2003 first blood!! Or, does it get any better?

[fish assassin]

Wahoo!!! Got out at Depoe Bay both Saturday AND Sunday! Great ocean
with little or no wind.

I fished alone this weekend. Caught 18 chinookies for my two day
effort! Nine fish each day. Lost a really big one on Sunday, might
have gone 25 or 30 dressed. :shocked: The rest were feeder fish between
7.5 lbs. (the smallest) and 18 lbs (the biggest).

Had a GREAT experience on Saturday. Had often times heard about
people finding Japanese floats while fishing. Usually the plastic variety.
On Friday the charter boat Mister Max brought in a large sized green
glass ball! I was SOOOOO jealous! So, I'm out fishing chinook on Saturday
and I saw a rip line with what looked from a distance to be crab bouys
in it. I got to thinking, what the heck are crab bouys doing out here in 60
fathoms of water? So I very carefully steered for the rip (I had 50 fathoms
of wire down on my down-riggers ... didn't want to tangle *that* in
a crab line!!).

So anyway, I picked up a japanese (plastic) float with Japanese writing
on it! Pretty cool! Then I saw another. Well, fishing was pretty slow
so I started looking for floats instead (this with all my gear down).
I ended up scooping up 8 plastic balls the size of a basket ball or
larger and FOUR big, green, glass floats out of one rip!! Boy, were
the guys back at the dock jealous! Three of those glass balls totally
filled my 150 quart cooler on the back deck! They are really *quite*
large! :grin: :grin: One even still had a net on it!

All in all, a pretty good day!

And then, to top off an already perfect weekend, my daughter-in-law
presented us with a brand spanking new 8lb. 2 oz. fishing partner.
Jackson Lee Roberts was born Sunday morning at 9:15 AM. Wow, does it
get any better than this??

-assAssin-

[ 03-31-2003, 07:44 AM: Message edited by: fish assassin ]

[Orca]

Very cool. Impossible to beat a weekend like that. And I was home grooming the yard, what a waste! I really want to find some glass floats too, wimper-wimper.

[blubeast]

AMAZING...no, you're right. It cannot get much better than that. Congrates on the fish, floats, and grand son...

[fish assassin]

Ya know, I've been looking for a glass float on the ocean for about
30 years ... since the first time I heard of somebody finding one
out there ... and then I go and find FOUR of 'em in one day!! Once in
a lifetime experience!

-assAssin-

[corrirod]

That is outstanding FA! Where were you fishing because Pilar, Fishplay, and myself thought we saw you out at the Rockpile and tried to hail you to no avail? Was that you? We didn't get real close but it sure looked like your rig from a distance.

It was beautiful out there wasn't it? Congrats on the new fishing partner!

[fish assassin]

Rod,

I was fishing almost straight out from Dopey Bay in 52-70 fathoms ...
kinda back and forth, in and out. Only saw one other (commercial)
boat out there during two days of fishing. Kinda lonely! Come on, you
guys! Come out and play!!!

-assAssin-

[Miss B Haven]

Glad to see you finally got the beer can out and caught some fish Mark. Maybe that new bottom paint is good luck, sounds like a fine dang way to start the season.
Me- I got to fight with the Bayliner all weekend instead of fish. I had a guy looking at it Thursday night and took him for a ride. I think he was ready to buy it and then the dang thing started overheating up on plane. I just had a raw water pump put in before it went back in the water. I pulled one of the manifolds off cause the shop thought maybe they were plugged. They are fine. Talked to Greg at Channel on Sat, he thinks it has a leak and is sucking air instead of water when the drive lifts up out on plane. Back in the shop!!! [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img]

[fish assassin]

OK,OK, I'll admit it ... I screwed up! But promise me you won't tell
anybody, OK?? :grin:

After fishing on Saturday I came in and sold my fish and then was going to
take my wife, daughter and 5 y.o. grandson out for a quick ride on a flat ocean.
As I left the dock we noticed another commercial boat over at the Trade Winds
dock and decided to go see who it was. I *very* slowly motored North behind
the other boat (about 20-30 feet away) so I could see the name. It was my intention
to then shift one throttle in reverse and one in forward to make the turn that
would line me up with the slot out of Depoe Bay. I moved the throttle handles
in the proscribed manner, BUT NOTHING HAPPENED!! I was drifting out of control!!

Fortunatly I was in neutral when I lost helm control and was just drifting
with the current. I pushed the throttles, nothing happened. I looked down and
the light was OFF on the throttles. No problem. I pushed the little button to
restore control. Nothing happened. BIG problem. I was drifting toward the rocks
and was about 15 feet away. I ran to the back deck and hit the button for that
helm control. Nothing happened.

I'm now 5 feet from the rocks and drifting straight toward them ... bow first
(or should that be BOWS first?). My wife is screaming at me to do SOMETHING!
Then she screamed at me to get up on the bow of the boat and kick us away from
the rocks ... Like THAT'S going to happen!! :grin:

I just watched as the rocks came closer with that awful feeling of dread! CRUNCH!!
Up on the rocks I went. All this time, through the screaming of my wife I'm
trying to figure out what happened to helm control. As soon as the bow
touched the rocks, I KNEW!!! [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img] SOMEBODY had bumped the switches to my
electronic throttles and shut the computer off!

No biggie, I turned the switches back on and got the tell-tale "Beep, Beep, Beep"
sound that tells me to tell the computer which helm I want to control the boat
from. I pushed the little button and backed the boat off the rocks. Nobody in port
saw me do this, with the exception of the 40 or so Japanese tourists on the Trade
Winds dock with thier digital cameras and movie cameras ... ALL TAKING PICTURES!!

Is it OK if I just crawl under a rock now?? :grin: :grin:

One of the other guys was diving on his charter boat cutting crab rope out of
his wheels later in the evening and came over and dove on my boat to check the damage.
(Thanks Lars!!). He came up spitting and laughing and told me I'd put two little
scratches on my brand new, 5000 buck bottom paint job.

Coupla of GOOD things came out of all this ... First, my wife felt SOOOO guilty
that she'd accidently turned off my throttles that she cleaned up the whole boat
for me while I was over talking to Lars about going down on the Pacific
Mistress ( :grin: )!!

The second good thing was that there is a saying in port that there are only
two kinds of Captains at Depoe Bay ... Them's that's been on the rocks, and
them's that are GOING to be on the rocks! If this is my lesson about the rocks
at Dopey Bay, I'd say I got off cheap! [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

-assAssin-

PS The comment about going down on the Pacific Mistress?? That came straight
from my church going wifes mouth!

[Miss B Haven]

Glad to hear it was nothing serious and see you still have your sense of humor. :grin: Musta been those high quality beer cans they used on your boat! I like the Depot saying. Not to many worrisome rocks in my part of the water but I have been plenty intimate with some sand bars around both t-bay and the CR! [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img] I always make sure I've got a tides worth of food and drink on board!

[Miss B Haven]

FA- I hear you had a close encounter of the "ouch" kind. If you don't want to talk about it, that's OK we'll understand (NOT!). We won't bug you or start any stories, promise

PS- you shoulda seen me cross up the Bayliner trying to get on the trailer at big oak Sunday. Man- was that a mess. I finally got it on but it sure wasn't pretty. There's a kind of ramp/bridge about 6 feet off the water DOWNSTREAM of the launch and of course the tide was ripping out when I was there. Only had to change my shorts once though- not to bad! [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img]

[fish assassin]

New and updated particulars on my new Little Fishing Partner:

Name: Jackson Lee Roberts
DOB: 03/30/03 @ 9:08/am
weight: 8lbs, 8.7oz
length: 21 inches

The proud new parents are Karen and Justin Roberts from Astoria, OR.
Momma and Daddy are doing fine, although a little tired.

Grampa now has 4 little fishing buddies. The oldest is 5 and is
already talking about going out on the ocean and learning to fish
"just like grampa". I think his Mom (my daughter) is about over her
nervousness about letting her "precious" go out on the ocean with me!!

ANOTHER generation of ocean fishermen in the making!!

-assAssin-

[fish assassin]

Works for me!! I'm proud as all get out about that there kid of mine
in the Coasties!! Won't mind seeing a grand-kid or four join up in the
future (assuming I live that long )

-assAssin-

[Miss B Haven]

FA- Congrats! You sure he's going to be a Fisherman, or another CG recruit? Either way works for me, how about you?

[greenbuttskunk]

hey fish assassin,
I was down in that area last weekend and was dying to fish. No Ifisher should ever have to fish alone. I'd be happy to join you any weekend.
I have a 16 foot bot, but it's a little small to be out there. I have more than enough gear, lots of boat and downrigger experience, and money for
gas and bait. I've always loved hooking nooks in the salt, so keep me in mind if you have a weekend seat open sometime.
email is bbaker@tubeart.com
Thanks,
Brad

[fish assassin]

greenbuttskunk:

It's not a matter of HAVING to fish alone! I LIKE it!! No better feeling
in the world for me than to be out to sea in my little tub, by myself or
with one other person and not a boat in sight!! It's just so darned peaceful,
YaKnowWhatIMean??

I *will* post your name/e-mail on the wall and give you a call if I need
a deckhand, though!

-assAssin-

[fish assassin]

DriftR,

Marked a lot of fish, but they were widely scattered ... probably
because of all the storms leading up to last weekend. Small pockets
of bait here and there around the 60 fathom mark. If I were you, I'd not
start fishing until you were in at LEAST 45 fathoms of water!

-assAssin-

[DriftR]

Fish Assassin,
Congratulations on that new family member. Glad to hear that your episode on the rocks at Depoe was not major. Were you marking a lot of nooks besides the ones you got this past weekend? I talked to my old buddy and he is getting the dory ship shape for PC so we will be hitting it real soon. Sounds like some of those nooks are tad bigger this year for so early.
Take care

[CrazyFish]

Assassin,

I've got my commercial license, so if you ever feel the desire for a (cheap) deck hand you can give me a call.