Southcoast Halibut...Round 2

[Mello-Yello]

Welp, here we go again. Sunday's forecast very depressing, same thing Monday, now it's Tuesday night and the trend is looking better. Barring a nasty swing in tomorrow's forecast, we're gonna do it all over again (just as I'm getting back to normal again)..d'OH!

Looks like I'll have the privilege of dragging out a fellow Dog. Lepper's scheduled to ride out with me Thursday.
Gonna do what we can to get this guy on Hali-Hill.

Anyone else going out of PO?

M-Y

[Hanapa'a Time]

M-Y,

We were planning on a PO trip, but I got an offer to fish with a friend at Newport Thursday. We will be in my boat Fri. and Sat. ( weather dance)!!
Thanks for the info. fishwhenican, good luck to all down south. I'll be at Charleston for the holiday weekend, tryin' for some bottom fish, nooks and crab, might see ya down there?? :grin:

Kurt

[reelmeister]

Well, we cr*pped out of last weekend's festiviities and ended up bottom fishing out of Brookings. This weekend's forecast looks pretty bad in my view. Hope that there will be some quota left for an additional season (and better conditions).

Al

[northriver1]

Fishwhenican and Northriver1 will be in PO on Friday. Lets hope we all can get out and play.

[tailchaser]

You guys didn't say how you liked the trip last weekend?? How did you end up with fish (how many?) It's a pretty cool place to go I have to admit.

tc

[northriver1]

What a great place. Took the boat down to the boat builders to put hooks on the boat and bought 11,000 lbs rated cables for the launch. No more sling for me. I was so tight I could not go to the mens room for 5 days.

We limited the boats (2) for three days. The biggest HB was 54 inches, 13 total fish for the trip. May have to see the dentist next week though. We caught 6 lings worth keeping. Great trip. How is the salmon fishing out of PO?

[tailchaser]

It's generally very good salmon fishing in the mid summer months but towards the end of July and August the better salmon fishing is near the rivers and what not. In November though there is a good fishery off the mouth of the elk river for those hogs that come in late in the year.

The best thing though is the bottomfishing around there. There are so many reefs north and south that don't get touched at all. The best little secret though is just a couple miles south of there is Humbug Mountain. If you look carefully at the regs the halibut season is open 7 days a week at all-depths from there west. I haven't explored it much yet but plan to this summer.

tc

[northriver1]

TC - Thanks, maybe I can get fishwhenican to come down and explore the salmon fishing/other opportunities with me.

[Mello-Yello]

Things aren't all bad. Lepper and I hit PO this morning at daybreak. It was pretty bad going...mainly just very, very slow. 3.5 hours to go 22.8 miles...hey, that's faster than I could swim it!

Our first drop we got a double, two chickens "just" under legal. Kept taking turns pulling up runts. We had doubles three times!

Were finally able to limit w/two 35"ers. Nothing to write home about, but they'll sure be some good eats.

Imagine this, if you will. You decide it's time to pull up and move. You've drug your gear from 600'...you're now somewhere around 200'. Of course, you've tightened the drag down tight on your stubby hali-pole to help w/retrievel. All the sudden, something along the lines of a 5' Blue Shark nails your rigging at about 50mph. Remember the part about your drag being pinched down? Ever see a stubby hali-pole completely doubled over, rod tip under the boat and the reel you thought was pinched down is now peeling off line?

Been there, done that! I'll be posting pics once the weekend wraps up.

We also caught 3 real nice lings, a nice cabezon and a black cod. Oh, and half dozen dungys...

Forcast is calling for 2' windwaves tomorrow w/9' swells. So, I guess we'll run down and see what it looks like. Cripes, I'm not even rested up from last weekend.

[Lepper]

Thanks again for the trip it was great.. And you sir.. are a die hard halibut man.......

:smile:

[Lepper]

When I got home I couldn't life my tackle box out of the boat is was so worn out. Today it is doing very well.. Wrist has even limbered up a bit.. need to do that a couple more times.. Excellent rehab for the hand..
dave

[Mello-Yello]

OK, looks like my season is over, seas just won't calm down, so...It's Picture Time!

Per my previous post;



Here's Lepper with a plump little Hali and a phat blue/green Ling. After a long hard day on the water, that's as high as he could lift them.
[img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]



The day's catch. Truly a Port Orford Smorgasbord. Two hali's, a cabezon, three nice lings, a skanky black cod...and a blue shark.



This guy really surprised us. As stated in my previous post, I was about 2/3'rds the way off the bottom, drag cranked down hard on the winch. This thing hit and kept running. Thought for a minute I'd snagged the periscope on a russian submarine. This guy really fought hard, but his gallant efforts were fruitless.

I learned something interesting about sharks today. Thinking it would be cool to have a set of "jaws" to mount w/my bone collection, I cut the mouth out of the cark. As I've done w/deer, elk, bear and a few coyotes, I thought I'd boil it down and pick the flesh away leaving a nice big set of teeth to show off. Wrong! These things are all cartilege, and when you boil them down...mush
:depressed:
As it turns out, all these teeth are actually built right into the gums...I ended up with pile of shark's teeth and mushy shark goop. Very dissappointing.

The past two weeks, I've had the pleasure of taking three people out to catch halibut that had never had the opportunity before. Everyone caught their 'butt', and then some. It is soooo much fun to see their expression when they finally hook up w/a flatty, and even cooler when they see how much meat comes off one. It's invigorating enough to be out on "big blue", rolling w/the waves, but having the opportunity share these experiences with good friends is what it's all about. Too bad the weather wasn't better, or there'd be even more great memories.

C'mon June extra days!!!

M-Y

[Mello-Yello]

Welp, the little voice finally got me. Had planned to hit it again this morning since last night's forecast had us back to 2' windwaves. I get up at 3:30am and see they'd changed it back to 3'again, w/4' tomorrow. I hope I'm wrong and those who try for PO hali's today make it out and back with all their teeth intact. The trend sure doesn't look good. Is it time to clean the boat real good? Perhaps...

And no Lep, you are the the die-hard. I didn't just get a cast taken off my pole-pullin hand. I don't know how you did it...btw, how's that appendage doing today?

M-Y

[tailchaser]

I agree with you virgin halibut guys are the best. Plus, after you hook a small one you can pass the rod off a couple of times before they figure out what you're up to. They're pooped from bringing them up and you're ready for the big boy to grab the bait. I like the pic of the blue though. It's a good sign. Usually they aren't around as much until the water temps come up. Lets pray for more days, but I have a pretty good plan if we don't that I'll keep in touch with you about.

tc

[Mello-Yello]

I might have an ace up my sleeve too TC. I met a guy at the PO docks Thursday. Apparently, he's gonna be training at my work next week. He's from PO, they had 4 halibuts, smallest probably pushing 50lbs...the largest...I'd say easy 80, maybe more! Looked like a dinosaur. His biggest out of PO ever is 120#.

I'll be picking his brain for sure for some 30 fathom stuff.

I'll keep you posted!

M-Y

[Lepper]

hey let's see you reel up halibut with a broken hand and then lift it any higher afterwards!!!

:grin: