Depot Bay today or did you stay in Port

Snapshot · 07-13-2003, 07:40 PM

We arrived about 6 AM to find the small craft warnings. The CG were not letting anyone less than 16' out due to the sloppy, choppy and generally rough crossing conditions. We all wore our PFD'S and hit the hole.

Where was everyone? Not many boats and I did spot one Ifish sticker in the parking lot.

The water was rough enough to keep us close to the Whistler Buoy most of the morning. We hit Silvers just past the whistle. first nate released and then a double. Three nats released. We had fish on about every 10 to 15 minutes, up until about 10:30. Then it dropped off to a fish or two an hour. We brought about a dozen silvers to the boat and only kept two. We also kept one nice 15 LB chinook. I drew the lucky rod on that hit.

On board, Lucky Luke and Willedrifter took care of most of the fishing while I stayed at the controls and on aleart for sneaker waves. I am really proud of Willydrifter as he is a river boy and wanted to stay out until he caught his first ocean salmon. He probably had the most fish on and to the boat using a Coyote spoon.

We did manage to have some fun and stayed safe while playing. Luke had the most fun when his reel started peeling line but I will leave that one for him. However I as skipper will have the last say if he starts to exagerate to much. It was a big one for sure.

*Fish only bite wet hooks*

wak'm&stak'm · 07-13-2003, 08:03 PM

Thanks for the post...James on the El Shaddai was out....they got 13 or 17...somethingn like that.

First one at 12 miles....then some a 22 and then more out to 28.

He is slaughtering them this year.....

Snapshot · 07-13-2003, 08:42 PM

Wak'M, he is in a bigger boat and we didn't dare go out any farther due to the ocean conditions. They were rough and seemd to stay that way. I was in a 19' boat and may have gone a mile past the whistler. Would love to run out and get into the bunches of fish but they are not worth the risk on days like this one.

The parking lot at DB may have had 12 rigs parked in it. Also the sheriff and state police were checking everyone for barbless hooks and our catch. We managed to say all the right things.
We probably had 15 to 17 take downs but only managed two keep coho and the chinook.

Seems to me that the hatcher coho are the ones hard to come by. I felt like General Custard at his last stand, natives everywhere and few that I could keep.

swampy · 07-13-2003, 09:09 PM

Thanks for the reports guys ...sounds like I picked a good day to stay in the valley.

corrirod · 07-13-2003, 09:57 PM

Sorry I couldn't hail you today Snapshot. We went out of Newport. We only came home with 2 hatchery coho also but lost many fish, including what I think were 2 nooks. We looked in the deeper water but eventually found a seam and diving birds in 130-140 ft. just NW of the jetty and that is where we picked up all our fish thru about 3 o'clock then the bite died. We got a later start, about 9:30am, but stayed out till 5pm. The ocean was very sloppy in the morning but slowly (and I do mean slowly) it began to calm down. By 5pm it had pretty well layed down to a lazy 5-6 ft. swell with <1ft. of chop.

We saw about a thousand dolphin out there but I'm not sure what kind they were. They were really small, no more than 4-5 ft. long. Not shy at all either as they would roll right next to the boat within 5-10 ft. Any ideas?

stick flicker · 07-13-2003, 10:18 PM

Got out this evening on the water for some evening trolling for coho and chinook aka Mr. Smilee. We found ourselves in the thickest fog ever. It really mess with my sense or direction when trolling. Without the compass and GPS I would be lost.
The eveniong bite was spotty and we hooked a couple fish an hour. Ended up with three keepers and one released native. Lost a 25lb. Smilee after a good battle. Not a bad trip and not to mention my crew had never caught a salmon until today. I love getting people into thier first salmon ; hooked for life. I am going out Monday and tuesday if anyone wants to come along.

willierower · 07-13-2003, 10:24 PM

Snapshot,

Thanks for the trip. I think Im addicted to fishing the salt now. I cant wait to get out there again...........

gotfish76 · 07-13-2003, 10:42 PM

Howdy Stick-Flicker....Do you have open seats for mon or tues? I will help with gas, or ? I've never caught a salmon before, would enjoy a shot.thanks.

KrystalFlash · 07-14-2003, 12:32 AM

Rod, It is possible that they(the porpoises)were Dahl Porpoises. Were they black and white? Look like mini killer whales? If so, that is what they were. We were out for tuna on Saturday and saw A LOT of them in pretty close on the way in. Just a thought.

KF

Team DoubleGaynor
Team Brownpants
Team Flipper

Chum King · 07-14-2003, 03:26 AM

Rod,
Most likely those were harbor porpoise. That is usually the species you run across in the nearshore areas. They are a uniform dark color, and often just do a slow roll at the surface.

Threemuch · 07-14-2003, 03:43 AM

We got out on CD Johnson's 24 bounty out of newport for 15 albies, but that is a pretty serious craft. I don't think it would have been fun in my Olympic, even if it had a motor!

corrirod · 07-14-2003, 08:48 AM

Thanks ChumKing, that must have been what they were. There were some Dahl's out there also but these small ones were pretty much all dark grey/charcoal and just doing real slow rolls. It was yet another amazing sight to see on Big Blue.

willierower · 07-14-2003, 09:22 AM

We saw those porpoises as well. That was pretty neat seeing them surfing in the swells..

Lucky Luke · 07-14-2003, 09:08 PM

I had a big one on alright. About twenty to thirty feet long.

Captain snapshot calls out that my rod is peeling off line. I grab the rod and we all figured that I had a fat Chinook on that was determined to stay deep. Willierower and Snapshot were true fishing friends during the battle, encouraging me and offering advice as I tried to gain line. We "followed" the "fish" until I had him close to the surface only to discover that I had hooked into an old line coming up from the bottom. You just don't expect that to happen out in the ocean. We gained on it as much as possble and cut it short. It was laughs all around and back to fishing. I thought I had hooked into a real pig of a chinook. Maybe next time.

We had a successful day, though. Three keepers in the box and one rope fish.

Snapshot · 07-14-2003, 09:28 PM

Lucky Luke, " keep that rod tip up" the skipper advised and then Willierower would say " lift up and crank down, you gotta work him" and after all that advise and about 15 minutes later, we boated about 30 feet of 3/4" rope that was tied to a stuck crab pot or something like that. We finally gave up on pulling it up cut off as much as we could. Sure was nice to see that one of the deck hands had a sharp knife handy.

Paul you are most welcome aboard as long as you promise to sharen my two or three knives. I think I dulled them to the point they won't cut through Kelp that gets stuck on my divers.

All in all it was "a fine day on the water sir"
even though the water was a little to rough for my comfort zone.

*Fish only bite wet hooks*