Salty Pup hits the big blue pond!

[Tacklebuster]

Hit the big blue out of Newport today with my wife and neighbor. Hit an ebbing bar on the way out but the water was nice. My sled did pretty good in the water today, couldn't go very fast but did pretty good. The swells seemed to have that greasy look to them and were smooth.

We hit about 160 feet of water off the light house and started trolling for Coho's. We hit them in the top 10 feet of the water column with most fish caught at 6 pulls. We ran into a lot of natives today and some of them were about 8 to 10 pounds. Most of the hatchery were 4 to 6.

After trolling until about 12:30 we decided to do a little bottom fishing. We hit the second green can from the jaws and headed South until we found some rock structure. I wish I would have bought a chart cause we were fishing pretty blind. We ended up finding a spot where most of the water was 50 feet around the rock structure and on the structure itself, it came up to about 15 feet. We started hitting some fish right away. I caught several lings that were just shy of residing in my fish box. We even saw a grey whale spout and tail 50 yards from our stern.

We ended up getting to wrapped up in the moment though cause we heard a "breaking" noise and I looked just in time to see a wave of about 8 feet starting to break near my boat. I had just enough time to put her nose into it and hit the throttle. There were two more like that right behind her then it mellowed out. We ended up calling it a day and headed back to the jaws to check the pots. We ended up scoring 7 crab as well.

Great day on the water and a mixed bag of fish for the bounty. Nice to see you at the dock Corrid and much thanks to Capt. Kujo for making us those suits. Myself and the wife jumped into the drink a couple of times on our outing just to cool off. It was great.

Chris....

[swampy]

Sounds like a great day, TB. Thanks for the report.

[TideRipper]

Tacklebuster,

Sounds like you had a good trip. I can’t wait to see what those Coho look like in about two months when they arrive at the CR buoy. If I remember correctly, this was your first trip out of Newport? Interesting to hear about those breaking waves. I’m guessing those swells broke as they crossed the tops of the rocks where there was only about 15’ of water? I’ve never fished Newport myself, but looking at the chart, it looks as though you may have drifted to the south along the reef. Looks like a great place to fish on a flat day. I’ve been wanting to try that area myself this summer but I think I’ll stay out a bit deeper. Did you notice any other swells occasionally break like that near by?

[seastripes]

Congratulations Tacklebuster!

Were you scared? I'd like to pilot my boat across Newport someday. I will be well versed in everything I need to know to go over safely. My greatest fear will be mechanical failures while crossing. I'm mechanically enclined but not versed at all. If I have to study for 10 years, so be it. Warm and toasty suits are great aren't they? They sure take the edge off of the fear factor. Oh yeah, I'll need a boat too. I have two styles in mind. I was enspired and impressed by a girl who headed out on the Puget Sound by herself in a tug style boat. It'd be fun to be adept enough at fishing the Sound to be able to take my friends and family out or just enjoy a day out there by myself. You definately seem to have your fishing down pat. I'm glad you got your wife out there. It sounds like you had a fun productive day. I don't know if you remember but I was out with you on opening day on Captn Kujo's boat. Good job!

[CATCH AND EAT]

Okay Chris, way to go. Glad you had a good day out there. Now you need to experience Depoe Bay. I did it for the first time this weekend. Easy going out for sure but a little strang and clinching going in. As you are going in it looks like you're going to crash the rocks. Suddenly the opening appears and your in with a little left hook and a horn blast.

[Tacklebuster]

TideRipper- That was my first time to skipper my boat out of Newport. It was a great feeling blasting through all those jelly fish that were the size of a silver dollar. Those things were everywhere! It was weird, the swells were only probably 4 feet with a 5 footer every once in a while. They were not steep and the boat just glided over them with no problem. Then there were three that were probably 8 feet and was on the verge of breaking. The swells ran that height for about 100 feet. It was really weird. Of course my boat was right in the middle of them. I think you are right on about the rock structure stacking them up so high. I am not sure if there was enough water to them to swamp my boat if I had taken them over the stern but I didn't want to find out. I think I will fish a little deeper the next trip out. I am with you on the spark plug. I have taken my boat out there about a half dozen times. I only run that bar if I can make it both ways on a flood.

Seastripes- Of course I remember you. It was cool hooking up with Kujo again on Saturday. The halibut fishing was a lot slower than the first trip but we still managed our fish. I didn't have time to be scared when the breaking swell hit us. I was scared after the fact though and decided to call it a day. I can't wait till my next trip.

Bernie- I'm still getting my feet wet on this ocean thing. I think Depoe is a little out of my league until I get this ocean thing down a little better. It's funny, I have run the Columbia River bar a half dozen times but am leary of Depoe. How did you guys do fishing? We got into quite a bit of fish but they were small. Next trip I will bring the shad gear

[Dipnet]

Chris, it sounds like you had a great weekend! I went out of Depoe Bay a couple of summers ago with my brother-in-law coho fishing. It was fine going out, but a little scary coming back in!! He hasn't had near as much experience as you and he had no problems at all. And by the way, we limited out on that trip!!

Dipnet :grin:

[CAPT KUJO]

Chris,

Thanks for bring Erica down with you. I got your check yesterday. Please thank her for me. Your black and green dry suit went into production yesterday. I'll let you know when it's done so we can swap. You're going to love it!!!

CAPT KUJO

[Tacklebuster]

Sweet Kujo, you the man......