternoon wind direction. Ed went even further west and started his string of 3. We saw him circling and he told us he had lost a pot and wanted the depth. We soon found out that he had no functional depth finder and the crabpot lines were too short, oops. Luckily the tide was high then and the pot line was just barely too short. We might find it later on the homeward leg.

The ocean was so nice. A blaring sun, slight swell and breath of wind. One of the 3 or 4 days a year, I sometimes dream of late at night. We pointed it to 240 magnetic and ran for the pile. This took about 45 minutes of magnificent boat ride. I filled my lungs with the sharp clean air and the BS that I deal with everyday faded away to a distant memory. We could have stopped right there and been good to go.

At the rockpile I went to 'Bad Halibut' and gave that a try. The drift (what drift?, dead calm, no wind) was not the usual North - South deal. It was off to the WSW and real slow.

I had made an effort to gear up for the expected fast drift with 10 and 12 oz mooching weights but did not think to get the lighter ones all lined up. We caught a barely legal ling right away at 24-1/4 and some red rockfish. It was so peaceful on the rockpile, not the gnarly ocean of the last 3 weeks at all. Ed fished about 1/4 mile away and drifted along with us. We moved several times to get away from the red fish. With a limit of one yelloweye and one canary per fisher, you can get there pretty fast if you don't move.

I tried a few of the interesting places that I found last summer but never had any time to really check out. This worked out well as we found fish at almost all of them. I tried a lighter weight and a new leader rig I dreamed up. That is 2 gamakatsu 8/0 circle hooks and 80# leader material about 4'. This is snelled just like a salmon leader, including egg loops on the hooks, no yellow bead.

I'm convinced Rod was or is a farmer by inclination as he kept farming his bites.
:tongue:

I used a chunk of too small to eat but too dead to release rockfish for bait with the new rig and a 4 oz. mooching sinker. A strip off the belly and a 1/4 filet, one on each hook. This produced a ling cod and yet another red rockfish. All day we got into Copper, canary, vermillion and yelloweye. All red, all the time.

I moved to a spot that had a huge cloud of fish on it last summer that I just had to mark and started yet another drift. 4 oz hit the bottom pretty quick ... did I mention there was no wind and no drift? It bounced a few times and I began to get that familiar feeling .... doink, doink ... I reeled up for tension and shhhhwwwwing and a miss ... damn circle hooks, don't set the hook bonehead .... Back down again .... doink, (I'm waiting for the big doink, this time) doink, wiggle, (I can't stand it) Shhhhwwwwinnnnggggggg and a miss.

OK, one more time and I'm not going to blow it, doink, doink, wiggle, wiggle, (OK Johnboy freespool, I know it hurts but freespool) letting line out now ... doink, wiggle, headshake ... JERK, JERK!!!!!!!!!!!!, slamming the door now and Whhhhhhooo hhhhhooo, fishon ......

What a fish, he just started peeling line and smoking my thumb, no rockfish this time. FB, is that you old buddy ?????

(Thanks Tom for the Loomis noodle, It's the bomb)

I handed the rod off to Greg and let him enjoy the buckled graphite, he broke into a grin as his thumb got fried. 10 minutes and some big grins later we brought him up to the boat. Now how to get him off without a hook in the hand? Rod handled that little detail. I took the rod back from Greg and held on as the fish went back down to the bottom for his pack of smokes ..... 'I got one hook out!' said Rod. "Great", I thought, "this could take a while".

After several more tries and a few photos we got him loose and he glided back to the bottom with a sore lip.

I saw the 'Blitz' to our north and chatted with the skipper of Blitz about Salmon. He had one for all day about 23lbs. It was caught on the north end at 20 ft. This strengthened our resolve to find a salmon.

We then turned our attention to the Salmon. Using a downrigger, stacker clip and the usual flasher/herring salmon gear we tried repeatedly to get the gear into the water. Each time as my rig got to 60 feet and I tried to clip in Gregs rig I would see the first rod pop off and a fishon. Greg was pretty patient for the first three times but soon put on a mooching sinker and gave up on the downrigger. Each time it was a ling cod. 200 feet of water and the lings were at 60. One was about 28" and went to his room, bad fish. Bonk, Bonk, go to your room.

No salmon for us and the wind got up a little by 4 so we quit and went in. It was pretty choppy, that short bang, bang chop we all love. The wind had swung around and we were going right into it.

Ed's dory was unfazed by this and we followed them for a while. That boat looks good on the big blue. I could not plane at 10 mph like Ed was doing so when I was sure they were OK, we throttled up to shorten the ride and left them behind.

I followed the plot to the last known location for the lost pot. Rod drove for a while, cautiously at first but soon cranking the throttle up and down and surfing the short chop. It is so fun to fish with guys that know how to run a boat. We found Ed's pot right where he lost it on the plotter, Plastic Jesus rules!

Greg and Rod pulled our string of crab gear. What a beating ... We got snails, a 20# octopus, an octopus hollowed out crab that weighed about a 1/4 oz. with one itty bitty hole in the shell (how do they do that?), a bunch of females and one legal male. The octopus explored the boat like a lightning fast puddle of grey snot. Talk about alien intelligence ..

Popeye waved us over for an adult beverage on the Julie Rose III and we shot the breeze for a while.

We ran in and cleaned up, weary and anxious to get home, the flat tire a distant memory.

The one crab was cooked and eaten. There are few better suppers that I know of. We rolled north on 101. At the gravel spot, I had a little twinge and remembered the flat tire rodeo. We made it as far as the north side of Cape Foulweather and pop! flub, flub, flub, flub there goes the bad spare. I don't know about the other two guys but I was pretty played out by then, this was a real low point to an otherwise killer day.

We left Greg with the 'Pilar' and went back into Newport at 2030 on a Saturday night to beg for a tire. Texaco was not happening ... something about 'Not my yob, the guy that sells tires is at home'. Maybe I should have asked him in Spanish. I could see several used tires that would have worked on the rack. Damn. We decided to leave me at the boat and Rod and Greg run to Grande Ronde for the spare on Gregs boat. I called Wak'm and Stak'm and he was home and willing to help if not pretty amused by our plight. Earlier that morning I had called him a gaper for passing on a rockpile trip on a glass ocean for a sturgeon trip.

We picked up a 14" bias ply, underrated tire for our salvation. Thanks Wak, you really helped us out of a bind. We put that on the boat and soon realized it was low on air. Ok, now get out the fixaflat and try to blow it up. 35 mph down the road, at least we were moving again.

We made it to Depoe about 2200 and caught the 76 station guy just leaving. The pay air station was turned off and we talked the guy into turning it on. He did and the gas station burgler alarm went off. All over Depoe Bay, people pulled back the kitchen curtains and peered out. Everywhere we went, chaos! The entropy of the universe was increasing at an alarming rate.

He quickly shut it off and was visibly disgusted with us for imposing on him. We left and limped back to Greg's place in Grande Ronde. All along we were counting on the 'Brand new spare' that awaited us. We got there to Greg's place and soon discovered the tire rim was 6 holes not 5, DOH! No help there.

Greg's dog escaped and ran off into the night adding to the chaos. Things were looking pretty grim. Try finding a tire on Sunday for a boat trailer, let alone try it at the coast. Soon one of Greg's acquaintances dropped in and offered to help. 'Yeah, I got tires', he said and roared off down the road. Soon Mike returned with a pretty good looking tire. It would not fit .... @#&%^!!!. 'No worries, just give me your blown spare and I'll put this one on that rim'. I picked my jaw up off the ground.

We went inside and grieved about the brain damaged dog. I went to sleep then succumbing to exhaustion. When I woke up the next day, the dog was found, the tire was fixed and we went home. Worn out but happy.

I'm going to Costco today and getting some new tires.

Thanks guys, that was too much fun.

[ 03-31-2003, 11:16 AM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

edsr · 03-31-2003, 09:21 AM

I don't know who spoke to the weather God, but it couldn't have been any better. Dave and I got sunburned!

Pilar gave us a real fishing lesson on Sat. Thank you John. The question is who ate the octopus? Twenty pounds of sushi grade octopus.

I am still shaking the boat down and finding ways to improve everything, plenty of notes from Sat.

One thing for sure if you need a crab pot puller don't bother to buy one, just have Dave on board. That fella can really haul dem traps, that is when we find them.

Had fresh fish for dinner last night.

I'm gonna hafta do this again.

edsr

skein · 03-31-2003, 09:56 AM

Good story, thanks for taking us along. Amazing how things get sorted out as the season progresses. First trips always seem as much a shake-down as they do a for-real cruise.

That "bend" looked pretty sweet. Tell us more about the rod (not that Rod, the Loomis one).

Skein

bait boy · 03-31-2003, 10:00 AM

Now thats a day in the life of a Salty Dog

..

Glad to hear you made it home with dead fish and your sanity

.. I think I might have lost mine on the second tire...

Glad the dog found his way home :grin:

Miss B Haven · 03-31-2003, 10:03 AM

Sounds fun guys :grin: ! Remember John- the road there is part of the adventure. [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img]
Next time the Salties get together, I'll tell you the story about 3 rigs, 2 boats and 7 guys that went to Port Hardy and back a few years ago! Ever lose 2 of your crew and a car on a fishing trip? Ever leave someone at the airport? Ever break down in Seattle on the freeway at 8 am pulling a 24 foot boat! :shocked:
The rest of the story will take a little lubricant!

Pilar · 03-31-2003, 10:12 AM

I got it from 'Puffin's Crew'. It's a GL2 Loomis, just like the one in the infamous 'Puffin' tuna video. The one where Phil, another 'Puffin' regular, is carefully leading an albacore to the boat. Only to have the fish spot the boat about 50 ft out and sound straight down almost busting the rod and smoking his thumb.

The bend is your friend!

It's a two piece, 9' mooching rod, SAR1043? and I love it. My new favorite! I almost got the 10.5' version but stuck with the slightly shorter one on Tom's advice. Thanks again Tom, you are the man.

blubeast · 03-31-2003, 10:54 AM

Pilar... great story.... especially since it had a happy ending. Glad you had a great day on the salt and at least that part of your trip was un-eventful.

Orca · 03-31-2003, 12:12 PM

Awesome report on a beautiful day. Never mind the nuisance items that tried to get in the way.

RockPile flatties beware.

seasquid · 03-31-2003, 01:14 PM

Wow!

Now that is what I want to hear -- halis on the Pile! I'll go to the Ranch on the nice days, but those iffys -- I'm headed for the Pile.

Pilar, I just couldn't get the boat quite ready for a Saturday run -- my little voice (ala, Magnum P.I.) kept telling me that I was rushing things to get ready -- I would have forgot something vital for sure. Anyway, I spent all weekend waxing, reorganizing, tightening, storing all the tuna gear that I had everywhere, running the engine (the mercruiser sounds great), etc. The next nice available day, I'm there.

Appears to me that you got all the hiccups for the year out of the way all at once.

see you all soon.

ss

Pilar · 03-31-2003, 03:23 PM

Steve, it will still be there when you go. The octopus, [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img] I'm regretful to say did not survive my uneducated attempt to dress it for consumption. Last I saw some guy was diggin it out of the dumpster and high fiving himself for his good fortune.

How do you clean an Octopus anyway? It was all slimy and had a thin bag like snot skin all over it. Ewwwwww, I get chills just thinkng about it. Anyway it was not looking anything like the stuff I eat at the sushi restaurant.

Think about the guy who ate the first oyster ... he had to be pretty hungry to get past that ugly.

Mark Mc · 03-31-2003, 03:31 PM

John, I'm gonna have to call your mate and have her spank you for not bringing that 8 pus home. I can't speak for sushi preparation, but those legs are some good eating by just scrubbing with a veggie brush, slicing in cross-sections, and frying in a light batter. Tenderizing is usually recommended. In the Greek islands it is a very typical harbor scene to see someone swinging an octopus against the rocks to tenderize it.

And aside from eating it, slices from the legs are primo deep water rockfish bait. Stays on the hook all day.

Miss B Haven · 03-31-2003, 03:33 PM

Pilar - just cut off the legs and keep them for the FB's. They love it! Use a length of leg 4-6 inches long, tough as nails and again- they love it! It's all we ended up using up North (after trying various baits jigs etc).

If you want Sushi- go to a dang Sushi bar, keep that octopuss for bait! :grin:

PS- tried the little baby octos' you can uy in the fish markets around here- they didn't work! Those Hali's wanted a chunk of a REAL octopuss! Now- If you could just get your hands on a giant squid!

:shocked: :grin:

puffins crew · 03-31-2003, 04:02 PM

Great day on Big Blue!! WTG Pilar and crew. Glad the tire ordeal worked out OK.

Skein: The rod is a SAR1084C 9ft two piece, line rating 10 to 30lb. G. Loomis Salmon rod.

Abused to the max by that FB, but wielded by one of our true "Salty Dogs" who triumphed over adversity,to take his rightfull place at the top of the food chain, Apex Preditor.

Thanks John boy for the fine filets, they are going to taiste great, after a trip to my BBQ.

Peace, Tom

wak'm&stak'm · 03-31-2003, 06:47 PM

Good story Jon.....signed the Gaper :smile:

I was laughing with you not at you...

South Paw · 03-31-2003, 07:20 PM

Sheesh almost makes me wish I wouldn't have gone Springer fishing. Great Story! We did manage to hook 8 Charlies though but no ocean.:/. Got the storage snot of the little pangas.

SP

KingFisher85 · 03-31-2003, 09:04 PM

oh man that looks so nice out there. I hope its that nice when I go.

CrazyFish · 03-31-2003, 09:20 PM

Pilar

I'm wondering why you didn't try some shrimping while out at the rock pile.

I would have been there but I was busy putting my boat back together.

Fishplay · 03-31-2003, 10:57 PM

Oh Yea!!! BFB on a 9.5 GLoomis Salmon Moocher is the Bomb.

At some point earlier in the day I was telling John I didn't own any of those spendy rods and had no intenion of buying one.

Well a guy can change his mind can't he. :grin:

I had a great time. I do not recall any March days providing weather or water conditions like those we had Saturday. I was remided of Memorial day last year. Spectacular!!

I have a great shot of a nice ling hanging from a mooching leader and flasher. But I forgot to bring the disk to work with me and for some reason I have major problems uploading picks from my home CPU.

Glad to hear you didn't have any more trouble getting home. Good friends are there when you need them and Mike Lash is just that kind of friend. He called to say he realy enjoyed the fish and to thank us for it. What? Thank us???

He's a 24 hr "Lash Schwab" Too Kind!

I second you Bro on fishing with experienced hands. It was a real pleasure fishing with you and Rod. Thank you both for a great day!

edsr · 03-31-2003, 11:26 PM

Wow, John, Buy the tires! We knew about the flat coming down but I didn't read your exteded thread till after my post. You had and "adventure". Hell, Murphy was an optimist when it comes to something going wrong on a fishing trip. Just remember,"all's well that ends well", some old Enlish guy wrote that once.

About the crab trap that took a powder on us, we thought it had a 100' rope, it only had 75'. Glad it was a low tide when we set them. I could see the floats several feet down butwe had no way to retrieve them. Made a note to fix that problem.

edsr

Hummingbird · 03-31-2003, 11:58 PM

Pilar,
What an eventful week-end. That FB sure got my blood to going. I am praying for an opening week-end with the weather you guy's got Saturday. I will be going out of Garibaldi with the charter friend I went with last year for week #1 . What did you do with the Octopus? Besides high grade sushi the FB's think it's Lobster. Sorry to hear about the bad luck with tires. Let me know if you have any open seats on the second week-end in May. I sent you an e-mail.

Tight Lines, Tom

Capin' Dan · 04-01-2003, 01:48 AM

Pilar, Wow what a story, I can remember many of them that started like that. Many times it is best to just go to sleep and think about it in the morning. I myself get so stressed when these things happen. My dad on the other hand jsut takes it all in stride.
Glad to hear all is well. I bought the six ply tires at les swabs and really love them. They are heavy duty and hold up really well with that heavy boat that I have.

Dan

El Shaddai · 04-01-2003, 04:53 AM

Pilar.....what makes that a great story is that most of us have been there at one time or another!

OceanBlue · 04-01-2003, 07:52 AM

Skein:

Didn't you see my post week before last explaining that the ocean would be flat sometime in the next 10 days because I was going to be out of town on vacation? It figgers! I hate to be right sometimes! But I'm so glad to hear about the adventures had by those of you able to take advantage of the flat ocean.

The good news is that I managed to visit some tackle stores in So. Cal. and picked up some tips and some odd items for "Al" and "Bill". I guess that will have to hold me for a while because the ocean forcast for this weekend looks pretty terrible. :depressed: [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img] :depressed:

Beer Waggin · 04-03-2003, 03:35 PM

And what a great day it was!
Just back from Anaheim. If I wouldn't had went fishing, I would of had opening day tickets to the Angels game. Hmmmm, I'm not sure the Angels game could have compared to Saturday.
Thanks for the good time guys! The sun burn is just starting to peel.

Now off to search for that new boat again.....