Live to fish another day was the mantra this weekend. I had agreed to help a buddy to learn the ropes of the CR bar and ocean this weekend. Tuna was on our minds for Saturday but after a phone call from Keywest at 4am saying he called his crew off I thought maybe he was a little quick to do so. After all there was not even a breeze at my cabin.
As we made our way to Ilwaco I opened the door of my truck to a 10knt breeze from the SW. Okay, not bad I thougt. By the time I had unloaded a few supplies and put them into the pull cart that 10knt breeze was a steady 15+. Hmmmmmmmmmmm........ We put a few pieces of gear aboard Jims boat and I felt that 20kt gust. That was it. We pulled the plug on the tuna and decided to fish the estuary for Salmon.
Let me tell ya the estuary was a gusty windy area all day long with sustained winds of 20+ and gusts to 30. We catwalked our way into 2 chinook boated and 1 farmed for the day.
Sunday looked to be a better day off shore for salmon. My captain had never crossed the bar before so he was clinching and very wide eyed at the sight of a moderate bar condition. We made it out to buoy 4 and I could tell he was very uncomfortable out there. I told him as captain he needed to make a decision and so we turned around and went back inside.
Kind of a funny deal is that he has never felt the power of Millions of gallons of water like that pushing against his boat. He was sure something was wrong as his boat did not feel like it was making progress but I assured him that we were doing 10 knts. His boat is no small fry as it is a 27 Skagit Orca with a 496.
After making it back inside at my prompting to hit the gas a little we made our way back to the sawdust pile for another day of trying to catch a nook early in the season. What happened next was the best day of nook fishing I have ever had in the river down there.
My very best day of nook fishing was about 4 years ago with pop's down at marker 23 near sauvies island. We went 8 for 15 that day doing the dope on the rope deal. But this day in the estuary was special. We began our downhill troll with lines set at 43 feet on the line counter and 49 feet of water. Marked a ton of bait. 10 minutes into the troll I had my first freight train on. about a 10 minute battle ensued and finally a large 26ish # tule hit the net. We quickly cut the leader and released the fish to fight another day as he was already river smoked.
"Well that was fun!" I said. "lets do that again". Bait on the hook and into the water. Five minutes later my rod burries again and I say "all yours bro" and Jim boats a dandy up river bright about 15#s. High fives and we are fishing again. Three chances in a half hour ain't bad I thought. 15 minutes later my rod dives for the 4th time. Nice 18# bright hen in the box.
We raise the gear up in the water column in search of coho and make a few passes. Nothing doing. We mark fish on the bottom feeding on bait so we drop the lines. fish on! Nice little 14# nook to release and we continue to fish looking for coho. We hear and witness a bit going on in another area so we move our show to that vacinity and almost immediatly hook up. Another pesky nook that all soak and wet fought like a coho and was the size of a small coho but nook he was and we quickly released him. We made a couple more passes and hooked a few more nooks along the way for what we thought was an epic day.
Ended our count with 9 takers, one farmed after about 30 seconds and 7 nooks to the boat and two harvested. We could not get the coho to go and only marked a few that were in the 10 to 18 foot water column. Lots of chovies near hammond to feed on it appears and the birds were having a hay day.
so not a salty report but more a brackish report of alternative fishing when the ocean is sporty there are still fish to be had.
I'd like to thank Jim for letting me tag along on his beautiful boat and for letting me scare the crap out of him on his first and most likely last bar crossing. I think Jim is a great skipper but I'm thinking perhaps he wants to stay on the inside with his boat to live to fish another day. We'll take my boat next time Jim.
So, we lived to fish another day. Conditions Saturday were not in my mind fishable. sunday appear not to be fishable but conditions off shore I am told were great. Go figure. The worst predicted day was the best. Oh well, live to fish another day right?
CATCH AND EAT
Live to fish another day.....
Re: Live to fish another day.....
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