CR Report / Story

[TideRipper]

My brother and I fished out of Astoria last Sunday afternoon. We put our 18’ Campion Explorer in at the Warrenton ramp at noon so as to cross the bar at 1:00 for low slack. It was slow going as the tide was still ebbing a bit, and we crashed 2-3 foot wind/current waves all the way out past Buoy 10, but by the time we finally reached the end of the South Jetty, it was slack. Saw many boats coming in but didn‘t see anyone else going out. I don’t like going out in the afternoon but I hate being “out there” while the tide is ebbing. If the conditions change and you need to come back it could be wicked. Once we hit the ocean, the conditions improved to 1’ wind waves and 4-5’ swells with 8 sec periods. The sun was bright, water was fairly clear, and the water temp was 59 degrees. Now if those 20 knot winds that were forecast, would just hold off for a couple more hours…

Started fishing when we reached Buoy 2. Dropped the fresh herring and aimed for the CR Buoy but didn’t get a hit until we were half way there. Arrived the CR and turned south before we had hit #2. After that it picked up a bit to a “take down” every 20 minutes or so. We mostly worked 190’ to 200’ of water a mile or two south of the CR, running a couple of divers at 8 to 25 pulls. The deeper one picked up several Chinook but they were real small. We ended up keeping 4 Coho ranging from 5-7 pounds.

We never did find a good tidal rip anywhere, but we didn’t want to stray too far out at that time of day. At one time I looked around and couldn’t see another boat on the horizon. Strangely, my depth finder never marked a fish. Usually I can see crescents in the 8-35 foot range. I had the depth range set from 0 to 50 feet and the sensitivity cranked too. I usually have pretty good faith in it, but sometimes it still makes me wonder. At least the fish that were out there were very active.

The waves were beginning to pick up a bit, and the wind was starting to barely whistle through the rod guides, when my brother yelled “big swell”. I turned to see about an eight-footer heading towards our port side as Brad was turning into it. It wasn’t all that big, but it was steep and sharp on top. My brother maintained trolling speed and quartered it. As we came over the top, the bow caught some air and slammed down hard on the other side. The boat then slid down the back of the wave and plunged into the next one. We lifted up and over that with no problem to find a nice average looking ocean on the other side. I turned and watched them silently roll off away from us. Never turn your back.

I reversed the route on the GPS and we headed for home. Met up with another boat who joined us and we crossed the bar together. The slowing incoming tide made the crossing seem easy, and we cruised back up the backwards flowing Columbia on a plane. The wind waves that had made for such slow going earlier were gone.